Let me put a passenger's perspective on some of the points raised.

When you can fly to 800-900 miles to Chicago for half the cost and 1/10th the time, you can't expect much. But I don't think simple courtesy and a complimentary soda is going overboard. I won't repeat my other postings relating the absolute crap service I've received on most of the legacy airlines. To be fair, a good portion of it was driven by bean counting measures.

Paying for meals in coach on intermediate length flights? I don't have a problem with that, as long as the food is decent; but, too often it is not. Pay for drinks (alcoholic) in coach, not a problem. But paying for a gin and tonic and being told lemons/limes didn't come with anymore; well, that smacks of making the airline's problem mine. I don't like it.

Raising fares across the board and keeping them there by everyone doing it? Well depending on how that's structured; that's either collusion/price fixing or re-regulation. Ask Howard Putnam and Bob Crandall how that worked for them at Braniff and American. Of course, one of them snitched, so it didn't pan out.

Ticket change fees? I was flying from MSP-RDU on a legacy carrier and moved my date one day earlier. $25 change fee, $50 change fee? No-they wanted $100 more than it cost for me to purchase a one-way next day ticket from MSP-MDW on American Trans Air, get off, collect my bag, check in on Southwest, go through security, and fly from MDW-RDU. I am a Million Miler flyer on that airline; but I told them they could take their seat and sell it to somebody else (my language was probably a little more harsh). I saved a $100 (more on principle than anything else) and they got to sell the seat again. But they trashed a lot of loyalty; almost all of it. I've only flown them once since.

Frequent flyer miles? Why bother- you can't get a seat on a flight anywhere, anytime hardly (with Southwest being an exception-although they have blackout dates). The airlines themselves devalued them so much they are worth nothing to most people- so they don't breed the loyalty they did, yet they are a huge potential financial burden (or perhaps write-off).

I got a hoot out of the pilot cruising this board looking for the cheapest flight to Florida- nobody vilified him for trying to save some money, but boy when your customers do that, we're screwing your company.

Solutions-

1. Try to keep your employees happy and that'll get back to your customer. Clearly, a lot of airlines need help here (perhaps I can start a consulting gig, hmmmmm).

2. Focus on the customer.

3. Be competitive in smart ways- not cheap ways.

It's a shame for me. I've loved aviation all my life and could probably be accused of being a wannabe (although, beleive me, this board has provided the cure for that!). Service where it is; I either really need to take the trip and/or it has to be over a 10 hour drive before I fly. And you know what, I'm not really missing it that much.

That's my two cents.

OldAg