I wrote a letter detailing the incident but decided not to send it because I didn't have names, etc.

Also, while I hardly condone the f/a's behavior on this flight, I could see how the f/a's on CO transcon's could get fried to a crisp on these tiny planes with their minuscule galleys and narrow aisle, continuously packed to the rafters.

But this incident did finally convince me to switch from exclusively CO to JetBlue/CO.

I now fly my transcons on JetBlue and I find the product far superior than CO's coach cabin. FC on CO is clearly even better but essentially unattainable on upgrades out of EWR. I run my own small business and I always buy the least expensive ticket. I'm not the kind of customer who has the option to spend $1,100 instead of $219 to fly to California.

I'm still flying CO on the routes JetBlue doesn't fly, especially the international. I've found that reaching OP Silver provides me all the tangible benefits I'm likely to get out of the program so there is no point to keep going until Plat.

I should also mention that, in addition to unattainable upgrades, I've found that booking reward travel has become virtually impossible as well.

In ten attempts to book reward travel for my family to SFO, I was only able to find availability once.

Also, on my three or four attempts to upgrade to BF international using miles, I found there was also no availability either.

So without upgrades or reward travel, what's the point of remaining loyal to CO?

I used to be deeply committed to CO and the great value it provided its customers. Now I fly CO based only on price and schedule.

In some respects, this is an inevitable consequence of the policies put in place by CO's current management team, emphasisizng low prices and high load factors and thereby de-emphasizing the value of customer loyalty by effectively reducing the availability of the rewards of OP Elite status.

The current strategy is an acceptable short-term stop gap, but what will be the long-term consequence of alienating the airline's most loyal customers in return for legions of passengers who are buying tickets based only on the commodity basis of cost?

The problem with this strategy is that only works as long as the airline maintains the lowest prices. The implication is a long, slow degradation of CO's product in order to keep it as cheap as possible.

As soon as CO is no longer the cheapest, the predatory commodity consumers will leave in droves and then there will be many fewer frequent flyers to keep the airline in the black.