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

[Inkmahm]

Mouseaholic... nothing new in the article you posted. That info has been out for days now.

 

[Mouseaholic!!!]

Mouseaholic... nothing new in the article you posted. That info has been out for days now.

Thanks for the update.....someone questioned my information earlier in the thread.....I thought it might be helpful to post further confirmation so there would be less confusion.

Thanks again!

 

[shyjade]

My outgoing flight times were changed to later in the day and the return flight was cancelled and the new flight that day was already booked.

I was offered either a full refund or a refund only for the return flight, and was told I could search for a one-way return flight on a different carrier. They never offered to try and find me seats on a different carrier. I took the full refund.

I was able to rebook another nonstop flight on ATA for a total of $116 less than I paid for the Midwest flights back on April 4th. Because of the schedule differences, we opted to go down a day earlier since our original flight was arriving at MCO at 11:30am and the return flight was supposed to leave MCO at 7:30pm. Our new flight gets us to MCO at 5:21pm (a day earlier) and leaves MCO at 11:30am.

 

[Inkmahm]

Thanks for the update.....someone questioned my information earlier in the thread.....I thought it might be helpful to post further confirmation so there would be less confusion.

Thanks again!

That would have been me. Go look at post #538 and answer the questions there as you still have not.

 

[Inkmahm]

My outgoing flight times were changed to later in the day and the return flight was cancelled and the new flight that day was already booked.

I was offered either a full refund or a refund only for the return flight, and was told I could search for a one-way return flight on a different carrier. They never offered to try and find me seats on a different carrier. I took the full refund.

I was able to rebook another nonstop flight on ATA for a total of $116 less than I paid for the Midwest flights back on April 4th. Because of the schedule differences, we opted to go down a day earlier since our original flight was arriving at MCO at 11:30am and the return flight was supposed to leave MCO at 7:30pm. Our new flight gets us to MCO at 5:21pm (a day earlier) and leaves MCO at 11:30am.

ATA has been out of business for awhile now.

 

[DebbieB]

I was able to rebook another nonstop flight on ATA for a total of $116 less than I paid for the Midwest flights back on April 4th. Because of the schedule differences, we opted to go down a day earlier since our original flight was arriving at MCO at 11:30am and the return flight was supposed to leave MCO at 7:30pm. Our new flight gets us to MCO at 5:21pm (a day earlier) and leaves MCO at 11:30am.

Do you mean Air Tran? ATA is out of business.

 

[OhMari]

My outgoing flight times were changed to later in the day and the return flight was cancelled and the new flight that day was already booked.

I was offered either a full refund or a refund only for the return flight, and was told I could search for a one-way return flight on a different carrier. They never offered to try and find me seats on a different carrier. I took the full refund.

I was able to rebook another nonstop flight on ATA for a total of $116 less than I paid for the Midwest flights back on April 4th. Because of the schedule differences, we opted to go down a day earlier since our original flight was arriving at MCO at 11:30am and the return flight was supposed to leave MCO at 7:30pm. Our new flight gets us to MCO at 5:21pm (a day earlier) and leaves MCO at 11:30am.

They did not give me that option yesterday. I would of stayed with our flight down. We had nice flight times. But she said, I had to cancel all of it, I couldn't split it up. That really stinks. I found really cheap airfare coming back home when I was talking to her.

 

[shyjade]

They did not give me that option yesterday. I would of stayed with our flight down. We had nice flight times. But she said, I had to cancel all of it, I couldn't split it up. That really stinks. I found really cheap airfare coming back home when I was talking to her.

To stay with the flight down option they gave us, we would have gotten to Orlando about 8 hours later than earlier scheduled and still would have had to book a return flight on another airline, which would've meant coming home in the morning instead of the 7:30pm flight we had with Midwest. Just not worth it...especially since I don't trust them anymore.

 

[bicker]

Mouseaholic... nothing new in the article you posted. That info has been out for days now.

However, it does directly address why things are being handled the way they're being handled, something some posters have questioned on the last couple of pages. Given that the changes include drastically cutting staff, it wouldn't make sense to drastically increase staff to cut hold times to address folks making changes or requesting refunds (neither of which increase revenues in a timescale within which that increase would cover the added costs). If you do the math, you'll see their reduction in staff is significantly higher than would be accounted for by a reduction in staff attributable solely to their reduction in flights. That means that they're not only cutting flights, but also reducing their service quality expense, not increasing it.

