Midwest Airlines Sucks!

[PaulRigdon]

So explain this one to me.

 

I tried to book a flight on Midwest from Milwaukee to Vegas and it was $539 however if I fly from Minneapolis to Milwaukee then to Vegas its $271.

 

The Midwest agent I talked to said it was a special for Minneapolis travelers and that the price is based on tickets sold in Milwaukee. That makes no sense since its the SAME flight!

 

I told them I would just fly with another airline and they said thats fine and thank you.

 

Best care in the air my foot!

 

I am so done with them.

[Patrick425]

I don't really think it's an airline issue. This happens all over with all airlines. In fact, the executives with the company I work with use to book their flights through an agency in Chicago that would minipulate the situation that you are talking about above. I don't remember exactly how it worked, but I know that the agency would buy cheaper tickets with multiple "legs" to the flight. Then our people would only use one of the "legs" of the flight.

 

After 9/11, it was not possible to book flights in that manner.

[trwi7]

Best care in the air my foot!

To be fair to them you weren't actually in the air.http://static.yuku.com//domainskins/bypass/img/smileys/wink.gif

[JimH5]

I love Midwest, though they seem to have changed to using only smaller planes into Newark. Now to get on the big plane, I use Philadelphia.

 

I'm a little curious how they'll change with new ownership, but for now, I'm still a fan.

[homer]

If you think confusing pricing structures are unique to Midwest you would be mistaken. I think one needs an advanced degree in actuarial science to figure out the hub and spoke pricing system.

[Glennron]

I love Midwest, though they seem to have changed to using only smaller planes into Newark. Now to get on the big plane, I use Philadelphia.

 

I'm a little curious how they'll change with new ownership, but for now, I'm still a fan.

 

I worked at Midwest (actually Skyway) over the summer out on the ramp, and the Newark flights were absolutely ridiculous. Since they moved to the smaller planes, not once when I was working there did one of the flights go out on time because it was always booked full, plus freight always had to go out there for whatever reason. It would be out of the ordinary if it went out within 3 hours of it's supposed take-off.

 

Also I can't comment on the price thing, but whenever I flew on Midwest the flight crew was always very nice. I've heard many other people say flight attendents for Air Tran and other airlines can be you-know-whats, but that's just what I've heard.

[dadofandrew]

It's a business, and an almost impossible one to run profitably. You have every right to seek out a better fare, and most everyone does. That's why service is so poor.

[jaybird2001wi]

You think Midwest stinks? I flew Northwest Airlines and it took forever for me to board the plane. I flew from the Madison airport to a layover in Detroit for my final destination at LaGuardia in NYC.

On my way there, they said my luggage was small enough to be brought on board by myself, then security stopped me just before I entered the plane stating my bag was too big and I had to check it.

Then on the way back, the plane was late to the terminal and it took them 45 minutes to "wash the plane" and refuel. Then in Detroit, I had to sit on the runway for an hour with no movement from the plane. The flight attendants didn't make things any easier.

[endaround]

Minneaoplis-St Paul is much bigger than Milwaukee (though the Twins pretend they are the same size). Bigger city, more flights to Vegas, more competition, cheaper price.

[homer]

"Minneaoplis-St Paul is much bigger than Milwaukee (though the Twins pretend they are the same size). Bigger city, more flights to Vegas, more competition, cheaper price. "

 

And yet it was $200 cheaper for me to fly Delta direct from Milwaukee to Atlanta three weeks ago than from Chicago. Hmmmmmm......

[thablingster]

That's disappointing they weren't able to work with you.

 

I had to book a trip to Seattle today via Midwest and they worked with me very well. The lady I talked to was really nice.

[TracyThom]

So explain this one to me.

 

I tried to book a flight on Midwest from Milwaukee to Vegas and it was $539 however if I fly from Minneapolis to Milwaukee then to Vegas its $271.

Buy the ticket for $271. Print your boarding pass from home. You will receive 2 boarding passes. (One for the flight from MSP to MIL and the other for MIL to LAS) and go to Mitchell Airport and use your boarding pass for the second leg to catch the flight to Vegas. It's just like you missed your flight in MSP. That should work just fine.

[Schlitz001]

I'm with Tracy, would that not work.

[PaulRigdon]

If you miss your first flight they cancel it...trust me i asked

[JimH5]

I can confirm PaulRigdon's post. If you're not on the first leg, the rest of the ticket is cancelled. That's true of Midwest, Continental, Delta, USAir.

[endaround]

"Minneaoplis-St Paul is much bigger than Milwaukee (though the Twins pretend they are the same size). Bigger city, more flights to Vegas, more competition, cheaper price. "

 

And yet it was $200 cheaper for me to fly Delta direct from Milwaukee to Atlanta three weeks ago than from Chicago. Hmmmmmm......

