You are not alone. That's exactly why the seemingly minor drink coupon issue caused such a huge fuss here and on blogsouthwest.com. It was an indication of an unpleasant change in character, as if your mother suddenly decided to start smoking.
If Herb were still in charge, I honestly don't think the drink coupon changes would have happened. I could see them start to issue new coupons with expiration dates and stop accepting ones with expirations dates that had expired and put language on new coupons that said they couldn't be used for monster. But I don't they would have stopped accepting the ones that said "non alcohol speciality drinks" for monsters, had put an expiration on the ones (some of of which were sold by wn) with no expiration dates printed on them.