I worked for Midwest Express until the end. Yes, people loved the cookies and meals and the seats. But then loved low fares more. Enough people wouldn't even pay an extra $25 for the wide seats given a choice on a flight like MKE-DCA. But, alas, YX could not complete mainly because it didn't know how. Our VP of Customer Service had not flown another airline in nearly 20 years. I remember when the combination of NW and TPG bought the company... supposed to be synergies with NW as a lot of cost savings (then they bought DL and lost interest). One of the first things (which may have actually pre-dated the ownership) was codeshare from LAX/SFO/SEA. I recall one particular meeting where marketing was trying to determine how do we direct connecting passengers over to NW at those transfer points.... their idea was having the flight attendants come through the aisle and hand out glossy brochures with detailed instructions on getting to the NW gates. I laughed as did my boss. We said, you know what Northwest will do, if anything? I had a copy of a WorldTraveler magazine in my office... I went and got it... opened to the airport terminal diagrams... and pointed to LAX where there were gates for a dozen codeshare partners noted with little dots/colors. I said, we will get a mention in this little box. They had no idea, because nobody there had ever worked anywhere else or knew anything outside of the insular company. It was their downfall. They also believed in holding for connecting passengers at MKE no matter what. We used to cheer when we had a 35% on time for the day.

The UA cutting of meals on key routes like ORD-DEN and such is really disappointing. I'm never on that leg unless it's a double-connect, which means I probably didn't have time for food other than a quick loop through a UC. I'd rather have the meal, for what it's worth, on UA than most of what I can get quickly to go in the airport.