A. My husband and I have flown to and from Detroit on Northwest recently and on 2 of the 4 flights the plane was ridiculously hot (unhealthily hot). The flight crew said that they could not get the air going until they were moving -- but this has never happened to us on a flight before this. We were wondering if this is perhaps a new way for the airlines to cut costs by not cooling down the planes before take off or limiting their use of air conditioning.

Q. Yes, indeed. In order to run the AC they must run the engines, rather than just hooking up to the external power source. So we wouldn't be surprised if this is just another way to save on fuel.