If you are really fond of those middle seats, and prefer planes that fly full and less frequently, make sure you get off a letter to some editor supporting the proposed merger between United Airlines and US Air.

If, on the other hand, you think things are bad enough already, hope that the merger talks, which broke down once before, collapse again. That would disappoint investors who have bid up shares of those companies in anticipation of the promised cost savings and, more recently, of a summer fare increase of “as much as 25 percent this summer from a year ago as passengers fight over fewer seats,” according to MarketWatch.