Capitalism is the dominant political and economic doctrine around the globe, but it is imperfect. Capitalism is about the accumulation of wealth and for corporations this means the “Great Profits Chase”. Nothing inherently evil in that, provided it is not pursued with religious zeal to the exclusion of other considerations, such as employees, trading partners and customers.

In theory, what is good for customers helps to retain their patronage and therefore ongoing sales and profits, so there is no conflict. In reality, companies take many decisions for the glory of the Great Profits Chase which are contrary to customer interests. 

Take the banking crisis. The banks took on huge risks, beyond even their own understanding, to increase profits for shareholders. These risks also put in jeopardy the cash deposits of ordinary savers (both individual and corporate) who, but for the public bail out, would have lost their money. The return on those savings was always modest, matched to the perceived (not actual) risk. Customers were ripped off and shareholders benefited.

Turning to travel there is regulation to protect our physical safety both in the air and in the hotels which provide a minimum standard. Outside of that, there is more freedom and examples of profit-chasing souring the customer experience. Some of these include...

Baggage: Remember to add it when you book or pay even more later; check the allowance; weigh the suitcases before you leave home; and fear at the airport as its scales reveal a few pounds over.

Seating: Sitting with your children is clearly a luxury that can be carved out of the headline price and turned into another fiddly extra.

No flight at all: Flights booked a long time ago suddenly disappear as some magic load metric has not been met – makes sense for profits but not for the customers messed around as a consequence.

The spread of the baggage wheeze alone shows the market can get dragged down to the lowest common denominator – if airline A carves out baggage and benefits from a lower lead price, how can airline B resist following suit? 

Ultimately the consumer democracy in capitalism comes from our ability to vote with cash. Airline B only follows airline A if we make it economically advantageous for them to do so. Over time, you really do get what you pay for.

Kane Pirie is managing director of Travel Republic. Read his previous comments in the Related Articles column. Find out more about Travel Republic at www.travelrepublic.co.uk