I think part of the problem is that the airlines keep trying to lower expectations and "test" arrangements that frankly ought to be sacred.

They got in trouble in the late 90s, for example, for training their people NOT to give the lowest fare over the phone. And thrombosis lawsuit threats might be the best hope for getting them not to try to shave another two inches off seat pitch and one or two inches off the width in coach. How low will they go?!

Standbys are another area where customers (justifiably, I think) don't see a cost basis or justification to charge in most cases. There are quite a few others that are occasionally "tested."

Customers would empathize with airlines' plights a lot more if the airlines didn't seem so greedy and bent on taking every possible advantage. Some of the new invented fees and the "nothing sacred" unwise cost-cutting, as well as the normal insane fare structure where you can get charged pretty exorbitantly, all hurt them from a PR perspective. WN, for one, gets more goodwill because it avoids many of the worst excesses.