Airlines have discovered that for 99% of the flying population, selection of airline is based on price, price and price. (I've heard that seats on the low-cost carriers in Europe such as RyanAir are even worse.) I think AA is even backing off its "more room throughout Coach" stance.

Two days ago on a flight from MCI to ATL, we (husband, son and I) had seats reserved in the second row of Coach. We traded for the bulkhead row with a couple who arrived with a service dog, thinking they'd reserved 3 seats. She was overweight (degenerative muscle disease) and needed to raise the armrest to accomodate her bulk, whcih she couldn't do in the bulkhead row.

We thought we'd made a great trade till it turned out they'd reserved only TWO bulkhead seats and my husband had to give up the bulkhead aisle seat to a paying passenger and sit in the aisle seat next to Mrs. Bulky- with the armrest between them raised. He's a good soul and just figured, "There but for the grace of God..."

But, I digress. This is the marketplace. Start-up airlines that have tried to offer bigger seats and premium service have failed. Unfortunate but true. Partly due to tactics of the Big 6 but partly due to the demand for cheap, cheap, cheap.