dont ever fly w Midwest Airlines(long)

[irateguy]

I just got back from Minnesota yesterday the trip was fun for the most part but my experiences flying to and from Minnneapolis sucked.
First off I had a connecting flight to Milwaukee Monday that went ok. In Milwaukee I find out my flight to Minneapolis was delayed. I go up to the gate agaent and she tells me its 4 hrs late. 4 hrs pass and the planes still not there theres no announcement and the arrival time of my plane is not on the arrival/ departure board. I had to go to the desk and the agent told me 9:20 it finnally arrived at 9:40.
I had a rental car reservation in Minneapolis The reservation confirmation fell out of my pocket in Milwaukee ( my fault). I go to every rental car company at MSP nobody can find my reservation. I Later call home and find out I had it w Budget. I gave them my friends name (who I made the resrvation under) my name and my confirmation number they couldnt find it I had to get another car w another company. I get on the wrong shuttle ( again my fault) and have to wait for the Thrifty van to take us to their office. I dont get to my room till 2:30AM
Heres what really made me mad though. Yesterday we were flying back home. I look on the board it says might flight to Milwaukke is on time. it was supposed to leave at 10 AM . 10 AM rolls around and no plane. The board doesnt say anything about it and theres no agent at the gate. I overhear somebodys cell phone convo and find out the plane is delayed 2 hrs. I had another flight to Dayton I hd to connect to that I was gonna miss as a result of this. Finally somebody was paged to the gate and he announces a bunch of connecting cities ( Incl Dayton) that have to get rerouted and we have to go downstairs to ticketing. I get to the counter they put me on a connecting fight to Cleveland and onto Dayton w Continental. I have to get a shuttle bus to the other terminal to get my boarding pass. Once at the Continetal counter they tell me that flight is booked and I have to go back to Midwest. so back on the shuttle bus Midwest puts me on anothr flight to Milwaukee and then to dayton. The Milwaukke plane doesnt arrive til 4:30 and I make my Dayton flight finally . I get home at 11.

What gets me is why was there no change on the board why didnt they announce it and why was there no agent at the gate. Also why didnt Midwest know that flight was booked.


Overall not a good 2 days

[blas]

I flew Midwest when they were on strike in summer 2005. HUGE MISTAKE.

The strike wasn't supposed to start until 2 days after we got back from our trip. Well, they decided to start it early.

My mom, brother and I were at Sea-Tac airport to fly back to Minneapolis where Dad would pick us up and drive us back to Wisconsin.

There were picketers EVERYWHERE. Nearly every flight was delayed. Our 4:30 flight back to Minneapolis was delayed for 3 hours. Then it took an extra hour to load and take off.

When we got to Minnesota, we went to land, but could not park at the gate because there were picketers at 12:00 FUCKING a.m. blocking the gate. Yes, blocking the gate OUTSIDE. Finally they moved out of the way and the plane was able to connect to the gate. 30 minutes later we could get out.

It was awful.

[Banrion]

The airlines do not control those boards. There is some central office where all of the ETA/ EDT info is updated across the network. I agree that someone should have come to the gate to say something.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I've flown Midwest several times and had nothing but good experiences. The worst experience I had flying was having to spend 4 hours in Detroit in the middle of the night because the plane was delayed in Newark--that was on Northwest.

Of course, Midwest could easily go down the shitter if, or maybe more appropriately when, they get taken over by ValuJet AirTran

[ditchdj]

I wont fly, period. Between watching customers get screwed over and deserted at airports on "Airlines" an the TSA, I've sworn off flying indefinetly. Seems like these days, the airline industry's attitude toward customer service is "My Way or the Highway", so, I chose the highway, literally! :)

[irateguy]

During my stay in Milwaukee a Flight to Newark NJ was cancelled and no announcement was made the people on that flight were very irate to say the least

[auntiem]

Midwest isn't even in our reservation system - so I don't sell them. Are they notorious for delayed flights? I'm suprised they sent you over to Continental if they hadn't protected you on the flight - that seems like a boneheaded thing for them to do.
As an agent I know what all can and will go wrong so I always have alternate flights and schedules memorized before going to the airport. It makes it so much faster to get rebooked when something gets delayed. I also know factoids like airline A isn't in their office on the weekend but they share office space with airline B - which saved me from getting stuck in LAX for 2 days thanks to the airline that is also a state.

[ditchdj]

Wanna know what some airline CEO's think about your predicament????

