IMO, it's not 100% about competition. The airlines have been merging and forming partnerships to such an extent that they don't have much more direct competitio

IMO, it's not 100% about competition. The airlines have been merging and forming partnerships to such an extent that they don't have much more direct competition than in the past. It is nearly all on what U.S. flyers want, and most of the non-frequent travelers want to save every penny they can. I think flyers may have finally reached the point where they can't cut service any further and may roll back on this a bit, but I doubt it will even come close to the service levels 10 years ago, let alone 40 years ago.