I think the discussion has gotten off track a bit but as a non-pilot let me put my two cents in. Regardless of all the concerns in the posts above there is one fact that remains undisputable - the airlines (at least US comm'l) are one of the few customer service industries that 1. Do not care about how they treat the customers 2. Have identified their best customers - those of us biz slf who pay the freight for most everyone else - and systematically single us out for outrageous treatment in the form of unreasonable fares +2400 USD no notice coast to coast 3. Systematically squander the resources they are given 4. Treat the crews flying the planes as bad as if not worse than the pax This leads to one thing every time - dissatisfaction by all involved, p*ss poor service in general and pax voting with their feet for autos, trains etc where they can be reasonably substituted for airlines. It is a sad state of affairs which needs immediate change!