[Butch Cassidy Slept Here]

of the reasons you, PHX, stated. As your comments suggest, it is not a single issue but a true "death by a thousand cuts" from the customer's perspective. US Airways lies about being a full-service, low-cost airline might be overlooked if there were significant redeeming traits. But there are NONE! Southwest Air might even be cut some slack if they stretched the truth about their meal service, or lack of it. Who ever heard of bad food service sinking an airline in a post-deregulated world? Southwest has redeeming traits: Lost baggage is at a lower frequency compared to the competition; flight operations bear a reasonable relationship to the printed timetable; and the overwhelming portion of Southwest’s staff are able to treat customers like human beings. Traits like these have almost become the exception, rather than the rule, at Southwest’s competition. Many US-based carriers think a "redeeming trait" is giving a customer 5,000 frequent flyer miles, or a voucher for a free flight, when something goes wrong. The sad reality is these "trinkets" are dispensed against a backdrop of near total disregard for the importance of producing a quality service product. The usage of call centers in India (by United) is a prime example of this mentality. Thus this is not just a US Airways problem, but something common to, perhaps, all of North America with the exception of two or three airlines.