Ah-hem .... they're not passengers any more, they're 'customers' - which ****s me greatly.
And it ****s me equally ....
When I'm not flying around in the left seat of my bug-smasher, I'm SLF on big planes. And I'm a passenger, not a customer.
Customer is when I walk into a store and have a bit of a browse and then walk out again with or without goods tucked under my arm.
Passenger is when I step on the conveyance of my choice, and step off some time later at a new place. Different. Calling me a customer somehow denigrates the whole transport bit.
While I'm at it, I could never figure why Qantas had to rename the Flight Service Director (now that title had some presence, and for SLF the FSD seemed to have real authority) to friggin' Customer Service Manager - sounds like someone at the front desk in Coles.
Grumpy old man? You betchya!