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My personal experience with VA, unlike other domestic carriers in the US, is that they don't treat you like it's a privilege that you get to fly at all. Domesti

My personal experience with VA, unlike other domestic carriers in the US, is that they don't treat you like it's a privilege that you get to fly at all. Domestic carriers treat customers as if they are doing them a favor, rather than providing a service to a paying customer that you hope will come back again. This is the same way Southwestern does it too. It's amazing how some politeness can go a long way to brand loyalty in the US air market.

jrockway 16y ago
There is no such airline as "Southwestern". Anyway, I love the legacy carriers. Last year, I flew about 110,000 miles on American, all economy. For that, I now get free upgrades to First Class, the ability to use the flagship lounge, special check-in and security lines, free stuff on board, and lots of other perks. Every time I travel, it's a joy -- there are no lines and the customer service is amazing. The service on the plane is nice too, even when I'm in economy. American makes me feel like I'm their only customer, and that they want my business. So while it's true that the legacy airlines don't care about Joe Pricecompare who flies once a year, they do care deeply for people who consistently bring them revenue. (I miss this treatment in other industries, in fact, as I tend to be very loyal.) Now it's true that my experience is atypical of the majority of the flying public, but it's typical of the people that keep the airlines around. The reality is that the average traveler is very hard to make money off of, and the legacy carriers just gave up. Bad for you, good for me :)