Two things.

(1) These are not the same cookies which were served originally. Back in the old Midwest Express days, more than once I was on a flight with inoperative ovens, and that meant no cookies warm nor cold. These new are designed to be served either warmed or not warmed. More than a year ago they tested these, and they were described internally as "the cookie of the future" which could be served either way.

(2) Hanging your hat on, essentially, "that's how they originally intended, and so anything different is unacceptable" is just not realistic. Many things changed over the years with the original Midwest Express through the 80's and 90's.

As for the history of the cookies themselves, Midwest Express pre-dates them -- they were not a day-one item. For many years they were not on all flights after 10:00am, but were only served as dessert on flights where lunch was served, not on dinner flights nor on shorter snack flights like CLE-MKE. And in the early years they were smaller, messier things served from a passed basket. Later, when they introduced the FRJ, they had a notiorius problem getting the cookies "right" for quite a while.

Are the warmed ones better? You bet they are. Will all mainline flights have warmed cookies? That's the plan. Would it be better, overall, to not have cookies at all if they are not warmed? Not by a long shot.

22 minutes at 3:30 this afternoon.

Delta's little Frankenstein monster.

Fortunately, all but one of those flights are award travel. Once those are gone, I'll happily return to the C concourse.

The only reason we bought tickets was a $50.00 service recovery voucher.

The customer service experience on C is so much better. The Best Care in the Air should begin with the Best Care on the ground.

Call Center wait times fail miserably

It's a whole different animal now...Midwest is done, along with their old advertising slogans.

It certainly is a Whole Different Animal, gone from bad to worse.

IIRC, when Bedford made the branding announcement, two things would remain, The Best Care in the Air, and The cookies.

Can you really say with a straight face that things have gone from "bad to worse?"

Besides the issues with the call center (which certainly is a problem and does need to be addressed) many things have improved from a customer standpoint since Republic began consolidating Midwest/Frontier. They include restored destinations, increased flight options, enhanced frequent flier benefits, better catering, in-flight entertainment, etc.

As a side note, the issues you are experiencing with the call center were occurring prior to the cutbacks in 2008. I remember one particular time back in 2006 when I waited over two hours to speak with an agent. This was during the summer when there were no major disruptions due to weather or schedule changes.

Yep. Call Center wait times have always been an issue. One reason I always went through Fox World Travel when booking on YX then. Bypass the call centers particularly during irrops.

I have noticed that http://twitter.com/midwestairlines and http://twitter.com/flyfrontier very often provide timely assistance. The only problem is that it appears they do not monitor Twitter all of the time. It's too bad that more effort is not placed into handling immediate concerns this way, as many other carriers are now attempting.

Apparently, Frontier/formerly Midwest does not think the call center problem is serious enough to warrant any kind of changes.

Customer service really needs to be given a higher priority.

Not to mention, the disappearing seat assignment issue when finally reaching an agent regarding your schedule change.

As Blue mentioned, the call center was always a problem. It hit rock bottom in 2008. It's now 2010, with a new owner, and it is reminiscent of 2008.

I welcomed Frontier with open arms, and was hoping for more from them.

Unfortunately, the response is just the opposite.

You wouldn't want me to say more worse? Would you Blue?

As you well know, I've always respected your input and considered you to be among the most reliable contributors to FT.

You've been out of the Midwest "loop" for several months now, due to your impending departure. Those of us having to deal with the call center in the past weeks can better realize just how bad it is getting.

It's certainly not getting any better, one of the things I had been hoping for.

As long as I am on this soapbox, that reminds me of one thing an agent suggested I do with regard to my reservation "check with Frontier". By the time I heard that, my blood was already boiling.

I'm not trying to diminish the problems you and others have experienced the last few years. My blood would probably be boiling too if I had to deal with all of the problems that have occurred in recent years. Fortunately, I was not adversely impacted by the nightmare caused by the flight reductions in 2008 and the on-going issues with the call center.

Part of the problem with the call center has less to do with staffing levels and more to do with the constant schedule changes Frontier makes. I actually brought this problem up with someone from Midwest the day the brand announcement was made and was assured that steps were being taken regarding how schedule changes are handled. The goal was to ensure that no action would be needed on the part of the customer when minor tweaking is done (such as when a departure time is changes by 5 minutes). Obviously this is not happening and there's really no good excuse for why steps haven't been taken to address this problem.

The point I was trying to make was that that Republic purchased an airline that was on life support and has done a decent job in improving the customer experience when you consider all factors. There's still significant work that needs to be done but things have certainly improved since last summer.

No Wait at AirTran
 

I had the opportunity to call AirTran yesterday, regarding an upcoming reservation.

After going through the prompts, I was connected directly with a CSR. No wait involved.

Will Frontier ever be able to deliver this level of Customer Service?

Was this the elite line or the regular customer service number?

Regular number, 800-AirTran. I wouldn't consider a Friday at 6PM off peak either.