Wow- does that bring back memories! They had oversized luggage bins because they wanted to make it easy to bring your bags on board rather than pay to check them. I remember flying one plane from Newark to Pittsburgh on which the exits were labeled "Ausgang". And yes, it was the North Terminal at EWR that they used. I even flew them to Brussels on business once. Hey, Coach is Coach.
Somehow they got it right with their up-front, always been this way, a la carte pricing. It just seems tackier to start out as a full-service business model and then start cutting out services previously included in the ticket price, which is what the legacies have done.