Midwest to ground all MD80's by the fall [MERGED]

[cbjl]

Really if they would have just allowed everyone to do what they said they were going to (request refunds on the internet), the need for additional CSRs would have been drastically reduced.

Excellent point.

 

[trirae]

Well I just got my refund processed as well. They had what I guess were hypothetical re-booking seats online for me, but I was told that I didn't really have any. My customer service experience was great. I did online chat, and she called me to process. The whole thing was quick, though not painless.

We now have to decide whether to re-book this particular trip at a much higher cost or scrap it in favor of something else. Sigh.

 

[KathylovesPooh]

I still think that they could have handled the changes better by finding ways to discourage ticket sales to destinations that were on the "likely to be cut" list (those outside of the MD-80 fuel range, for example) earlier. They usually spike fares when they expect a schedule change to discourage new buyers that will have to be re-accommodated later. Instead, Midwest actually added *new* flights for sale (896/897 for example) the week before the schedule change - flights that they then cut on Sunday. Bizarre.

from http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=774737

You make a great point. We bought back in March (before Midwest had even hinted about the problems) and haven't really followed the Orlando fares since. But I had been watching Ft Myers fares the last six weeks and they certainly weren't discouraging any sales. I can't believe it was a spur of the moment decision to get rid of service to Ft Myers.

Where were flight 896/897 to?

 

[cbjl]

Where were flight 896/897 to?

MKE - MCO nonstop
They were selling them (as a codeshare on NW, too) as late as Friday afternoon for as low as $332 round trip.

 

[uwmuww]

We lost our 9/21-9/28 flights.

While on hold on Sunday, I checked the Tampa option. Not bad. We leave MKE at 7:30 and get to Tampa at 11. Our return causes us to leave Disney at 8am intead of 3pm, but that's not too bad. $85 more per ticket, and then the car rental to drive to Disney. With a free day rental from National, the 2 day rentals add only $50.

 

[Inkmahm]

My sister (flying to Ft Myers in Feb) has been re-booked (though they cancelled service to Ft Myers all together).

What airline did they book her on?

 

[bjscheel]

Well, now instead of getting the red notice that I need to call, I get a summary of my reservation with the flights between MKE and MCO highlighted in pink. Does the refund button work on this page, does anyone know?

I know people were saying online refunds weren't working, but I've never gotten this far before, just the red notice.

I hesitate to click on it without talking to Midwest first. Hopefully I will get hold of someone today!

 

[KathylovesPooh]

What airline did they book her on?

NWA. She flies through Indianapolis and I believe the flight is a code share to Indi (probably on one of those small planes).

Now I talk to her and they've changed her online itinerary showing she only has a flight from Indi to Ft Myers (on the way down) and a flight from Indi to Milwaukee on the return. What a mess!

 

[JACKie SPARROW]

Well, now instead of getting the red notice that I need to call, I get a summary of my reservation with the flights between MKE and MCO highlighted in pink. Does the refund button work on this page, does anyone know?

I know people were saying online refunds weren't working, but I've never gotten this far before, just the red notice.

I hesitate to click on it without talking to Midwest first. Hopefully I will get hold of someone today!

Yesterday I was able to see my new flights that MW assigned along with my seat assign. Today my seat assign. was gone and my flight was in pink-I started to panic I used the live chat and waited about 25 min. and found out that everything was fine Don't know why the info is appearing different. I'd keep calling or try live chat. Good Luck

 

[Inkmahm]

NWA. She flies through Indianapolis and I believe the flight is a code share to Indi (probably on one of those small planes).

Now I talk to her and they've changed her online itinerary showing she only has a flight from Indi to Ft Myers (on the way down) and a flight from Indi to Milwaukee on the return. What a mess!

Hmmm... I guess I'd still call that a codeshare. I'm waiting for someone to say Midwest booked them on an unrelated airline, like AirTran, American, United, etc.

Anyone?

 

[bjscheel]

Got onto live chat right at 2:00 when it was scheduled to open. I was #19 and it took about 20 minutes to get to me. Better than the hour I tried on hold last night and the 35 minutes this morning before I had to hang up.

Anyway, she brought up an itinerary screen for me with new flights. I was travelling from Des Moines to Milwaukee to Orlando. Well, she had me arriving in Milwaukee at 12:05 to catch a plane that left 3 hours before. Since that didn't work, obviously, she offered the refund.

Now I want to book SW but I'd better talk to DH tonight. Surely fares won't change in the next several hours?

 

[huskr217]

My first time every posting to the DIS boards.

We were caught up in this mess as well. We have 14 passengers traveling on March 7-March 14th from Kansas City to Orlando. Thought we had a great deal booked with Midwest to fly direct.

Got that lovely email yesterday telling me my flight was cancelled. Half our party booked direct with Midwest - the other half used Expedia. We have all been able to contact both companies and have refunds being processed. Hoping that the company doesn't go belly up in the next few days before my refund is processed!

We rebooked a flight using AirTran. They have great rates for large groups! We were considering driving - but it is a 24 hour drive from Nebraska and we have 6 kids in our party. NOT FUN!!!

Both Expedia and Midwest were very friendly and we had no problems (other than being on hold forever).

 

[brandylouwho]

Really if they would have just allowed everyone to do what they said they were going to (request refunds on the internet), the need for additional CSRs would have been drastically reduced.

There was no reason that my flight couldn't have been made available to me in my on-line account. It was quite cut and dry. There was nothing I needed to modify or negotiate. Either I approved of the changes or I didn't. If I didn't, I could request a refund. I think that red message telling you to call them is their biggest failure in this debacle.

Ahh, but that would make too much sense!