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19353980/

[MinimaMagistra]

That sounds like the beginning of summer, to me. I was flying from FL to WV. Mom booked the cheapest fare she could find, which turned out to be three flights on two different airlines. Never, ever changing airlines mid-trip again. I'm supposed to go from Tampa to Philidelphia to Detroit to Charleston. The first leg's on US Air, the other two on Northwest. So I get to Philidelphia and I have an hour and a half wait time. I have to figure out how to get my ticket, because US Air won't print you your tickets for any other airline and I didn't think to print them online or anything. I get the royal runaround (including a US Air representative telling me that they can't print my tickets, so they send me to the Customer Service counter... for US Air. Real funny, that) and am eventually told I'll have to pass out of security and go to the Northwest ticket counter. I have, at this point, half an hour until my flight. And it takes fifteen minutes to walk across the damn airport. I miss my flight while in line, but the absolutely wonderful lady hooks me up with new flights. So I'm set to fly back south to Charlotte, NC, and then up to Charleston. Except my flight's late. So late, in fact, that I have eight minutes at the (very large) Charlotte airport to find my new flight. I actually make it, thanks to a wonderful man with one of those handicapped carts. I make it with bare seconds to spare. It's a tiny plane, and there are two boarding from the same gate (where you have to actually go across the pavement to reach the plane). The man taking my ticket says "go down the stairs, it's the one infront of you." ...These turned out to be insufficient instructions, and I got on the wrong plane. I did not realize this until the Flight Attendant said "Plane to Suchandsuch, TN. If this is not your flight, I recommend leaving now." As a joke, right? I stood up. My actual plane had left, by this time. The man inside was wonderful and hooked me up with a hotel voucher. I was lucky enough to get one of the last rooms there, 'cause a buncha people's flights had gone wrong. They sent me out on the first flight the next morning.

I was terrified to fly back, at summer's end.

[jb17kx]

My father flew with Midwest for the first domestic leg of his trip to the US last year.

After he arrived at his destination he re-booked as much as he could with Amtrak.

He never told me what went wrong - but he said he did enjoy taking the train around, even if it took a bit longer.

Thank the lord I've never had such a problem with domestic carriers here - but I;t take the train as first choice anyway.

[Gravekeeper]

The man inside was wonderful and hooked me up with a hotel voucher.

Did you have to call a number on the voucher to find a hotel? If so, then that was my company. :D


The worse airlines to fly on are, in order of complete suck:

1. US Airways / America West
2. Continental
3. Midwest

Seeing as my company is the one that handles finding rooms for stranded passengers I can tell you up front never, ever, EVER EVER fly US Air / America West.

EVER.

Not a night goes by that they don't dump a couple plane loads of passengers somewhere and leave them completely stranded because of a missed connection or some other stupid excuse. They won't cover your hotel room or anything either. So they all call me pissed off, and rightly so. -.-

[Caveat Emptor]

In 2001, I was returning from Orlando through Charlotte. Ground departure delay due to thunderstorm. We were assured by the pilot on arriving in Charlotte that they would hold the plane to Rochester for us. Uh, no, it's after 10PM, no more flights leaving until the AM. Several passengers wished bodily harm on that pilot for promising something he had *no* authority or power to do. :mad:

I had an interview in Chicago four years ago. The return flight was cancelled due to weather, and they gave us a voucher and took us to a hotel. The Hyatt. A $50 voucher for a $120 room. I would have been perfectly satisfied with a Hampton or Days Inn!!

Returning from Ireland two years ago, the flight was delayed because the first leg from Dublin (I was in Shannon) had to get a replacement pilot. I had to use my last Euros to call overseas to my mom so she could call JetBlue (my connection in JFK) and get me on standby.

[Seshat]

Returning from Ireland two years ago, the flight was delayed because the first leg from Dublin (I was in Shannon) had to get a replacement pilot. I had to use my last Euros to call overseas to my mom so she could call JetBlue (my connection in JFK) and get me on standby.

In situations like that, I've never had to organise the rebookings myself. Either I've had wonderful airline staff, or it's something they just do. Always, if it's the airline's fault (or weather, or whatever) that I've missed a connection, they've just said 'okay, go to gate (blah), you'll be on that flight instead'.

[Becks]

I only fly Continental, and the only problem I ever have is...leaving :censored: Newark airport on time.

[auntiem]

Seeing as my company is the one that handles finding rooms for stranded passengers I can tell you up front never, ever, EVER EVER fly US Air / America West.

EVER.

Not a night goes by that they don't dump a couple plane loads of passengers somewhere and leave them completely stranded because of a missed connection or some other stupid excuse. They won't cover your hotel room or anything either. So they all call me pissed off, and rightly so. -.-

The sad thing is that US Air used to be the only airline I'd use to go back east because they had their act together. If there were weather delays - they would have you all rebooked and taken care of before you even arrived at the airport. If there was a delay mid-route same thing. America West - bah - I've only used them to go to Costa Rica and the flight attendant spent 15 min at the gate on his cell phone bitching about having to work the flight then literarally threw peanuts at us while on the flight (they were on time though).