I don't have enough experiences. I should have qualified my lead-in statement as "domestic airlines".

After taking the Singapore flight, I did joke about flying across the US via Asia just for the better service. But (thankfully) I still have no idea how they handle problems.

I want to believe that there are still businesses that believe in customer service and doing the right thing, and not just for customers who have paid an out-of-touch price. But part of me thinks it's just a matter of time until "market efficiency" gets to them as well.

I'm not sure where the market efficiency will lead us in this case. I personally am happy to pay ~20% more to fly with a non-US carrier. However, they are making that really hard. First off availability is an issue. How many different fights leave from SFO to Tokyo Haneda (I don't like Narita) on a Friday morning? Then you have these alliances where you book one airline and it gets swapped out for a different carrier. I've in the past booked a particular flight because it was operated by Air Canada and they switched it to United(?). We were flying via Canada to avoid this and still it happened. The market is not as perfect as buying soda off a shelf. I believe that if it was ahs foreign carriers were showed domestically US carriers might be in big trouble. But maybe I underestimate how much price matters to most people.