Good customer service, unfortunately, is frequently one of the casualties of the competitive, free market economy. As customers look for the lowest price airfares, they cause the airlines to constantly try to cut costs, and one result of that is the airlines try to make do with the absolute minimum ticket staff that they can get away with. Of course, the "hub and spoke" system of most airlines increases this problem, at least when flying out of a hub, since the airline arranges the flights into the hub in a group, to connect to a mass of flights all leaving the hub at the same time an hour or hour and a half later. That means that hordes of people typically descend on a hub for flights at one time. Ultimately, despite knowing the forces that cause much of the problems, though, I come down on the same side as Quiet Lion and others--it is ultimately the airlines' fault. The airlines know how many flights are taking off at particular times. They have a responsibility to have the ticket counters staffed so that you do not have to wait in line for an hour to get checked into a flight. 20 minutes, I think, is the absolute most that anyone should EVER have to wait in a line at the ticket counter. That way, anyone who gets to the airport a responsible 1 hour, or even a "cutting it close" 45 mins. prior to a flight should have no problems. Anytime I have been forced to wait longer than that, I have complained to the airlines.

Djlawman