Midwest Airlines Midwest Miles (Pre-Alignment) - How we doin' ?

I used to fly into/out of MKE a lot and would always fly MidWest Express. It's been about three years now and I've always wanted to read some threads and see how things are with my once favorite airline.

For those of you still frequent the skies with MidWest, how are things with the airline and it's service ?

I'd always get off a flight with them with a smile on face, feeling fresh and ready to go, plus the cookie - come'on how can you hate the cookie :)

I miss those comfortable seats in the sky -

They still have the cookie, so they wont disappoint you there...Although, there is a question as to whether it will be warm or not...I was surprised the other day to be on a E190 and get a cold cookie...I didnt realize that the E190's didnt have ovens.

From 3 years ago, there has been quite the change...seating on the planes will be completely different from what you remember, the schedule and cities served is completely different, and depending on how much of your experience on the plane was because of the F/A's then you could think that is different...To be honest, over the last year I thought I got very very similar service between Midwest F/A's and Republic F/A's.

They still have the cookie, so they wont disappoint you there...Although, there is a question as to whether it will be warm or not...I was surprised the other day to be on a E190 and get a cold cookie...I didnt realize that the E190's didnt have ovens.

From 3 years ago, there has been quite the change...seating on the planes will be completely different from what you remember, the schedule and cities served is completely different, and depending on how much of your experience on the plane was because of the F/A's then you could think that is different...To be honest, over the last year I thought I got very very similar service between Midwest F/A's and Republic F/A's.

This is terrible to hear, I used and still tell people to fly Midwest.

The FA's were amazing.... in the many flights I had I never encountered a bad one and a few I got to know really well.

The seating was great... big comfortable seats that even if stuck in the back you still felt like you were flying 1st class.

The story of this airline always stuck with me that even with it's then expanded routes and fleet the airline never seemed to stray away from it's original core values.

Midwest has turned into a full fledged LCC. Some argue they are no different than AirTran these days. AirTran argues Midwest is a former shell of what it use to be and it masquerades as a real airline when in fact it is in name only... A virtual airline. Republic doesn't deny that Midwest is a virtual airline. In fact they are quite proud of it. We are all sitting here waiting to see where Bryan Bedford intends to take Midwest. Personally, I still prefer Midwest over AirTran. Especially when it comes to their cramped 717's for a long legged guy like me. :)

The seating was great... big comfortable seats that even if stuck in the back you still felt like you were flying 1st class.

The story of this airline always stuck with me that even with it's then expanded routes and fleet the airline never seemed to stray away from it's original core values.

The financials to support the experience that you had crumbled with the events of 9/11 and then the oil prices of a couple of years ago...The fleet in place was unable to support what you experienced...First was the dumping of business class throughout the plane to a 2 tiered seating (Signature and Saver were the terms)...then the MD-80's had to go because they were way to inefficient, which cut back on the cities that could be served direct out of Milwaukee...Then finally the 717's were cleared out with the Midwest staff (Pilots and F/A's)...There are still signature seats available (those nice wide seats that you liked) for purchase on the E190's...Everything is operated by Republic (or Frontier if it is a Midwest flight on an Airbus) now...I have been fairly happy with the Republic staff that I have run into and the ground service at the non-hub cities has been really good for me as well.

It actually depends on where you go. I fly to TPA, LAS and OMA on YX frequently. the service changes have been most dramatic on the flights with Signature seating. However, if you have flown mostly in the saver seats, I think you have been upgraded. The seating on the 170-190 aircraft is better in coach. The seats seem to be a tad wider than the 717 2X3 seating.

I have found no difference in flight attendant attitude or ability. The cockpit crew looks mature and professional. Cookies have been cold because of the lack of ovens, but that could change. the BOB was still tasty.

Watch this PBS investigation and you will understand the changes at Midwest.


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/flyingcheap/