myleguy
Jul 6, 03, 10:15 am
I needed a reasonable one-way ticket from MKE to DEN and AirTran's $109 fare beat everyone else by at least $100. I might have balked at the inconvenient routing but I wanted to try FL. I was travelling the afternoon of 7/4 so there were virtually no crowds at MKE. When I checked in , I chatted up the agent and told her I was looking forward to my flight since it was my first FL trip. She said I would enjoy it even more in business class and gave me a comp upgrade for the first segment. The flight was on the 717. The business cabin offered 3 rows of 2+2 seating. Pitch was good, maybe @ 39 inches. There were only about 25 pax on the flight. Service was friendly but the amenities were lackluster. Drinks were served in plastic cups. A snack basket was passed around with packaged pretzels, chips, and cookies. Very basic stuff. The only reason to pay to upgrade would be to enjoy some extra room. ATL-DEN: I had an exit row on this flight (also the 717) and the leg room was almost as good as in the front cabin on my previous flight. I was surprised to see this flight went out @ 75% full given that it was the night of a major holiday and FL has only been flying to DEN for a month or so. Also, this flight was a 3rd frequency which had only been added the day before. So this route must be a winner for them. After take off there was a quick beverage service with pretzels. Whole cans were passed out. After that service, a coffee service was provided. There was no other service but call buttons were quickly reponded to. The pilot made frequent announcements whenever we passed a city to call attention to the fireworks that were visible below. We arrived @ 5 minutes late. Overall, I would not hesitate to fly FL again. I can see why they are successful. I signed up for their credit-based FF program, but I was not real impressed with it since unused credits expire within a year.