“I hate you, and I tell everybody I hate you,” he says. “You could not pay me to get on your airline if I didn’t have to...."

True customer loyalty is defined by long-term trust that a company anticipates a customer’s needs, says James T. Kane in this New York Time's Travel Bug column. “The airlines keep trying to change your behavior rather than changing theirs,” he said. “When an airline makes a big mistake, they want to give me more miles. They don’t understand: I really don’t want to get on your plane under the conditions you’re subjecting me to. Give me good service instead.”