I'm not sure that "cancel[ling] flights at the first sign of trouble" is the issue either. I had my flight on Air New Zealand cancelled after four hours in the

I'm not sure that "cancel[ling] flights at the first sign of trouble" is the issue either. I had my flight on Air New Zealand cancelled after four hours in the air, forcing us to turn back due to a mechanical problem. After three hours on the ground, they gave up. I ended up with a night's stay in Auckland, a free breakfast, a new flight to LA first thing in the morning and double points. I'll probably be an Air NZ customer for life as a result. Even United can sometimes rise to the occasion. They cancelled our flight to San Francisco because of SFO's typical shenanigans with fog and not allowing small commuter jets in. We got rebooked the next day, though all they had were economy class seats. We said fine, at least we're on our way. We got upgraded at the gate and we didn't even ask for it. If a company wants to make customer service a top priority, they can do it.