To demonstrate how airline service has changed, Gerchick offers the story of Midwest Airlines, a carrier with the proud slogan "the best care in the air." For 25 years, the airline baked chocolate chip cookies on board and every passenger got two free. However, the airline merged with Frontier in 2010, and the new CEO decided that the cookies had to go. "It was determined that the cookie did not align with either the perception or the financial reality of a low-cost carrier," a company spokesperson said, as quoted by Gerchick. Competition was also a factor, said the spokesperson, who noted, "We were the only [similar] airline offering a free perishable snack."
