Pandora,
You have made a few points that are reasonable and make sense, particularly from your perspective, can I assume that you once were down the back and now have a seat with a good view ?
However (comma), in order to really experience some of these issues, you need to travel as pax for a while. Having ten years of very (very !) frequent short and long haul, I am almost qualified for a PhD thesis on psychology of air travel...
It has taken ten years for the dam to burst, and even then I would have kept it to myself but for this subject arising for discussion.
I agree there are a lot of obnoxious pax, especially the one in 12K who farted all the way from Frankfurt to Singapore the other day (I was in 12H), but that I believe is another subject thread.
Regarding the price paid by pax, and what they receive for it, every time I fly first or business long haul, I could have bought a small second hand car, or decent sports bike, (or an overhauled prop governor for my 303, but prices of GA parts are another subject I don't want to get on to). It is rumoured that the combined revenue of the premium cabins exceeds that of the holidaying masses down the back beeing subsidised by us, so you can imagine that some level of polite respect is expected from the service providers.
The term passenger is used over the PA, either at the terminal or on board, when the name is already in possession of the user, from manifest or whatever, so there is no excuse for the preface "passenger" instead of Mr/Mrs/Ms.
You will also note that I have mentioned comparisons with Far East airlines and in many cases they demonstrate the user-unfriendliness of others (as I say you have to travel often to compare), and as one point, on SQ and MH, they attempt, mainly successfully to remember at least the premium pax names.
Some incidences of real air rage are spectacular, some not so, and I have seen minor disagreements being turned in to threatening and confrontational situations by cc. It is basic psychology, that if a person is anxious, confined, tired, probably with a coupkle of drinks inside (not blind drunk), that they may be in some cases volatile material. That is not an excuse for the cc to play the part of detonator!!. In fact it is quite stupid to rely on the threat of prosecution for protection at 35000 ft. Unfortunately 12000 pounds a year does not buy much in the way of EQ, empathy and psychology. It is not about who is right, or who is in charge, it is about the safe and calm completion of the flight.
Without getting in to it, I have witnessed incidents, and I have been unhappy about the approach of some cc to myself on many occasions, but rather than be confrontational, I have kept it up my sleeve, and then written to the airline management later. Result...neichevo,nada, nothing. As a result I have stopped travelling on three airlines, and blocked requests from my staff to do so. Our previous spend was more than 800K pounds p.a. on those airlines.
Which brings me back to my last comment about the customer keeping you all in business..
All the same thanks for your comments, and I hope on reflection, mine may be useful in keeping your airline in business until you make Left hand seat.
Rob