In 1988, I would never have paid $320 rt for transcon. OP must have not planned his/her trip well. I was paying $198 rt. And at that price, one got a meal and three checked bags. One also had many many more airline to choose from. Today we have so few airlines, poor service, and high prices. Price aside, flights should be full. To have empty seats flying is not only economically inefficient it is environmentally unsound. If prices were to increase, then the number of flyers would decrease, and the airlines would rightly reduce the number of planes in the sky. It would not increase the number of airlines flying and thus would have no impact on service.