You mention the ticket price; in this case we paid more than $500 for round trip from San Jose to Scranton PA. I don't call that a cheap price. And another thing, UA had NO FOOD on these flights. Well, they had some scummy looking "box lunch" on the flight from San Jose, at the price of $7.00. Not cheap. Crappy looking food. Fortunately I had anticipated that and brought sandwiches for us to eat. Coming back from O'Hare to SJO, NO FOOD available. Period. $500 round trip? For THAT kind of non-service, this was NOT a cheap flight.
All that, and service with a sneer. Lovely. Hell of a way to run an airline (run it out of existence, that is.)
Fuel costs have gone through the roof -- for a round trip between two smaller cities, you got a good deal. In constant dollars (i.e. corrected for inflation) it's less than you would have paid twenty years ago (It's about $275 in 1984 dollars).
That explains why you can't get a direct flight, though. About the only way you are going to get there cheaper is to take Greyhound or FedEx yourself -- both of which will take longer, and I'm not sure about the savings in FedEx. If you do that, dress warm and pack plenty of oxygen.
As far as the food is concerned the lines can't win. If they serve food the pax bitch about quality, or more frequently these days, the portions. (The one thing your flight-from-hell is missing to be truly archetypal, is a 400 pound behemoth with terminal halitosis for a seatmate). Or those that packed their own lunch complain that they are getting ripped off because they didn't want the inflight meal "and have to pay for it anyway." (True enough). You can use the airline website to see what food service is available on each flight, although some airlines make it a hassle.
Ultimately they are selling transportation, not lunch. Did you know that due to a variety of regulations, it costs more to make those scuzzy little tray-borne airline meals, than it does to prepare a steak dinner in a restaurant? How much should the airline spend per passenger on food out of that very generous $125 per seat per leg? Should they raise the price by that amount, or take it out of maintenance?
Service with a sneer
Now, that is inexcusable. What particularly did they sneer at you about, apart from asking if you were drinking? Why did they ask that, do you think? Had you been? Did they ask everybody that complained if they were boozing?
I don't doubt that flight or cabin crew members sneered at you, understand. I've been on the receiving end of that myself. 98% of the time you can disarm the situation with a smile and a little charm. The other two percent of the time you have run into one of nature's own miserable sonsabitches having a bad day, and you do have a right (you could even say a duty) to turn him or her in to the line. Flying for an airline is a customer service job, whether you're rolling the cart in the aisle or rolling the heading bug on the flight director.
One thing crews can do in this situation is to make sure they explain the situation to the passengers. Some people forget that they are not freight pilots (indeed, one slang term for pax is "self-loading cargo" or "self-loading freight." You'll never see that one in an airline ad on TV). When you're sitting in the pit baking in the sun, remember that nothing drives Joe Public nuts more than not knowing what's going on.
Unfortunately, driven by the damn lawyers as much as anything, some lines plan to replace the flight crew PA with canned recordings and discourage the actual crew from getting on the PA. That is too retarded for words, so of course they're doing it.
It's hard to explain something like "flow control" and "ground holds" to lay people, but they should make an attempt. Because for every minute they sit there, the angry passenger is getting more angry, the timid one is getting more scared, etc.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F