Atlanta's a hub. The plane always has to fly from Milwaukee and is less likely to be full than one from Chicago.

 

[EsoxLazer]

Ive been in kind of a battle with Midwest myself. I had a flight from Milwaukee to Denver in April that went horribly wrong. First of all, they had a new plane sitting at the terminal waiting to be boarded but we ended up with nearly a 2 hour delay because the mechanics were doing a final check to ensure the safety of the plane. I'm glad they were doing the safety check but don't you think that they would have known they would be flying a new plane and done the check a bit earlier or somewhere else other than the terminal? We finally get in the air, 2 hours late, only to have what must have been 20 gallons of water come flying out of the refrigerators as the plane lifted off the ground. We got into the air and for some reason the AC was blowing full force and it was freezing cold. I was in jeans and a t-shirt and was freezing but who I really felt bad for were the kids and the lady next to me who was wearing a skirt and tank top. I know that planes are normally a bit cool but this was ridiculous. I asked our flight attendant for a blanket but was told that they did not have anymore on the plane. We finally hit the deck in Denver and a bunch of us walked up to the counter to complain about the overall terrible experience. The exact words out of the employees mouth? "You might as well get used to it if you plan on flying a lot...thats just part of air travel". I swear to God that those were her exact words.

 

I got home and e-mailed Midwest to see what they would do. I got no response so I sent off another e-mail. After 2 weeks with no reply I finally called. I got in touch with Customer Care and was told that I was wrong and that they plane was not new, had no trouble with the AC, and that since the delay was only 2 hours, that they would do nothing for me. I asked for a supervisor and was told that one would get back to me(apparently they had a serious back-up). I finally got a call back today. The man that I spoke with was extremely nice but the only thing that he offered was a membership to their "Executive Club", which I think is a lounge that I can sit in and grab some food/drinks before I get on the flight. The problem with that is that I no longer live in Milwaukee and would much rather have a partial credit towards a flight or a stand-by ticket. They gave away 2 free round trip tickets to a person who gave up their seat on our flight but the best they can do for a long time customer is to give a few drinks and a place to chill before I fly? I honestly understand the inherent problems with flights: delays, uncomfortable conditions, and sometimes rude workers are bound to happen from time to time. This was just too much in one day. I normally don't complain much about this kind of stuff but I'm starting to get sick of feeling like I have been taken advantage of. Unless people start taking a stand against this sort of thing nothing will be done to change it. If I wanted this kind of experience I would have saved myself some money and flown with Frontier or AirTran but I HATE flying and would rather pay the extra cash for comfort and piece of mind. Sorry for the extremely long story but I saw this thread and needed to get it off of my chest. If anyone has any advice on how to further pursue this I would greatly appreciate it.

[Invader3K]

Weird. I just flew on Midwest less than two weeks ago, and it was pretty smooth. Our flight out of Milwaukee was delayed about an hour, due to fog, but that was the only small negative. Otherwise, both flights on our round trip were fine.

[homer]

"Atlanta's a hub. The plane always has to fly from Milwaukee and is less likely to be full than one from Chicago. "

 

American and United are hubbed in Chicago. The cheapest flight was out of Milwaukee and it was on Delta.

[Patrick425]

I can confirm PaulRigdon's post. If you're not on the first leg, the rest of the ticket is cancelled. That's true of Midwest, Continental, Delta, USAir.

Like I said in my earlier post, I believe before 9/11 you could get away with something like that.

[RightFieldCoder]

Being in the car rental buisness, I see that prices are driven by demand. The demand for each flight is what determines it's price. The demand for MKE-LOS was probably higher for a Midwest flight than a flight MSP-LOS. Higher demand means higher rates. I see this all the time in car rentals. There may be a lot of demand for Mon-Thur but not a lot of demand for that weekend. Trying to drive up the number of cars rented on the upcoming weekend they will lower the weekly rate. And there are times I see the weekly rate go cheaper than paying for 4 days. There have actually been a couple of instances where I've seen the weekly rate cheaper than renting for 2 days. From the outside it looks stupid, but from the inside you must adjust your rates to achieve a certain utilization rate. For the airlines it is much worse. The plane will cost near the same to opperate whether it is full or empty, so they will adjust the rate as high as they can that will still allow them to sell out due to demand.

[bullox]

For the past 3 years I have flown every week and have miles on 9 different airlines. No one airline is without its share of problems. That said, I highly prefer Midwest over just about any other airline.

[AZBrewCrew]

Airlines generally do not offer compensation for delays under 3 hours. When they do it is done as a courtesy by the station's ground/customer service staff. I was a supervisor for an airline for 3 years and I always did my best to keep the passengers informed of what was going on and being truthful as to the delay, ie, mechanical, late crew, destination/enroute weather issues, atc issues,etc. Passengers seemed to welcome my truthfulness more than just getting the standard "the flight is late, deal with it" line.