It began not long ago when they came up with Blue Basic fares. That fare was the same as a fare that included a seat selection prior to the fare restructuring. It also put you last in line to get onboard, thus risking not being able to get overhead bin space. It was a passive aggressive move to get you to pay more for the next level fare. Now they are putting more pressure on people to pony up more money by eliminating the carry on in the basic fare. In time they will devise more ways of getting more money for less service. Maybe the worst thing they did to me was switch from Coke to Pepsi products!