It's been another bizarre 12 months for business travel. But that shouldn't surprise you. It never surprises me because I've come to the same conclusion after each of the thirtysomething years I've been on the road.

Odd as it may be, though, business travel is nothing if not instructive. You learn things. Rarely good things, I admit, but you learn nevertheless. Here are some of the hard lessons I learned in 2009. I don't expect 2010 to be much happier, but I'm open to the prospect of good news. Honest, I am. It would be a nice surprise.

Politics Are Foul and Security is Politics

If it wasn't so deadly serious, the thought of a lunatic boarding a flight with explosives stashed in his underwear would have been a hilarious reminder of the airport-security Kabuki sponsored by the Transportation Security Administration. Since its creation two months after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the TSA has evolved into a mindless bureaucracy that delights in playing gotcha with innocent travelers who pack a stray pair of pointy scissors or an ounce too much shampoo in a carry-on bag. The agency's response to the Christmas Day attack on Northwest Flight 253 was equally ignominious: limit our carry-on baggage, restrict our in-flight bathroom privileges, take away our blankets—and then try to keep the new rules a secret from the very travelers who are required to abide by them.

But last week's events taught us another lesson: There is no one more dangerous than a headline-grabbing politician hoist on his own pettifogging petard. This year's case in point: Republican Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina. He has personally delayed the confirmation of Erroll Southers, President Obama's choice to head the TSA, which has been in the hands of a George W. Bush administration functionary since January. A former FBI special agent and currently a top cop at Los Angeles International Airport, Southers has received the bipartisan blessing of two Senate committees. When DeMint was called out this week about his actions, his spokesman said the TSA is better off without a leader. Southers' "crime"? DeMint thinks unions are more dangerous that terrorists, and he believes that Southers wouldn't fight efforts to unionize TSA workers. After all, why fight terrorism when you can fight unions?

The Barbarians Are Still at the Boarding Gate

Airline executives are known for their ability to fiddle financially while their companies burn. Yet their willingness to profit from the operations they are running into the ground has reached new levels. One example: The Government Accountability Office said this year that United Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Tilton and two other executives raked in $7.6 million in retirement benefits from 2002 to 2006. During the same period, the airline abandoned four pension plans covering 122,000 workers and dumped nearly $10 billion of liability on the quasi-public Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation.

Airline analyst and commercial pilot Robert Herbst paints the broader canvas. He estimates that the five remaining legacy carriers (Delta, American, United, Continental, and US Airways) lost a cumulative $4.6 billion in 2008. They paid their 25 top executives more than $90 million in compensation. That's an average of $3.6 million each. The average annual wage per employee at the five carriers was $57,000, unchanged from a decade ago. At the same time, the legacy carriers' cumulative market capitalization dropped to $5 billion from $21.9 billion.