The 2007 Airline Quality Report is out and the verdict is not really a surprise – wanna guess? Things aren't looking exactly rosy. The study found more lost baggage and an increase in passengers getting bumped and delayed. You've heard all of it before and if you've been flying you've experienced it. But this is the factual proof. And yet, we're all still waiting for the airlines to take some responsibility. Maybe this will make them change?

Never mind being a bodyguard to Britney Spears or part of the burgeoning Jolie-Pitt clan, if you want a little attention when you’re out and about, try traveling with the Travelocity Roaming Gnome.

On my flight back to San Francisco yesterday, I had a very special companion in my hand luggage--an 18-inch garden gnome in a pointy red hat, who couldn’t have attracted more glances, stares, and chuckles if he’d tried. Normally, in the face of such blatant public scrutiny, I would have run straight to the restroom to check my teeth for spinach or my shoes for errant spools of toilet paper, wondering why everyone from kids in strollers to 89-year-old grandmothers had executed a double take as I passed. But with the Roaming Gnome tucked under my arm I quickly became accustomed to the attention. The little fellow’s a legend after all. He’s used to being recognized.

Wouldn't you think after all of the publicity of late on the airline debacles and the passenger bill of rights that an airline would really try to resolve things? If a single airline could step out and be that – would they engender longtime customer loyalty or what? Oh JetBlue….You can come out of hiding now.

But no. You're back to business as usual. Last night a relatively measly storm hit the northeast and you cancelled 68 flights. 68 flights?

While I liked your apology last week and thought it was a pretty nice PR counter-attack – especially to have David Neeleman's apology on YouTube. (I understand that must have cost a pretty penny.) And don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of JetBlue. For a while I thought you might be the only airline who truly gets me, and millions of other leisure travelers. But the apology rings hollow if it doesn't hold up. I wonder if there isn't something more you could do….

I operate under a strict card-only policy, absolutely refusing to carry cash. Even though the ban has left me stranded at toll booths a time or two, digging for loose change as cars line up behind me honking their horns, my wallet hasn’t seen a dollar bill in ages. I’m also the one who slows the line at Starbucks to put that $3 cup of joe on my American Airlines AAdvantage Card. Yup, you guessed it: all in the spirit of earning a mile.

I admit it, I’ve always been an airplane seat recliner. As soon as that “fasten seatbelt” sign goes off, I push my seat back that extra inch. But on a recent flight, my seat wouldn’t budge. Trying to get some momentum, I tried rocking back and forth and using my strength. Still no give. Finally, when the person seated next to me asked if I was okay, I realized she probably thought I was having convulsions, so I stopped.

Chances are, the reason I wasn’t able to recline is because the person sitting directly behind me had installed a Knee Defender™. Designed with the express purpose of preventing airplane seats from reclining, this new invention is causing quite a stir among those who believe in the right to recline and those who believe in the right to spare their knees and laptops.

As if it wasn’t bad enough that subway delays made me late for work this morning, en route, I got BlackBerry’d that British Airways’ cabin crew have backed a strike plan to ground service over the dates when I’m scheduled to go to London and Copenhagen next week. I know the world doesn’t revolve around me, but come on, but it’s my birthday!

As you can imagine, I’ve been busy dealing with this, so I haven’t had time to dig into the specifics of why the union is striking (something about sick leave and pay), and I haven’t had a minute to formulate an opinion. What I can tell you is that I have an eight o’clock reservation at Wilton’s next Tuesday night, and I’ll be damned if I have to miss it.

I am loving the bring-your-own-meal (BYOM) trend on domestic flights. If there's been one improvement to air travel these days, it's actually the lack of in-flight meals--no more stinking airplane cabins and questionable food lingering on my tray table.

But now snack boxes are proliferating, and not only are they an example of gross over-packaging, but they are also known to be laden with empty calories and artery-clogging fat. I'm telling you now that I don't ever want to appear on The Biggest Loser, which means you won't find me "snacking" on chips and cookies at 30,000 feet.

True story: Back in the 80s, a friend of mine flew home from the Dominican Republic with her Spanish-speaking grandfather and a gallon-size container of honey from his farm. As if he were traveling with gold bars, he carefully placed the jug of honey in the overhead bin a few seats away. About half-way through the flight, the unlucky man beneath said bin found himself completely doused in honey, which seeped into his ears, covered his eyes, and slid down the space between his collar and his neck. As everyone on the plane turned to see what the shrieking was all about, my friend--who was eight at the time—became the impromptu translator of some colorful language from the flight attendant to her grandfather.

I'm no Imelda Marcos with thousands of shoes, although mine do take up an inordinate amount of closet space. And I wouldn't ever dream of comparing myself to Carrie Bradshaw--I could never run, let alone walk, in Manolos like hers. I do, however, pay considerable attention to what I slip on my feet, especially when I fly, which leads me to my three-part air-travel-and-shoe strategy...

I've taken 13 flights in the past two months, and if there's one thing I've learned – besides mastering that "Lost in Translation"-like blank stare on people movers, escalators and airtrams – it's that good things really do come in small packages. By small, I mean 3 oz. or less.

This really crystallized for me after watching a woman, who was undoubtedly somebody's mom, cause quite a ruckus at security because she was forced to check her designer purse (or risk having the nearly $300 worth of beauty products that it contained tossed in the garbage). Then, there was another passenger who accused security of stealing her jewelry (while her husband moseyed toward the gate). I had a good chuckle because she was merely being asked to remove her necklaces before walking through the metal detector.