Continue to fly YX?
 

Although I feel really bad for the employees of Midwest Airlines, I am having a hard time convincing myself to continue to fly them. With only 15% of seats being "Signature Service" starting in October, a lot of RJ routes and the cutbacks in cities served, my loyalty is definitely waning. I have booked several trips on other airlines between now and the end of year and may not make MME again. I wish YX the best of luck, it appears they will need it.

Well, that's one more Signature seat for me then....

Seriously, have you seen a reduction in quality of service? on time arrivals? incidents?

And by the way.. the Signature ratio on a 717 is 40 Signature Seats and 59 Saver. (41% Signature according to my calculations)

I don't believe that YX has done anything to lose my loyalty and I will continue to fly them exclusively when I go up to MKE.

The 15% number was referenced in a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, which factors in all YX flying, including Skywest and the upcoming Republic E170s. Much of the mainline flying was either dropped (due to the retirement of the MD-80s) or is being transitioned to the E170s, which will not have Signature seating. The remaining signature seating on the 717s will only account for 15% of all the seats being offered by Midwest come October.

Are you prepared to fly an E170 WITHOUT signature seats?

The E170 is certainly not the 717, but it is still a very comfortable plane to fly on nonetheless. In fact, I prefer the E170 over the 737 and some A319/A320 series. Plus, you still have the 2x2 seating.

The decision is of course a personal one based on your flying patterns and destinations, corporate contracts (if you primarily fly business), and similar questions.

Generally people, of course, tend to focus on a single carrier or two to accumulate miles in just a few programs and achieve elite status. Assuming you're in MKE, should you still fly on Midwest? Let's look at a couple key items with Midwest:

(a) Certainly Midwest will have fewer flights with Signature seats, and now an upgrade fee will be necessary for get the larger seat on flights where they have them. However most other airlines at MKE don't have premium seats on most (or any) of their MKE flights. And the two which do have premium seats...AirTran and Northwest...charge more to upgrade than Midwest does. Midwest will no longer offer a premium seat for free, but that change does not make them worse than the competition, does it?

(b) Midwest has definitely dropped some destinations, but they still fly nonstop year-round to far more destinations from MKE than anyone else.

(c) Midwest's agreement with Northwest means that you can still earn Midwest miles if you have to fly somewhere Midwest does not, or conversly, if you prefer to earn Northwest miles you can still fly Midwest when it is advantageous. The airline with the 2nd most nonstop destinations from Mitchell -- AirTran -- does not have the same ability. If you need to fly to Hartford or Birmingham or London, for example, you cannot earn within their program.

It's certainly a personal decision based on your own circumstances. If you've sworn off Northwest, for example, then the FF partnership is not helpful to you. But in general switching to other airlines means most destinations are connecting flights, and most flights (except NW and FL) are all-coach seating.

Have you seen the amount of programs that I belong to :D:D My advice to you is to use Midwest when it is convenient and don't fly them when it is not. I may fly Midwest SEA to MKE through MCI if the price is right but I am not going to pay $700 for a ticket on Midwest vs flying another carrier for a cheaper fair. I am not stupid. They cut the only direct "year round" flight between MKE and SEA. I don't owe them anything.

Midwest did not cut a year-round flight. They had only flown that route on a seasonal basis to begin with. THe traffic on that route drops of steeply during the winter.

This is a minor point, but I believe USAirways nonstop service MKE-PHX also offers premium seating (on the former America West route) and a small portion of Delta's nonstop flights to ATL are also on mainline aircraft with premium seating.

That is not true. That route did fly November - early January. They only stopped the route for a month and a half. I would not call that a seasonal route.

I don't think I'll be flying YX again.

YX made the business decision to sell me tickets that they now won't honor and screw me over. I can't see how I can trust them with my business again.

Midwest dropped MKE-SEA during January and February of 2008. Loads on the route dropped-off a cliff from October 2007 and onwards. It's very much a seasonal route.

Before the decision was made to retire the MD80s, Midwest had planned to fly MKE-SEA from March to early September only.

This is not the total picture. Northwest has very generous upgrades for its elites for free. This may change with the Delta takeover but it is true for the moment.

I wouldn't bother choosing Midwest anymore unless their fares are cheaper than anyone else. They screwed Milwaukee and it's employees over last year by not going with AirTran. If the fares are the same as Midwest, I might even fly a different airline to thumb my nose at their management decisions.

They didn't screw me. I got more for my shares than AirTran was offering. I came out a winner.