Lawtraveler

Are Legacy Costs Really American Airlines' Biggest Problem?

It continues to boggle my mind that the traveling public thinks it has a right to cheap air fares at the expense of the very product being sold. In short, you get what you pay for - and the airlines are responding to the demands of the public. So service is cut, routes are cut, more cities will see airliners disappear, and and the airline employees that are left are surly and too often take out their frustrations on the customer. This is what we've bought as the customer. Airline seats have become just another commodity because the customer by his/her purchases have made it so.

We have nobody to blame but ourselves. Too long the customer has shown that all he/she wants is a cheap seat, so that's what you get. Don't expect more than that.

The only way to have a viable air transportation system in this country is to have fares honestly reflect the true cost of flying. If that means fewer people fly in their dirty t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops (holding a garbage bag as a carry-on), so be it.