Really, if I could have seen on Sunday or even Monday morning that we were indeed rebooked on their new flight we probably would have stayed put. Instead we just got the same red message, (the flight must have been completely booked so it did not even show up as a possibility when I searched our dates)...couldn't get through to a CSR for the longest time, so we made alternate plans on Delta for exactly $99 more total than we had paid Midwest.

Now I can spend the next 5 months worrying about Delta and about our short layover in Atlanta

I have said this before, but we tired to make lemonade out of lemons by adding a day to our Disney vacation.

 

[wisbucky]

Well I finally got through and was informed that all the flights I had taken care of on Sunday were okay. They didnt know why the website was showing that I needed to ask for a refund. Nor did the girl know why I had the e-mails sent to me telling me to click for a refund. I was sweating this for a while. Thankfully everything turned out okay.

 

[LJD2143]

Wow - most people here seem to have gotten through this debacle without too much trouble. Not me!! I sure wish I would have seen this thread a month ago!
We booked our flights in March for 8 people, traveling from Nov 30 - Dec 7th. I was following all the Midwest news in the media, but everything I read seemed to imply that the Florida flights would not be affected. So I was trying to stay optimistic in thinking that our non-stop flights from MKE to MCO would be just fine........NOT!!!!!!

I didn't see the email until I got to work this morning at 6am. For hours and hours I hit that "redial" button, only to hear an immediate, constant, busy signal. Panick growing in me by the minute, I searched frantically on the web for replacement flights. I ended up with AirTran, with practically identical flight departure and arrival times (good), but at a total added cost for 8 tickets of $946 (thats $118 more per person)!

So many stories I'm hearing here are of people that rebooked and ended up with CHEAPER flights?!?!?
Our original fares were around $320 per person, now we're paying $446. Were my original fares just a spectacular deal?

And how in the world did you all get through to a Midwest agent?!?! I hit that redial button no less than 200 times today, with no luck. Then I tried the Live Help at 3:30pm, was #32 in line, and waited 30 minutes for my turn. I was #1 for about 30 seconds and then **Presto** I get the following message: "There are no agents available. Please try again". AYKM????

After that fiasco, about 4pm, I tried (for the 25th time) to log into my reservation. Instead of the red-font Error Message that I had been receiving since 6am, this time the detailed ressie actually pulled-up, highlighted in pink - indicating "CANCELLED". I clicked the Request Refund button at the bottom of the page and it has appeared to have worked!
"The refund for your reservation has been submitted and will be processed in the order it was received".

So good news is - the online refund request appears to be working now. But as to where the credit will appear and how long it will take - the generic message did not specify.

What a nightmare this has been! Midwest was ALWAYS our #1 choice in airlines - not anymore.

 

[Inkmahm]

Wow - most people here seem to have gotten through this debacle without too much trouble. Not me!! I sure wish I would have seen this thread a month ago!
We booked our flights in March for 8 people, traveling from Nov 30 - Dec 7th. I was following all the Midwest news in the media, but everything I read seemed to imply that the Florida flights would not be affected. So I was trying to stay optimistic in thinking that our non-stop flights from MKE to MCO would be just fine........NOT!!!!!!

We were here a month ago, you should have come to visit us! I started pointing out after the first announcements in June that the MD-80's Midwest talked about were the planes used for Orlando. I was not a bit surprised that Orlando flights were eliminated. I was actually surprised they kept one plane to make it seasonal service. Another big hint was that Midwest kept saying they were going to service their business customers in the future, not leisure. Orlando is definitely a leisure market.

Sorry you had to get new flights but at least you have them. Actually,ALL of those airfares sound high to me. $320 per person? That's about $100 more than I paid Midwest originally and higher than I have ever paid Midwest. $446 sounds very high, too. My AirTran replacement flights were about $200 each less than that.

 

[J. Galt]

Nope. They only offered me a refund for my canceled October/November flights to LAX. I'm on the phone now to get my money refunded.

I don't know if this helps you, but yesterday NWA announced that they have added two daily non-stop flights to LAX from MKE. Yesterday Midwest would not let us switch over to this flight (our non-stop to LA with Midwest had changed to a 3 1/2 hour layover in Kansas ). We asked again today and they made the switch for us. Things seem to be changing daily over there. Maybe because we were using both Midwest and NWA miles for our trip booking? Maybe because we kept pestering them several times a day to look into different flight scenarios for us .

 

[robinb]

I don't know if this helps you, but yesterday NWA announced that they have added two daily non-stop flights to LAX from MKE. Yesterday Midwest would not let us switch over to this flight (our non-stop to LA with Midwest had changed to a 3 1/2 hour layover in Kansas ). We asked again today and they made the switch for us. Things seem to be changing daily over there. Maybe because we were using both Midwest and NWA miles for our trip booking? Maybe because we kept pestering them several times a day to look into different flight scenarios for us .

Thank you. I did switch to that flight for about $5 more and my DH will get NWA FF credits. He's plat elite on NWA but I won't let him get bumped into first class alone! I'm so mean.

 

[leeann32]

I am so upset about this entire ordeal
We had the perfect times for our flights in September.
What really makes me mad is that our flight to MCO on Sept 7th wasn't cancelled, but our return flight on Sept 12th was. I wish Midwest would of let me keep my outbound flight at 7:55am. I would of just had to book a one way ticket home.
They made me cancel everything.
Now we have a horrible time on Airtran leaving MKE @ 2:27pm not landing @ MCO until 6:04pm. The entire day is shot!!!

I just needed to vent

 

[disneyleslie]

they actually switched you to the northwest flights from mke to lax??? Or did you get a refund and rebook?

Thanks
Leslie