I don't think so. I think that they would have added the route anyway just to show Airtran who running MKE. It's a "who's your daddy" kinda thing:D

We'll have to see if Airtran will continue its nonstops next May when it's time to resume them again.

Also, will NW still be flying this route next May? They've got some great fares right now, which I suspect are introductory.

Not necessarily, and depending upon the fare booked with Midwest they might even make out on the deal.

But at the same time Midwest must have seen the writing on the wall and still chose to entice customers with unreasonably low prices (e.g. for us $217-247 for MSP-STL), only to turn around & dump them. All of our tickets were purchased < 50 days before the route cancellations were announced. If YX had any inkling of the what was to come (and I believe they've been planning it for quite some time), they should have canned those fare sales. Most consumers won't have our prespective, rather they've been deceived and defrauded.

A big question now may be whether or not YX has sufficiently liquidity to pay out all the refunds.

Interesting note:

RT MKE-LAX on NW nonstop, Tue-Tue ......... $257.50 total
RT MKE-DTW " " " ............. same dates ...... $403.50 "

MKE-LAX not listed as promo fare.

Tried inputting different months from September thru February, with same results.

I think it is time for Tim Hoeksama to put on his straw hat and do a dancing number. We do need a couple new verses -

Save the Cookie-

Sung to the tune, "'Ya got Trouble" from the Music Man

People:
Trouble, oh we got trouble,
Right here in Old Milwaukee!
With a capital "A"
and a capital "T"
And that stands for Air Tran,
We've surely got trouble!
Right here in Old Milwaukee,
Right here!
Gotta figger out a way
To keep the young ones enjoying the cookie!
Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble...

"Professor" Tim Hoeksaema:
Mothers of Old Milwaukee!
Heed the warning before it's too late!
Watch for the tell-tale sign of low-cost carriers!
The moment your son leaves the house,
Does he check Air Tran fares to Florida?
Does he look for low fares for spring break?
or to other southern destinations?
Is he starting to memorize snappy,
Air Tran commercials?
Are certain words creeping into his conversation?
Words like low-cost"
And 'bargain fares?"
Well, if so my friends,
Ya got trouble,
Right here in Old Milwaukee!
With a capital "A"
And a capital "T"
And that stands for Air Tran.
We've surely got trouble!
Right here in Old Milwaukee!
Remember the Maine, Plymouth Rock and the Golden Rule!
Oh, we've got trouble.
We're in terrible, terrible trouble.
That airline with low fares is a devil's tool!
Oh yes we got trouble, trouble, trouble!
With a "A"! Gotta say it with "T"!
And that stands for Air Tran!!!

What happened to Mike Brophy?
 

Has anyone seen or heard from Mike Brophy in the past week? Randy Smith seems to be handling all the media communications these days.

Even under routine circumstances, airlines do not know several weeks before announcement that a city will be dropped. Every passenger already booked to a discontinued city costs the company money to handle and brings in zero revenue.

In this particular very-non-routine case, the terms of a renegotiated Skywest contract...including negotiation to reduce the number of CRJ aircraft in the fleet...likely was finalized very recently. And at THAT point when they knew they'd be down to 11 CRJs to schedule, then they worked the schedule and made the decisions on what to drop and what to keep.

I have made the the same observation over tha past 3 or 4 days. However, I did see Brophy do a television interview over the weekend...it looked like he was interviewed in front of his home. His name still appears in the YX press releases, as the primary contact, with Smith as the secondary contact.

One solution for Milwaukee based travelers is obvious- switch all your allegiance to Northwest. DTW and MSP are both excellent hubs. Norhtwest has an excellent elite call center.

Heck, at least with Northwest as a higher tier elite you have chance at an upgrade to first.

He's been quoted in a few articles recently...but not many.

Now that the impact of the cuts have sunk in, it's time for Midwest to put on a full court press IMO. Hoeksema himself should make appearances on all the the television and radio "news" programs as well as make himself available to the Journal Sentinel. We all know Brophy is not up to the challenge.

Was Brophy really interviewed in front of his house? That would have been pretty funny to see. The media is treating him like he's a criminal or something. I'm guessing there was no stake-out at Hoeksema's house.

I suspect Brophy's desk may be moving closer to the door. He just doesn't perform well in front of the media and portrays a bad image. This was his first major test since taking the job and he has failed miserably.

I agree with you, as far as Hoeksema being more visible; he presents a very calm, assuring image for the company.

The Brophy interview was over the weekend, but I don't recall if it was Saturday or Sunday. It was obviously a residential setting, though no house was in camera range, just a nicely manicured lawn. It did not look like the YX campus.

Brophy was in casual attire, something like a plum-colored golf shirt.

Nice rationalization but it doesn't get them off the hook. There were rumblings of schedule changes and dropped routes weeks/months ahead of Friday's announcements. If they're not fully committed to providing their product, they shouldn't be holding sales to pimp their business.

I do not understand YX deciding to refund. In the current environment isn't cash king? Customer service issues aside, from a cold numbers standpoint, shouldn't they want to let as little cash leave as possible?