Ask the pilot: Has American stepped over the line with its baggage fee? Plus: What customers seem …

"What is it about Southwest Airlines," I asked in this column a week ago, "that makes it such a perennial crowd pleaser?" Days earlier, Southwest had finished a solid first place in a University of Michigan airline satisfaction survey.

I proposed a simple answer: "People don't expect much. Southwest Airlines is nothing if not unpretentious," I wrote, "having mastered the art of… » Full Story on Salon.com