I was expecting to get flamed a little when I started this thread. My view on this is as follows. The airlines expect us to pay all kinds of penalties and fees: taxi breaks down on the way to the airport and you miss your flight? Fork over the ticket change fee and fare difference (if the agent's in a bad mood). Want to get home two hours early so you can spend time with your kid? Need to pay the standby fee (even if your original flight is way oversold and the flight you want has tons of availability). Bag 10 lbs overweight 'cause you want to give your uncle some pineapples from HNL? Excess baggage fee.
So when an airline makes me late for work, cuts a day off my vacation, separates me from my belongings, makes me sick, etc... is it unreasonable to expect something in return? Apologies with meaning (i.e. not a form letter pasted together) actually give the airline an incentive to take corrective action. I agree that American has a great customer relations department, which is one of the reasons I fly them.