Avman
but being treated as a valued CUSTOMER, an intelligent human being, and - most important of all - knowing that come hell or high water the airline will do all it can to get me to my destination as expeditiously as possible, even if it means putting me on one of their competitors' flights and/or paying for accommodation if it becomes necessary.
And very nice that is and I often pay the cost of that by paying more for the ticket upfront.
I am in support of the general mood of the thread but the current system is not going to change any time soon. Certainly not in the next 30 years. The first and last of it is money. FR pushed open the door that Freddie Laker found by changing the short haul market, rather than the long haul, and that door is not going to be closed until the oil runs out.
There are more than enough pax willing to go through the worst service to get to their destination, to offset the handful who do not wish to subject themselves to it. This market model (paying for seat res and hold baggage) is brand new and has only just begun. Soon it will be normal with only the premium cabins having the old style service. The legacy carriers will charge for bags and seats at the back and make them inclusive upfront.
I think that one should direct energies against the web sites that do not make it clear about the extras. FlyBe in particular have very poor directions about what is a chargeable bag and what is not. They spend time talking about taking 'a bag' on board for free and then charge for that bag. I am in correspondence with them about making the clear distinction between cabin bag and hold bag. FR and EZY are right up front about this, in my view.