If you have a CEO the prioritises shareholder (and personal return) over customer rights and obligations, then that filters down through the chain to the customer facing staff who think that they are doing the "right thing" by making legally appropriate processes obscure, and pushing customers to their insurance or saying it is a favour that the flight is running. You know, we are doing all we can and spending extra on maintenance to get the plane going, so we should share that cost. In short, they know...

Just look in AU, how Apple obscures its warranty (12 months) with what is legally available (24 months) and how your phone will say at 13 months that you warranty has expired (when it has not)...in a low regulatory environment where people are not used to explicitly expressing their rights, this happens.