<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by mbluecpa:
I can't pinpoint the exact changeover date, but I'm pretty sure it was Feb. or March. The service was downgraded from DC9 (100 seats) on NW to ARJ (69 seats) with NW/Mesaba. In my experience, the larger planes usually went out with pretty lousy load factors.
Hmmm... maybe I came in and out at the right times, but I've always seen the DC9's pretty full.
Good news (for elites at least) is that the ARJ has 16 seats in F and much better seat pitch throughout.
Well, my flights on the ARJ weren't too bad, even though I was in the back of the bus.
As of September 1, NW/Express Airlines I is adding a 50 passenger CRJ mid-afternoon from BTR-MEM.
Any idea of when that flight is? I didn't see it on some sample flights I was looking for from MSP-MEM-BTR. Orbitz has this nasty habit of wanting to show me the overnight layovers first.
As far as large jet service to our fair city, I'm not holding my breath. A couple of DL's flights have been downgraded to Comair CRJs and CO is VERY slow to switch those horrible ATRs to regional jets. CO is, however, adding a 737 in August or September for a morning departure to IAH and evening return.</font>
That will be interesting... FWIW, the problems I've had with CO in the past (and I've had many of them!) have had to do with the baggage transfer from the mainline terminal to the RJ terminal in IAH.
I may have to ask this on the AA forum, but any word on how well the BTR-ORD has done for AA? Given NW decision to drop the DC9's, it makes choosing between NW, DL and AA into BTR a little more difficult (US doesn't count for me because their prices for a RT never come out to less than $600, no matter when I look!).
Thanks for the response!