Our missing luggage, which disappeared when we entered the now feared and legendary Philly airport on US Airways, reaapeared at Bradley airport in Hartford, our final destination, about 30 hours late. Apparently it had been to Spain, then Atlanta, then back to Hartford.

The hundreds of pieces of luggage that surrounded the luggage carousels at Bradley on Tuesday are now down to a few hundred. They do not deliver lost luggage, you go to the airport and search for it.

Had I been working for an airline that forced a 40% pay cut on employees, I wouldn’t have shown up for work either. US Air is in bankruptcy, facing a huge payment they can’t make in January, and the end is nigh. But you can bet top management didn’t take a 40% pay cut.

Yes, this is a class thing, isn’t is?

My marriage tomorrow will now take place with her in a wedding dress and me in a suit, and not in jeans as we’d feared.

US Air is now telling employess to work for free over New Years to make up for this debacle. Yeah, uh huh, I sure bet everyone shows up for work, huh? And we fly back New Years Day. On US Air. Through Philly. If we can’t rebook, then we carry as much as we can carry-on and ship the rest.

Welcome to the New Economy.

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From reader Mike F.

A poster that’s been seen in European cities for at least 2 years now (they LOVE us over there!):

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The US-backed and funded Pora party is showing their true colors, blockading buildings after they have won. Seems like they care little about the democracy they profess to believe in, but this should come as no surprise from a party whose symbol is a jackboot crushing a cockroach.

Boisterous supporters of President-elect Viktor Yushchenko blockaded the government headquarters on Wednesday, preventing the prime minister from convening a Cabinet session.

Moscow refuses to accept poll results

A fresh crisis in relations between Russia and the West over Ukraine has threatened to erupt after Moscow said international monitors who gave the country’s presidential election a clean bill of health were not objective, just as European leaders hailed the result.

Can you say fighting in the streets. a seccession movement, and maybe even civil war?

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And he’s surrounded by round the clock bodyguards, all due to the incomprehensible US Airways debacle in which thousands of pieces of luggage are lost. Well now, “lost” isn’t the correct word. Luggage isn’t lost when a US Air plane lands in Philly and the crews don’t unload the luggage, letting it instead fly off to wherever the next stop is.

In our case, that next stop was Spain, and our luggage includes my fiances wedding dress. I’m thinking bringing back public flogging must be appropriate here.

Crews refusing to unload planes, huge numbers of people calling in sick, an airline already in bankruptcy. Maybe the employees are tired of being screwed around by management, of having wages and benefits slashed (while management of course readies their golden parachutes) so this complete chaos is the result. This is what deregulation of the airlines has brought -. lousy service and collapsing airlines. Yes, fares can be cheaper, but what good is that when flights are often late, meaning you don’t make connections, or your luggage is lost.

Meanwhile that CEO *better* be in hiding..

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Disease ‘could swamp wave zones’.

More people could be killed by disease after the Asian tsunami by the disaster itself, a health expert warns.

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