A First Flight on Midwest Airlines

Midwest
like many of the regional carriers has actually been around since the mid-eighties. Based out of
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
they have historically focused on serving the smaller airports in smaller towns in the center of the nation. After opening bases in both Omaha, Nebraska and Kansas City, MO in the mid-nineties,
Midwest
began to make a push towards being a more visible travel option.

In February of 2005 Midwest continued to expand its offerings by adding several new non-stop flights to Boston, Los Angeles and
New York
. I was able to recently travel from Boston’s

Logan
Airport

to Kansas City International on Midwest Airlines. I flew during one morning flight and one evening flight over the Memorial Holiday weekend.

Midwest
has routinely won awards for the service on their flights. However, I was surprised to find that the service was not in my opinion superior. The morning flight especially seemed more cold than expected. Perhaps I was expecting too much because of their reputation. The flight staff did not seem overly pleased to be working at 6 AM, which is somewhat understandable, yet as I boarded the plane with my 7 month old daughter not one employee offered to help me find my seat or to help me and my family get situated. In addition I myself stopped to help an elderly gentleman place his bag in the overhead compartment while the stewardesses chatted with each other in the back of the plane. This was clearly a very small sample but not a good first impression to make. Also on the morning flight we received bags of pretzels but not

Midwest
‘s famous chocolate chip cookies. I was unaware that pretzels were breakfast food. Upon receiving the fresh baked cookies during the evening flight I was very please to find that they were both warm and of good size. I highly doubt that anyone on the morning flight would have found them even remotely distasteful.

The plane itself was also a very pleasant surprise. The seats were leather and much larger than normal coach seats. I had the feeling that despite my location over the wing of the airplane that I was sitting in a first class seat. The adjustable headrest was also very welcome as I found myself easily drifting off to sleep.

The service at the ticketing counter and gate were of similar ups and downs. The gentleman at the morning ticketing counter was very pleasant and friendly – he must have been a morning person. The agents at the gate themselves were generally sour faced and somber, regardless of the time of day. In
Kansas City
the skycaps looked bored and spoke in a teenage like mumble but they did manage to get all of our bags on the plane. The pilots’ announcements were standard in their blandness but that is always somewhat comforting. An energetic or excited pilot warning of turbulence might cause some worry.

On a whole, considering the price of the fare, the accommodations of the planes themselves and that warm fresh cookies, I would recommend Midwest Airlines to anyone looking for a low priced alternative to the major carriers. The value and quality of flight, far paced the hit or miss service of the employees.