Those of us who were leaning toward Delta Air Lines because of its policy of allowing a free first checked bag can now abandon any favoritism. As of December 5 (just in time for the holidays!), it will start charging $15 for the first check bag. That figure is pretty much what everyone's charging these days. Only upstarts like JetBlue and Southwest don't.

The news, though, brightens in a few quarters. Simultaneously, Delta has decided to halve its fee for a second bag from $50 to a more sensible $25. Not many of us check two bags, though, so the net effect will still be negative for most casual travelers.

The major American airlines, now that they've got you on the hook for your checked bags, are relenting on their fuel surcharges. Delta and Northwest are eliminating their fuel surcharges. It's about time, too, since it's gotten pretty hard to defend them. The price of oil peaked back in the summer but is now less than half what it was at its peak, and in the past month, it has fallen about $30 a barrel.

So you buy an airfare at a ridiculous price -- or even a good one. And a week later, the airline decides it hasn't sold enough seats. Rather than fly an empty plane, which would cost it money, it slashes the prices on seats. Come the day of the flight, you turn to the person sitting next to you and learn, to your disgust, that they paid $200 less than you did.

What can you do? Well, by the time you're on the flight, often nothing. But if you discover you've paid more than you had to before you have used the ticket, you can usually petition the airline for the price difference. Usually, that refund comes in the form of a voucher that you use for future travel, but that's still money you don't have to spend later on.

But, surprise! Some airlines have a nasty trick up their sleeve. Many charge obscene change fees since, the way they see it, they have to pull your old ticket and issue a new one to give you the better price. That means that for domestic flights on U.S. Airways, Continental, and American, the price has to drop by more than $150 in order to give you an ultimate benefit. But plenty of other airlines don't charge any fee at all (JetBlue, Alaska, United), or their fee is small enough to give you pretty good chances (Northwest's is $50, AirTran's $75). The fees are usually steeper for international flights, but then again, the price drops stand to be higher for those, too.

After you book a flight, you could keep returning to the airlines' websites to double-check the rate status of your booked flights. That will work. But one of the lesser-known airline booking sites, Yapta, keeps tracking the price of the stuff you've bought, and if it descends past the point where you can actually make some money back, it alerts you by e-mail. (The site, like Hotwire's Trip Watcher and Farecast, will also keep an eye on rates for flights you haven't bought.) Every bit helps, right? Maybe the amount you save will pay for a pack of peanuts. Barely.

Air carriers have been loading on fees and surcharges, but now that one is reversing course, will there be a price war in the other direction? That remains to be seen, but for now, Air Canada is the first airline to relax some of its customer charges. In an announcement earlier today, the carrier stated that it will no longer be charging many of its customers for their second checked bag.

Even more important, Air Canada stated that it will no longer add a fuel surcharge onto the cost of flights; instead, it will be integrating any excess gas fees into the price of tickets. While customers will basically have to pay the same amount, they will no longer be surprised by an additional $20 to $60 fee tacked on at checkout.

Beyond offering customers a price break, Air Canada's recent changes represent an impressive attempt at transparency. Rather than offering a great price and subsequently charging for everything but air, Air Canada is taking the revolutionary step of actually letting customers know what they're getting for their money. It's a bold, crazy move, and I hope it works!

When you travel for work, you know the drill: Get receipts for everything. When you spend cash for stuff like meals, beverages, hotels, and rental cars, your employer is likely to pick up the tab as long as you've got proof of purchase.

But what if you have to spend money on the road but can't get a receipt? It's happening more and more. The major airlines have deployed their newest fees with such haste that they are not always equipped to issue receipts for on-board purchases. Ask a flight attendant for one, and on some carriers you're more likely to receive a blank stare than appropriate documentation.

Take U.S. Airways. As of Aug. 1, the carrier began charging for drinks of any sort, including $2 for water. Passengers are not permitted to carry their own beverages through security, and buying drinks in the terminal is not always possible either because of a time crunch or because of personal dignity over gouging. If you, a business traveler, decide during Hour Three of a flight that you're thirsty, the staff will sell you a drink but they won't be able to give you a receipt.

I called U.S. Airways to ask if any of its flight attendants were equipped to furnish receipts for this newfangled charge. The answer was no. Right now, an airline rep told me, there are "plans" to give on-board staff hand-held devices for printing receipts by the first quarter of 2009, but for now, they have nothing, and those nebulous "plans" could not be elucidated for me. U.S. Airways' flight attendants also have neither the training or the equipment to write receipts by hand.

