Air Travel Soon Only For The Rich & Famous

As the financial collapse continues on its merry way to the second dip of our double-dip recession, those $35 round-trip Chinese buses are looking a lot sweeter.

Air travel is already a joke, with airlines gouging passengers by charging for anything they can think of (I'm surprised they don't make us pay for the air we breathe in flight). Now comes word that soaring jet fuel prices have wiped out profits for United and American Airlines, with JetBlue and Southwest just about breaking even. So look for fares to go up up up and that means that for most struggling Americans, going anywhere by airline will soon be out of the question: an unaffordable luxury.