Starbucks is actually a very good example. We all know that a cup of joe can be had elsewhere for less. But Starbucks has created an environment where we are treated well, so we're willing to pay four bucks for a latte. The employees are competent, friendly, and good at what they do - therefore, we look forward to going to Starbucks, even though other vendors sell coffee of similar quality.

For me, I wish they'd focus on some of the basic customer service elements. Train agents to be better problem solvers. Staff call centers appropriately for the volume of calls. To keep call center costs down, actually develop decent websites - I'm happy to serve myself if it's easy to do. (Heck, they could even capitalize the IT expenditures...seems like that'd make the beancounters happier than adding back meals.)

In short, reset the culture so that passengers aren't treated like garbage.

I can even live without the meals. Meals add lots of operating expense - more complexity, more weight, usually not much value to me. (Let's face it, airfood was never very good even when they had it.)

Regarding bags, there's part of me that sees where they're going - trying to reset societal expectations to include less baggage, therefore more room for paid cargo or simply less weight. I tend to think that a reasonable societal expectation would be 1 bag. Maybe meet in the middle on this one... Delta seems to be moving there, at least for Americans to can get the U.S. version of the DL Amex.