I hear ya... most airlines do not have the foggiest concept of customer service these days.
A few weeks ago, I flew out to Hong Kong on Northwest (which I shall henceforth refer to as "Northworst"). The flight required a change of planes in Tokyo, although it was still the same flight number. We were delayed 2 hours in New York, but I figured "oh, they'll hold the plane in Tokyo because it's the same flight and the layover was 2 hours anyway." Right? WRONG! About 200 of us got stuck overnight in an awful hotel in Tokyo. We got dinner and breakfast buffets, but the stuff on the buffet was American food - yep, I flew 8000 miles to eat roast chicken.
And there were so few outside lines available to the hotel that it was 2 hours before I could call my husband.
(Which is the hotel's fault, not the airline's, but still...)
The only good thing that came out of that experience was that I was rebooked on Cathay Pacific. Next time I go to Asia I'm flying Cathay Pacific. More leg room, individual monitors with a choice of movies, and they even got me a kosher meal on short notice
("We require 48 hours advance notice" my ass!)