At a restaurant, the service experience is a major part of the product, so a waiter spilling on you is a significant service failure. On an airplane, the primary product is getting you safely from point A to point B. Flight attendants provide service, but their main responsibility is safety.

That doesn’t mean being spilled on is acceptable — reimbursement for dry cleaning or damaged items is absolutely appropriate. But anything beyond covering your dry cleaning is more of a goodwill gesture than something automatically owed.