I would argue that there is _effectively_ lack of competition in the airline industry, (at least in the US):
- there are ~ 6 major airlines for a country of 320 million people. In Europe, there are many more (all the national carriers, plus lots of low-cost airlines)
- where are the low-cost carriers (like EasyJet or RyanAir)?
JetBlue or SouthWest are not really low cost, they just have marginally better service than the old guard.
- customers are treated like dirt. Not just the ever-smaller seats and lack of any free food on domestic flights. It is even worse than that - they can change the agreed-on contract at any time, example: I paid extra $$ for a non-stop ticket LAX-BOS in June. A few days ago, I received an email form the airline apologizing for changing my ticket to a non-direct flight (which will take 3-4 hours longer), but there is no mention of any refund whatsoever.
- there are ~ 6 major airlines for a country of 320 million people. In Europe, there are many more (all the national carriers, plus lots of low-cost airlines)
- where are the low-cost carriers (like EasyJet or RyanAir)? JetBlue or SouthWest are not really low cost, they just have marginally better service than the old guard.
- customers are treated like dirt. Not just the ever-smaller seats and lack of any free food on domestic flights. It is even worse than that - they can change the agreed-on contract at any time, example: I paid extra $$ for a non-stop ticket LAX-BOS in June. A few days ago, I received an email form the airline apologizing for changing my ticket to a non-direct flight (which will take 3-4 hours longer), but there is no mention of any refund whatsoever.