I wish I could say this was an abberation, but having worked for 2 airlines myself, Baldanza's attitude is more the norm, although most executives would have been a bit more careful with the reply all button. The fact is, Baldanza knows there are millions of people out there who will fly Spirit because of its cheap fares, and he feels he can afford to just blow Alex off.

But with all the tools available on the Internet, along with the increase in social media usage, situations like this can mushroom and are now giving passengers the power to call for change -- and publicize gaffes -- like never before.

I can point to clear examples that we've written and blogged about, including: the Continental flight with the sewage running down the aisles; JetBlue's Valentine's Day debacle; and the Continental passengers diverted to BWI from their original Newark flight who protested after being trapped for 5 hours on a plane that came from Venezuela.

So just keep up the pressure. Evenually the message will hit home.