Last year, despite serious competition, JetBlue gained pre-eminence among America's airlines. While most carriers were locked in a battle to see who could provide the worst, most dangerously contemptuous service to their customers, the bargain airline emerged triumphant.

This year, amid rising gas prices, airlines have had to cut back further and further, increasing JetBlue's competition for worst airline. However, in spite of some companies' decisions to charge for all checked bags, not to mention a wide variety of other silly fees, JetBlue has once again soared to the front of the pack. In addition to charging for second checked bags, onboard drinks, and "extra" legroom, the airline is now making passengers pay for pillows and blankets.

I've tried to stop criticizing America's airlines. After all, every week or two, the airlines come up with a new way to extort a few more pennies out of their customers; to be honest, the novelty has worn off. Also, every time I question the policies of America's major airlines, I immediately get hit with a litany of complaints from airline employees. I've been told, time and again, that I don't know what it's like to run an airline, I have no idea about the difficulties that airlines go through, and I should take it easy on the tender feelings of our nation's major carriers. I've even started to feel like kind of a bully, as if my modest little posts are inflicting long-term psychological damage on the airline industry.

I have a feeling we'll be hearing more about this.

Reuters is reporting that a man from New York, Gokhan Mutlu, is suing JetBlue for $2 million. The reason he'll probably be booking a seat on another airline for his next flight? JetBlue made him sit in the plane's restroom.

Apparently what went down is that Mutlu arrived to the airport in February, planning on taking JetBlue from San Diego to New York, he was told that the flight was full.

But on the plus side, a JetBlue flight attendant said she would give up her seat and travel in an airline employee "jump seat." (Reuters points out that it's not clear in the lawsuit whether the flight attendant was on the job or a passenger.)

So Mutlu boards, and 90 minutes into the flight, the attendant decides that she's quite uncomfortable in the employee "jump seat." Mutlu was told he would have to give up his seat and "hang out" in one of the restrooms for the rest of the flight.

The Associated Press lead tells you pretty much everything you need to know:

A New York City man is suing JetBlue Airways Corp. for more than $2 million because he says a pilot made him give up his seat to a flight attendant and sit on the toilet for more than three hours on a flight from California.

Manhattanite Gokhan Mutlu is suing the budget airline after the pilot told him to vacate his seat and "go hang out in the bathroom" for 90 minutes because the flight attendant had complained that her seat was uncomfortable, according to court papers. When the plane hit turbulence and the pilot directed passengers to return to their seats, "the plaintiff had no seat to return to, sitting on a toilet stool with no seat belts," according to his suit. That could've gotten messy!

This was one of those stories that's so ridiculous I can't think of anything to say. Perhaps JetBlue, which prides itself on its no-frills service with low prices, should begin offering discounted fares for passengers willing to sit on the toilet.

If the allegations outlined in the lawsuit are even remotely accurate, some people at JetBlue definitely need to lose their jobs.

The next time you go to the airport, you might want to set aside a little extra money for food, water, accommodations, and legal fees. A recent federal court ruling placed limits on the services that states can require airlines to provide to their grounded passengers.

Basically, it went down like this: late last summer, following months of record airplane delays and grounded planes, the New York State Legislature passed a "Passenger Bill of Rights," outlining requirements that airlines had to honor during extended delays.

Needless to say, the airline industry got up in arms, called out its army of lobbyists and lawyers, and began challenging the law in court. This week, the airlines finally got their wish as the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the bill of rights, stating that it overstepped the bounds of state law. Apparently, due to the interstate nature of airline travel, it can only be regulated by the federal government. The court's ruling was pretty absurd, and hinged on the argument that, if airlines were subject to state law, they might be forced to modify the food and drink that they serve on flights.

Courts to fliers: Siddown, shaddup and eat your peanuts.

A New York appeals court overturned a state law that required airlines to provide food, water and access to bathrooms to passengers stranded on delayed planes. While it agreed the law, dubbed the "Passenger Rights Law" had merit, unfortunately, it's not the sort of law a state is allowed to pass. Only the Feds can weigh in on matters of price, route and service of an airline.

That explains a lot, actually. But I digress. The law was pushed through after thousands of passengers complained they were kept for hours without food, water or access to clean toilets on several JetBlue Airway flights at JFK International Airport in NYC last year. Bad weather prompted similar incidents on other airlines as well.

The law was challenged by the Air Transport Association of America, the industry trade group representing leading U.S. airlines. Can't have passengers getting uppity about basic necessities, you know.

This is just the opening salvo in a widening "Passenger Rights" movement. Expect this ruling to be re-appealed and other laws introduced. If the airlines wanted to see how far they could push passengers before they revolted, they're about to find out.