Have you seen the American Airline TV commercials where they have real passengers say how much money they spent to fly on American Airlines? I think that this is misguided. American is not a low cost carrier. They can't have the cheapest flights. Why oh why are they trying to set themselves up as a cost competitor?

American has been successful with their campaign advertising their increased legroom in coach class. I know that I for one have switched to American because of it. I have four or five airlines to choose from on one of my frequent routes. I switched to American for the legroom. It's a short flight so it's probably worth about $20 in fare premium to me. If the flight were longer say more than two hours I would pay even more over competing carriers.

The point is that increasing the quality of the experience - comfort, speed, convenience even delight increases the bottom line. All flying experiences being the same, crappy, people will race to the lowest cost provider. Those airlines who can consistently raise the quality of the traveling experience can quickly raise the bottom line.

The key is thinking big and making radical paradigm shifting changes that truly differentiate one airline experience from another.

It's gonna be a great future.