spstx

Will be taking my first flight on Midwest next week. What would you compare them with? Also, do they have any partner airlines or must all miles be credited to their mileage program?

Thanks

Tim34

Are you flying on a 717, E170 or a CRJ?

Midwest is a great airline. The vast majority of my experiences have been positive. But their product does differ depending on which plane type you are flying on.

They do serve warm cookies if you are in to that kind of thing. The flight attendants are very nice. Midwest is not Virgin America or Jetblue so don't expect TVs or anything like that. But you should enjoy your experience.

newsmanhoss

Tim, you have mellowed over the years. Your assessment of Midwest has become much more objective. Must be the crisp clear waters of the west coast that helped you see the light. Boy, you make me proud.

Yeah, if it's a crj, not much differentiation other than the cookies and easier connections in mke. 717s are decent. e170s are excellent in my view.

knope2001

Midwest is partnered with Northwest WorldPerks, and flying on Midwest can earn miles (including elite qualifying miles / segments) on Northwest or on Midwest. The program will be expanded to Delta's SkyMiles, but as of this moment if you have a Delta FF membership but not Northwest FF membership, a Midwest flight can't earn Delta miles. That will change soon, but not yet.

If you're on the 717, the regular 2x3 seating is decent and has pretty good legroom. There's also a large section of wide 2x2 seats which can be purchased for an upgrade fee of $20, $35 or $50 per segment.

If you're on the E-170, the seating is comparably comfortable by virtue of the aircraft type. Seating is no different than other airlines E-jets, which means it is notably above average (in the opinion of many)

If you're on the CRJ, you'll find it's no different than other airlines, meaning it is nothing special and increasingly uncomfortable beyond about 1 or 1.5 hours.

Nearly all 717 flights and some of the longest E170 flights have buy-onboard meals, "Best Care Cuisine". It's a better buy-onboard coach meal than most airlines serve, and definitely not the junk food pack box some airlines sell as a meal. On some other E170 and CRJ flights they instead sell Best Care Cafe snack items. Here's the current menu:

http://www.midwestairlines.com/About...e/Cuisine.aspx

The cookies that Tim34 mentioned are on all flights departing after 10:30 am longer than about 60 minutes.

tekelberry

It should be noted, however, that if you have a DL frequent flyer account, you can simply open a NW frequent flyer account, earn miles through NW, link your NW and DL accounts, and transfer the miles between the two. But, knope is right, there is no direct way to earn miles on DL by flying YX (or vice-versa) at the present time.

knope2001

Duh...I didn't think of that!

newsmanhoss

Direct earning of mileage between YX and DL will begin later this year.

http://www.jsonline.com/business/40878042.html

knope2001

A couple of other things from that story:

(1) The code share between YX and NW will indeed be expanded to YX and DL.

(2) Midwest is moving from the Humphrey to the Lindbergh terminal in about two months. That will make YX to/from DL-NW connections easier.

(3) Midwest's reciprocity with Best Care Club and the former WorldClubs is expanded to include all DL+NW clubs (the new Sky Clubs).

(4) The MKE market share quoted is not correct. The MKE monthly stats are calculated wrong, using the wrong denominator, apparently. If you add up the market share of all airlines it should come to 100% (of course) but it instead comes out to about 81.6%

The real market share for January at MKE
34.3% Midwest
23.7% Delta (with NW)
18.6% AirTran

And on the subject of MKE and January, here's the average onboard load by aircraft type for Midwest:

62.9% 717
52.6% E170
43.7% CRJ

January is invariably the weakest month of the year, and these onboard loads are likewise as bad as they are likely to be all year. In recent years Midwest had a lot of M80's to sun markets which overshadowed weak business markets. These numbers look like Midwest did in the later 90's and early 00's when January was reliably about 50-55% for Midwest and in the 30's for Skyway.

flyYX

The link is dead for me and I can't find the story on JSOnline website.

knope2001

It seems to have been pulled from jsonline. I had e-mailed Tom Daykin that the numbers from the MKE website were wrong, so maybe he got it pulled back to correct it?

wboll

Midwest was a great airline, now it is just like most

RSVP

Midwest is just another airline. Unfortunately, it lost much of its luster in the past few years.

MKE 1K

Should say that Midwest is another airline but it is downsizing faster than other airlines. Got to love those regional jets.

spstx

Thanks for the info guys. I've suffered through all the rest domestic airlines. It sounds like Midwest may actually be a little better

newsmanhoss

If you're so inclined, please provide us a trip report after your travel. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on the product.