Today’s giant airlines—as well as many smaller ones—make their business on connections. The pervasive “hub and spoke” route system means you can fly from almost anywhere in the U.S. to almost anywhere else with one stop-and-connection at a hub. My home airport, Medford, Oregon, is typical. If I want to fly to, say, New York, there won’t be a nonstop within my lifetime. But I can get from Medford to New York with one stop/connection on four different airlines: Alaska via Seattle, American via Phoenix, Delta via Salt Lake City or Seattle, and United via Denver, Los Angeles, or San Francisco….