Every US airline except SouthWest is on the brink of collapse - South West has been incredibly smart about its fuel buying policies, hedging against future increases etc. But the others don't have the liquidity to do that. So they're scrimping on everything: wonder where the blankets went? They save on laundry costs, plus every ounce of weight saved reduces their fuel consumption. They're designing lighter carts so that they can save fuel. And, as a person who was an avid FF mile collector and user, to ease the pain of the cost of going to the UK every year to see the family, I can tell you now - there are no more free tickets available, unless you book them about 12 months in advance. We used to use our miles to get upgrades on an economy ticket to business class: 1. no more available seats anyway, and 2. there's now a charge of $350 each way to get that upgrade, in addition to the miles: make that two round trip journeys, and we might as well buy a third economy seat and get more space that way, at that price (which we won't be doing: I have better uses for my money!) The airlines are in so much pain that staff morale is rock bottom. If someone from an airline is pleasant to you, they must be saintly. We can complain all we like - and it DOES stink that this is where we've ended up - but it's only going to get worse. Himself's nephew is a pilot, and has been laid off, and is struggling to make ends meet, with a baby on the way too. Sara, who still has to fly transatlantic, much as she'd rather stay home. (Oh, and we're cancelling our miles-earning credit card too, since it's now useless to us).

Being that I'm hand screened every time I fly I would agree a lot of the screening process is nonsense. Steps that are SOOOO important at one airport are completely skipped at another. Some level of screening is useful to prevent weapons, etc. from going on planes but taking your shoes off and putting your liquids in a baggie is NOT preventing terrorists from getting on planes with explosives. It's a waste of time and money. In my opinion one reason we're being subjected to being searched without cause and the like is because we're far too politically correct in how we are defending this country against terrorism. The "rights" of the enemy are so important we're rendered completely ineffective in fighting the terrorist enemy. We follow the old rules of war when the war has changed entirely. We give non-citizen suspected terrorists the rights of citizens instead of handling them like they were suspected war criminals. We pussyfoot around everyone for fear of offending somebody because of their ethnicity, religion or country of origin. Meanwhile terrorists have to be laughing their butts off because they have us completely figured out and we are clueless and powerless. We're running around like a chicken with its head cutoff spending money on ineffective security measures and ever more eroding our freedoms. I think the enemy is winning big time and most people don't even recognize it.

I use kayak.com to compare prices (except for Southwest), then I book the airfare through the airline's web page. Nearly all the airlines now have the same prices on their own web pages that you can get through the booking agents. Farecast can be handy, too. You enter the trip you want to take, and Farecast emails you every week with a recommendation as to whether you should buy now or wait for the airfare to go down. The rule of thumb I use for pricing airfare is: anything around $100 per hour of air time is a reasonable price; anything around $75/hour is a great price. So, for example, if I want to go from Portland to Las Vegas (a common trip for me), which is about 2 hours, I look for airfare that's less than $200. I'm currently looking for airfare to PA, and I've noticed that there aren't as many deals this year as there were last year. I'm going to have to pay about $400 to get flights that aren't too early or late. (I have the same problem as the OP, relatives have to pick me up and take me to the airport, so I have to work around their schedules.) As far as particular airlines, American or Delta will probably have the best prices. American's hubs in Texas are on the way to Florida, so you won't be going out of your way to make connections. Same with Delta, although Atlanta (Delta's hub) is a little bit too far north. Delta has some great prices, though.

I personally wouldn't have any objection to wearing a bracelet that contained personal information about me and/or my luggage and my destination and traveling companion(s). I have nothing to hide, and can actually see the benefit of it if something unfortunate should happen. However, I would not wear anything that could in any way "zap" me and cause potential harm to my health or physical state.