I’ve been wanting to write a couple of pieces on the airline industry for a few months, in particular about how small changes in airline policies have had snowball effects on the flying experience more broadly. With the sudden and shocking announcement of Spirit Airlines exiting the market for good, I decided that many of those piecewise tangents could be combined into a more coherent reflection on the industry. With that said, I believe we are ready for takeoff. Part I Spiri

Anyone around my age has plenty of childhood memories that involve Harry Potter, both the books and the movies. Unless you were there, it’s hard to imagine the lines at Borders and how quickly the books flew off the pallets—not shelves, pallets. The bookstores would stack J.K. Rowling’s latest release in giant piles on pallets in the middle of the sales floor because they needed so many and they sold so quickly. When the films were released, movie theaters were packed for wee