While there's lots of noise today about American Airlines finally filing for bankruptcy, as an extension of its 2009 turnaround plan (oh, and its $30 BILLION in debt), there's a lot less noise about how Chapter 11 is also a strategy for its ongoing union negotiations.

American has an extremely heavy payroll load, essentially. It keeps more than 22 maintenance employees per plane, for instance; compare that to Delta's 12 or JetBlue's 3.4 or Northwest's .8. (Eek, .8?) And American's maintenance is significantly less outsourced than other airlines. American actually employs nearly 15,000 maintenance people; JetBlue employs 471.

I know where I'm not flying to any time soon! British Airways is letting 800 staff work without pay; 4000 other employees are taking "unpaid vacation." I am thinking it will be not a big lifestyle change if I avoid London altogether really.

One of the smart things Politico did out of the gate was build identification (or sometimes devoted enmity!) with their reporters—that's why Ben Smith's blog is named, you know, "Ben Smith," and there's a cute little cartoon of him. I mean, this is an obvious thing but somehow still an under-done thing online, and it works. (It gives the "YOUR PRESEDINT OSAMA'S IDDIOT" commenters someone to recognize.) And not enough companies take advantage of building bonds between their employees and their customers. The number one industry that would benefit? Airlines.

This is something I think frequently myself! "Recently, I had the horrific displeasure of booking a flight on your website, aa.com. The experience was so bad that I vowed never to fly your airline again." Hilariously, some folks at American Airlines agreed.

UPS will start selling suitcase-sized boxes at its retail outlets so weary air travelers can ship their luggage from place to place, thus alleviating themselves from the twin hassles of checking bags at the airport and retrieving said bags from luggage carousels after flights. The demographic being targeted here is apparently "people of leisure," since: