Sorry, no; you might get a free drink coupon with an international itinerary but the booze is usually pay as you go.

"The cities I will be flying to the most will be LAS, PHX, LGA, PBI, LAX, YVR."

If you prefer non-stops, you may want to consider Southwest. As of last year (when I last checked), they offered the only non-stops to LAS & LAX. They also have ~1/3 of the flight traffic out of MCI and the most variety of non-stop destinations. I realize this doesn't cover your desired benefits #2 & #3, but it is very strong with #1 & #4.

AA is great. But do you really want to change planes in Chicago in the winter, or Dallas during the stormy summer, if you get take an on-time non-stop flight?

Overall, the staff at all the airlines @ MCI are friendly and helpful. I have a positive experience story for each of CO, AA, Southwest, & Midwest. It goes with the location and the low-stress feel of the airport.

While I personally have nothing against Southwest, I'm not the most excited about flying them again (I used to and they were fine) I really value early boarding, F cabin, A strong FF program, can't stand Rapid rewards. I'm looking for a major out of MCI to compliment my current NW status. Then again, Southwest is profitable!!

I'm based in MCI....
 

CO used to be my primary, but I dumped 'em for NWA because of their new elite qualification rules. Most of my destinations are multi-segment trips anyway, and I'd much rather ride in F on a DC-9 than anywhere on Barbie's Dream Jet.

AA is my secondary, but only because you have to pick SOMEONE to fly when you can't get your preferred carrier to book you. I don't like AA generally because I always end up going through ORD, and I've yet to connect without a minimum 2 hour delay -- often times it's 4-8 hours and missed connections with AA. I've blown MCI-DTW-BUF and returned in reverse every week for the past 18 months, and only been delayed more than 30 minutes two or three times. (Staying in the A concourse in DTW certainly helps a lot with that).

Good luck, and welcome to the heartland!

As a lowly AA Plat, do you think I'll have a decent shot at using my 500 mile electronic upgrades to cities such as PBI, LGA, LAX, PHX? Just curious.....

Any takers?

You should have reasonable success, except that there is a pretty good-sized group of AA travelers/elite travelers in MCI (after all, they took over TW and still operate the maintenance base here--in the day, imagine the 747s going into the maintenance hangar). That said, AA is probably your better choice:

ORD and DFW nonstops
partnership with Midwest
STL will be an option as ORD and DFW get congested
not bankrupt

Also, don't knock Midwest--it is such a tranquil experience compared with any of the majors! No worries about upgrades, no fuss with luggage (remember 20% fewer people per plane means plenty of overhead space).

Enjoy Kansas City--it's a great place to live. Wish I was back there!

As a Plat, I nearly always got my MCI-DFW and MCI-ORD upgrades when I wanted them. As a Lifetime Gold, I still have decent luck getting them. I upgrade ORD-MCI every chance I get: that flight always seems to sit at the gate or on the taxiway for a long time - no matter when I'm on it or what the weather is like! :eek:

I just finished an R/T on Southwest this weekend. To/from Seattle...hey, I figured cattle car is better than a connection in ORD, right? Well, it was okay - my 2nd WN trip in the past ten years or so. Key lesson: you hafta, hafta, hafta check in online when you wake up in the morning. If your flight is butt-early, consider staying up til 12:01AM to check in. I got to SEA today at 11:30AM for the 1:45PM nonstop to MCI: boarding group B. Counter check-in agent said she didn't print a single A card - they were all gone to online check-ins. (Other than that, the flights were on-time with no problems.)

I figure AA will stay my primary carrier, but I will mix in 3-4 R/T's a year on WN: just enough to hit 16 credits (throw in a hotel/car credit here and there). For MCI-West Coast, it's hard to ignore those nonstops...

I'm curious.....Why don't more people conect at STL instead of DWF or ORD? I rarely hear STL come up in most peoples connections.....

AA does not fly MCI-STL. :( Southwest, Amtrak, Greyhound, and Your Car are your choices if you want to get to STL. (This leads to some humorous results when you try to price MCI-STL using various search engines.)