Having said that, I wonder why we don't see more cases of passengers having ear problems when flying with a cold...
The worst pain I ever experienced was from flying as a passenger with a cold. I've never had a problem with ascent, but descent can be murder. The one time I'm remembering I ended up staggering around a gate at Salt Lake International barely able to think, barely able to stand, stringing together more profanities than I normally utter in a year. Finally someone told me to just hold my nose and blow. Which had never entered my mind for some reason (yes, I know that's dangerous now). Pop, a flash of pain so intense my vision literally went white and maybe the eardrums perforated, maybe not (I didn't start bleeding from my ears...), but either way I had blessed relief. My ears still hurt, but simply being in moderate pain was such a huge improvement.
So yes, passengers suffer these problems!
Edit: Some people have Eustachian tubes more likely to get blocked up than others. For some rather unusual reasons, I suffered injury to my left Eustachian tube. Now that one clears pretty easily, but I still often have trouble with the right ear clearing. Makes me wonder how much nicer it would be to have both ears so incredibly easy to clear.