Behold! The $11 in-flight meal. But is it worth it?

Now that airline fees are part of the furniture, we venture to the next new wrinkle in the sky. Airlines, knowing their bottom lines depend on surcharges, are learning to make those surcharges less painful by offering higher quality for them -- or, at least, pretending to.

Take Midwest Airlines. For years, it has had a reputation as having some of the best in-flight service among domestic airlines. That's not saying much these days, of course, and its most famous amenity is the just-baked, chocolate-chip cookies served toward the end of every flight, which is hardly a valuable take-home considering that up until 2001, the same flight attendants were serving full complimentary meals on china.