We
don't buy tickets based on who's cheapest. We buy based on who'll get us to our destinations most efficiently, so we can get to our planes and do our jobs.
It cost us
$1600, one way, to get me from Chicago to Seattle the other day on American, while the advance-purchase vacation crowd paid $205 roundtrip.
My seat cost sixteen times that of the guy next to me. (Not counting the extra $15 for my bag, which they subsequently lost on a nonstop flight.)
Whether you want to admit it or not, we
are those frequent, high-dollar, last-minute business customers the airlines covet. You think out of that $1600, American could have found the budget to clean the airplane at one of their hubs?
I don't ask for much on the airlines: just a moderately clean airplane with a minimum of hassle. Sadly, it appears even that is too much to ask these days.