In this case, the service being offered by the airline is the booking itself. Your manufacturing analogy isn't appropriate, since they have to meet a minimum s

In this case, the service being offered by the airline is the booking itself. Your manufacturing analogy isn't appropriate, since they have to meet a minimum standard of safety for the product being sold. It is regulated heavily, because it deals with the potential loss of human life. What's more reliable - a flight that departs on time every time or the aircraft that performs the flight? (In case it isn't obvious, it's a rhetorical question) > as is banking Sure, if we're talking about the safety of putting your money in a CD, which offer no consumer utility whatsoever. It's actually not a service for the consumer, since the bank is the one that makes money on the deposit. A better analogy would have been different credit cards, which is quite a predatory service that, in theory, is possible to benefit from by the consumer, but in practice has little consumer protection if the "incentives" of the cards expire. What I was asking for, and sorry if the intent wasn't clear, were products and services without consumer protection that offer surplus utility to the consumer beyond the service itself, that aren't terrible. If you have a rudimentary knowledge of economics, you'll know it's a trick question, though.