Matt and I will not be flying Midwest Airlines again. We were supposed to fly from LA or Orlando on Friday, with an hour layover in Milwaukee. We looked forward to a week spent with family in my hometown. On our way from LA to Milwaukee, a dense fog rolled in so we were unable to land there. We landed in Madison instead and about three hours later boarded a bus from Madison to Milwaukee. We don’t blame Midwest for the fog but they royally screwed up their response.
Strike one: Midwest didn’t bother to send any of its employees to meet us in Madison. Our only assistance was provided by a woman who’s usual job is working on the runway (probably dealing with baggage).
We were lucky; we got a free hotel room in Milwaukee. Most just got a “Distressed Passenger” rate. We ordered a pizza and tried to make the best of being 2,000 miles away from our destination.
Strike Two: No preparations were made for those who would need hotels. Sure, they’re not legally required to do anything if a flight is canceled due to weather but there was great inconsistency in who was given hotels free versus discounted.
When we woke up Saturday morning, the fog was still around. But we were hopeful and headed over to the airport. Around one Matt checked the flight status board to read “Canceled.” We waited in line for over an hour to get a rescheduled flight.
Strike Three: Despite the fact most flights were canceled, Midwest still checked in people for their flights and provided no means of informing those waiting in line of rescheduling efforts.
We managed to get another free hotel room and a whopping twenty dollars of meal vouchers. We watched lots of bad TV and played online and hoped/prayed the storm rolling through Wisconsin wouldn’t come our way. There was still a Dense Fog Advisory when we went to sleep but by morning the only weather issues were strong winds and a light dusting of snow. We FINALLY made it to Orlando Sunday night, two days later than we’d expected.
They may have discounted prices, larger airplane seats, and provide you warm chocolate chip cookies mid-flight, but their horrible handling of weather-related flight cancellations was simply not acceptable. Next time we’re playing the little extra to fly Jet Blue direct from Long Beach to Fort Lauderdale or Orlando.
I’m so sorry about your ordeal. I’ll make a note never to fly MidWest.
BTW, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and welcome back.
Definitely fly on JetBlue. After the bad publicity last year about flight delays they now let you change your flight with no penalty if bad weather is predicted. And they have the neat in-seat televisions to watch.
Yeah…
I work for midwest, and the way the company deals with those things really is horrible, and I would go further as to tell you how we are treated as employees, but I bet my lazy managers are reading this instead of working again…
I agree though, there was a pheonix flight that cancelled today and no one helped the passengers who wanted to just get their bags to go home. Eventually, when I went out to talk to one of the ticketing people to see where they want these bags, I had three people come up to me saying that they have not recieved help after asking repeatedly, so I ended up forming a line where the door leads to our bagroom. Suddenly, thirty minutes later, everyone who wanted their bags had them and left as happy as they could be, considering the circumstances. I don’t know how things are run outside the runway area, but it seems unorganized and chaotic, and no one cares that people wait there forever.
I can understand your frustrations, believe me, I deal with it every single day, and trust me, they are harder on us than what we are compensated for. At the same time, please don’t make an assumption that all midwest agents don’t care about passengers, because most everyone does, but policy and red tape jades most agents into not caring.
Sorry for your experience, I hope you fly better next time on someone else.
Sounds like Midwest’s cookie is crumbling. I too had some bad experiences recenty. I blogged about it here:
http://www.davegreenbaum.com/2008_01_01_archive.html#8801398486499562284
I believe these problems are directly related to the buyout.
[...] I’ve been struggling with the decision of whether or not I should including journaling (or, writign about the signifigance of an event or photos, for the non-iniated). Sure, journaling isn’t always needed. Lots of photos of family on a generic page – not needed. Photos of an airport in Wisconsin that you would up at only because you’re plane couldn’t land somewhere else? Probably needs some explanation so a stranger doesn’t pick up your book and wonder “Who chooses to spend 2 1/2 days in Milwaukee, days before Christmas who has no family or friends who live there (other than a cousin who wasn’t even in the state at the time)?” [Yes, that really happned to us. I have only a single, horrible camera phone photo so it won't get scrapped, though it certainly made Christmas 2007 interesting! Details are here.] [...]