A 'Fight Club' meme slamming United captures a disturbing truth about airlines and people who fly coach
The strong reactions United is facing from the public - which has resulted in its share price tanking and many calling for a boycott of the brand on Twitter- illustrates growing resentment between airlines and customers as they pare down the experience for economy passengers.
Flying coach often is an unenjoyable experience, between cramped legroom and increased carry-on restrictions. But there's also a simple economic reason why flying coach may feel worse than ever.
Coach flyers are often infrequent, and they are much less meaningful to an airline's bottom line than higher-paying customers.
At United, for example, 85% of customers fly less than once a year and they account for close to 50% of revenue, United president Scott Kirby told analysts in October. These numbers are similar at other airlines, like American.
This means that just 15% of United's customers - essentially everyone not flying coach - account for half of its income.
A large chunk of the remaining revenue comes from a small group of frequent business flyers who pay full price premium or economy cabin fares.
As a result, airlines have added perks to premium cabins while they've pared down in coach.
For example, Delta now offers bargain hunters a low-cost offering called Basic Economy which does not allow customers to pre-select seats or make changes to their itineraries.
Both United and American Airlines have introduced a low-cost basic economy fare class, which does not allow passengers to bring carry-on items for the overhead bin.
The strategy seems to be paying off monetarily - United Airlines reported a profit of $965 million with pre-tax earnings of $1.5 billion for the third quarter of 2016.
But it may also be leaving the majority of customers feeling more jaded than ever.