No...it was not.

Part of the "service" is the product offered. Its not just "customer" service.

If you want to get from Topeka to Rochester...you cannot do it without using a network carrier.

That is a service. And it is a service that carries a cost. A cost that ensures that a network carrier will never be able to compete with a low cost carrier in individual markets.

The mismanagement here is that the airlines fail miserably to make and market this point...and fail miserably at passing this cost through to tickets...especially low end super saver tickets...which in many cases involve carrying the passenger farther out of his/her way to get to the final destination.