Re "I still worry about a country in which people view nine hours on the tarmac as intolerable adversity. What do we do when something really bad happens and there is no on-flight service?"

Well, that would be the whole point, wouldn't it? If those idiot airlines can't even keep a garden variety snafu from becoming as adverse (okay, not intolerably adverse, but inexcusably so nonetheless) as the one Ms. Hanni found herself in, what can we expect in a real emergency? Check in with Katrina victims for an answer to that one. My worry is about a country whose citizenry has become so spoiled, lazy, and downright stupid that we are allowing a bunch of parasitic, money-sucking charlatans to masquerade as our corporate and govenmental leaders while they slowly turn us into a third world country.