I was surprised to find that the Chinese norm for airline booking is inordinately more passenger-friendly than the Western norm. Flights are regular, prices are posted and do not change much, and it is very common to book a ticket for same-day or day-before travel. My short stint in the country charged me less for two flights on different domestic carriers booked day-before as the penalty charge for the Delta flight home for changing my ticket to a flight a few hours later.

I love how they end up at 'Well, there's just no way to stop him'. Cost of doing business. Here, the man would be in prison on some invented charge or other.

This is what the US airlines might have looked like if instead of decades of bankruptcies, pension debacles, bailouts, and ruthless competition to lower prices and amenities, we had simply run them as a semi-public service. Either option lowers prices significantly over the early US carriers, one of them is just a lot more humane.