i should have been in much earlier, but my flight was cancelled and i spent seven hours at new york being very unhappy. i should have had to wait longer if i hadn't managed to get onto a flight for which i was standing by. i don't know how airlines can have so many delays and cancellations - bad weather is quite one thing - that's understandable - but mechanical problems - isn't it up to an airline to keep its fleet maintained? of course a plane can develop a mechanical problem unexpectedly, but the regularity of these occurences is unacceptable. and being put on an 8pm flight when your original flight was at 1.30 is not a good solution. they could reroute people through la guardia, can't they? or put you on a different airline. and they could at least give you a meal coupon to get something to eat and drink in the meantime? but of course, none of that happened. why is it only in the us do i get so vicious and bitter when travelling on planes. there's the condescension by security men - oh you're a student? what do you study? english? oh but your english is very good already. the utter disregard for efficiency and courtesy - the woman at the xray would sit there chatting and not even looking at you even when a queue has formed and then decide to bark at you for dwadling when that is clearly because there are no baskets at your end to put your things into. and when you point that out they send you to fetch one from the next station instead of just handing over a stack on their end which you can jolly well see. the way consideration and deference is treated as imbecility or weakness or timidity or clearly a case of some foreigner not being able to speak english. and the culture shock - the way you take off from this and land in a place where the barbarism of making travellers pay for luggage trolleys prevails. trolleys! they're basic provision of any airport! even your blasted ntuc trolleys give you your dollar back.