Why are US airlines so bad? - 1

First of all, complentary food is nonexistent in coach in the US (not even on 6 hour cross country flights) while it's commonplace in other countries (example: China). The for purchase menus are also generally rubbish as well with no hot food and limited supply such that they run out of stuff quickly and passengers have to fight to be to get their orders in. Second, US carriers' planes are always in terrible shape. The plastic panels are yellowed, and badly scratched and scuffed up, seats are heavily worn and battered, and all the furnishings very dated and look like they havn't been updated in 20 years. Legroom is inferior as well. The worst legroom I've ever had on a longhaul flight was on a United on a 14 hour flight to Hong Kong with my knees literally jammed up against the seat in front (I'm not exceptionally tall). The Air Canada plane I took on the return trip was noticibily more comfortable. Lastly, don't even get me started on surly flight attendants (and ground staff) and countless stories of people getting thrown off flights (sometimes by force). US cabin crews act more like onboard police (and are granted such powers by the FAA which makes disobeying FAs a crime why I don't believe is the case anywhere slese) with service as a secondary function claiming safety to be primary (I hightly doubt US flight attendants have superior safety training to those elsewhere).

That's interesting… The scariest looking plane I have ever been on was a domestic flight within china.
I believe it was pre WWII.
And we were not served any food not even a glass of water.

So you had a bad experience with a flight attendant and now you're bashing every American flight attendant and airline? Good for you. Can't go six hours without eating a meal? Pack a lunch. Don't like the leg room in economy class? Spend more on a ticket and fly first class. I fly twice a week and have yet to encounter the horrendous conditions you suggest are commonplace.

Its all just a question of price. You want to pay as little as possible, so the facilities you get for your money are as little as possible.

It's called "price competition". There are many airlines who all want your custom, and so many people fly in the US, that it's all about price. And to cut prices, they cut back on everything else - such as not providing any food and everything else you mention. And people seem to accept it. If there were a domestic airline that charged a bit more but provided nice service and at least a snack on better-looking aircraft, I wonder if people would pay the extra for that? Would there be enough customers to keep them going? Maybe not. On the whole, people seem to accept flying buses, and while they do, things won't improve.

Elsewhere in the world, people don't fly so much so they expect something special when they do. I'm British and the size of the country generally means flying is going abroad - apart from going at least halfway across the country it's much less hassle to take a train - so we do still have British Airways and others that will do at least a bit better. I remember when morning flights from London to Edinburgh on BA included a cooked breakfast! - not any more but then the flight is only an hour. Other European airlines are pretty good. The exceptions I could mention here are easyJet which is at least vaguely reasonable, and the one to avoid like the plague - Ryanair.

Ryanair has taken the Southwest Airlines model to the extreme. Their customer service is execrable, they charge for absolutely everything that is the tiniest little bit extra than just giving you a seat, and all in all I wouldn't touch them with a ten foot barge pole. But they're incredibly popular because they're CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP! And that's why they've ended up with most of the slots at London Stansted Airport.

They won't use Heathrow because of the landing charges. Now there's an interesting point - I once went on a package tour of the Canadian Rockies, and the tour flew to Seattle and crossed the border by coach because Vancouver has much higher landing fees. Oh well, we got to see a bit of Seattle as well. This is also why Ryanair will quite happily lie to you about where they're actually flying to. For example, Frankfurt Airport is too expensive for them, so they go to Frankfurt-Hahn, which is 50 miles away.

There you go - you get what people generally will put up with.

Airlines in the USA are not being subsidized by the government.

I typically fly Delta and have not experienced what you claim about the condition of the aircraft.

US airlines compete more on price. If you want better service, fly some of the foreign airlines. They will cost a bit more though. Many of the foreign airlines have some backing by the government. That is why they can have new aircraft. Also in some parts of the world, flight attendants are considered highly respected positions. They are proud to work for the airline and will treat the passenger well because they know they can be replaced immediately. Here in the US, a flight attendant's job is not looked upon highly. While the bad ones always seem to linger in our minds longer, there are flight attendants who work on US airlines that are passionate about their job and are really friendly. Also the media tends to tell everyone whenever a flight attendant does do something wrong so people sometimes have a negative perception of flight attendants in the US.

One word: Capitalism.

Big companies, including US airlines, don't give a damn about providing better customer service, they only want to provide a minimum service, just like MacDonalds is for food, and to make bigger profits out of the money that they could use to make flying tolerable on their overstuffed planes, so as to put more money into the hands of their shareholders, IOW, the top 10% wealthy Americans.

First of all nothing is EVER "complimentary" on an airline. It's built into the ticket prices. If you want the cheapest possible tickets you don't get any food.