From Arlene Fleming,
Your Guide to Air Travel.
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So what happened?

US Airways declared bankruptcy. In an effort to reduce costs and return to profitability, they enacted a massive change in ticketing policy.

US Airways decided to rid itself of policies that served as an advantage over low-cost carriers. It decided to make less expensive tickets the least attractive by removing the ability to hold onto a non-refundable ticket and use it as a credit for future travel. Passengers must change tickets in advance if they are not using the original dates and times booked for or lose the entire value of the ticket. And passengers now pay to standby for a different flight on the day that they are booked to travel on.

One supposes that the rationale behind such policy changes is to encourage passengers to purchase more expensive tickets and to keep passengers from making changes to less expensive tickets. However, with new restrictions, the question seems to be why would passengers choose a scheduled carrier over a low-cost or charter airline when they have removed some of the benefits of traveling on them - namely, being able to use an unused ticket as a credit towards unspecified future travel and being able to standby for other flights on the day that a passenger is booked to travel.

And then American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, Northwest Airlines, and United Airlines decided to follow US Airways' policy trend.