Newsflash: Airlines suck.

NYTimes article about the rise of "elite" airline passengers - eg, people with enough cash to pay for things such as "customer service".

There are even discussions about whether to begin charging passengers for checking in luggage or advance seat assignments; card-carrying elites would most likely be exempt from those fees.

...yeah. That's clear evidence that the airlines fully understand that they have a monopoly on travel - if you want to ever go anywhere other than "home", you're going to fly, and they will exploit that shamelessly.