I understand and sympathize with people who have to go through the hassle and potential additional cost of getting a replacement flight. It's a pain, and I can't blame them at being upset.

However what I don't understand is the level of anger primarily from participants here who don't even face travel plan disruptions. For those holding a reservation in an applicable market, of course it's a big deal if their flight or city got cut. But the overall flight reductions are not as catestrophic as some predicted.

We knew the M80 was planned to leave the fleet, but half of the M80 markets are retaining some nonstop service. Only one of the dropped M80 markets was a year-round market:

M80 current year-round markets
MKE-LAX dropped
MKE-MCO retained seasonally
MKE-TPA retained
MKE-PHX retained
MKE-LAS retained
MCI-SFO retained

M80 current seasonal markets
MKE-FLL dropped
MKE-RSW dropped
MKE-SEA dropped
MKE-SFO dropped

Certainly the continuing markets will see fewer seats and in some cases fewer flights. But cutting back on leisure markets in the current environment is hardly unique to Midwest.

Beyond the M80's, nearly all the cuts at MKE came from reduced CRJ flying. And about half of those CRJ were cuts in feeder markets (either market drops or flight reductions.)

I don't think the September 8th cuts are nearly as bad as they might have been for MKE. Omitting the feeder markets like ATW, eighteen markets have no change to their frequency, and three more lost a single trip. Where Midwest is cutting back most...to Florida, Vegas, LAX and seasonal SFO/SEA, AirTran will likely still fly nonstop. The biggest losses for Milwaukee that nobody is likely to backfill are Hartford, Raleigh and Louisville.