 

[cbjl]

There's an interesting piece in the business section in today's JournalSentinel. They actually did look into outsourcing some additional call handlers, but haven't acted on that yet. Instead of adding temporary workers who would need to be trained on their systems, they are paying overtime and asking some workers to handle calls from home. (see link/quote below) So, I guess they're trying, but this affects such a huge number of customers that they still can't keep up.

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

Midwest has reservations agents working on overtime, and others working from their homes, to help accommodate the surge in calls, Smith said.

But the airline is limited in what it can do to handle the larger work load, Smith said.

The reservations center in Oak Creek can handle only a certain number of phone lines to take incoming calls, he said. That's why some agents are working from their homes.

 

[wisbucky]

Wondering if anyone here can explain this to me. Maybe someone here has had the same experience.

Called Sunday when the ordeal with the flights being cancelled came out. Called Midwest and got through after two hours.

My flights were all reschuedelded for the same day for a fly out time of 9:20 a.m and return of 1:35 p.m. from Orlando. I was thrilled to hear that. So three flights had to be rescheduled on the same day. November December and March of 2009.

So I figured Sunday I was all set. Monday I get e-mail messages from Midwest that said I needed click here and use a code for a refund on all three trips. I dont understand what is going on. Called today and got through after 1 our of trying was on hold for over 1 1/2 hours and they disconnected me. Now I cant get through.

Anyone have a clue what may be going on here with these flights?

 

[rainbowsandroses]

There's an interesting piece in the business section in today's JournalSentinel. They actually did look into outsourcing some additional call handlers, but haven't acted on that yet. Instead of adding temporary workers who would need to be trained on their systems, they are paying overtime and asking some workers to handle calls from home. (see link/quote below) So, I guess they're trying, but this affects such a huge number of customers that they still can't keep up.

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

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.

 

[Inkmahm]

Wondering if anyone here can explain this to me. Maybe someone here has had the same experience.

Called Sunday when the ordeal with the flights being cancelled came out. Called Midwest and got through after two hours.

My flights were all reschuedelded for the same day for a fly out time of 9:20 a.m and return of 1:35 p.m. from Orlando. I was thrilled to hear that. So three flights had to be rescheduled on the same day. November December and March of 2009.

So I figured Sunday I was all set. Monday I get e-mail messages from Midwest that said I needed click here and use a code for a refund on all three trips. I dont understand what is going on. Called today and got through after 1 our of trying was on hold for over 1 1/2 hours and they disconnected me. Now I cant get through.

Anyone have a clue what may be going on here with these flights?

Don't worry. I got my refunds arranged on Sunday morning and then got those same emails telling me about the schedule changes yesterday. I think the emails are automated and not affected by whether you've already handled the issue or not. Midwest assumed we'd wait to receive the email telling us about the changes to our schedules before we'd call them. Just another bad assumption among many on their part.

 

[KathylovesPooh]

Wondering if anyone here can explain this to me. Maybe someone here has had the same experience.

So I figured Sunday I was all set. Monday I get e-mail messages from Midwest that said I needed click here and use a code for a refund on all three trips. I dont understand what is going on. Called today and got through after 1 our of trying was on hold for over 1 1/2 hours and they disconnected me. Now I cant get through.

Anyone have a clue what may be going on here with these flights?

Similiar situation. I got the same email - but when you click the link they have rebooked me on the rescheduled flight. I am assuming that the email was just a standard one they are sending out and the flight is set. I will call later in the week when things start to settle down (my second payment on DVC rental points is due Monday) but I do think things look good for us.

Kathy

 

[KathylovesPooh]

Just got off the phone with Midwest customer service
I was calling because on my rescheduled return flight, they assigned the same seat to my daughter and I, which just seems really, really weird. I'm surprised their systems let them do it.

Anyhow, when I was talking to them this morning, my cust service rep said that she knew it looked like I had seats, but I really didn't have any, since they are going to be reconfiguring the planes (I thought they already mapped out the new Midwest class?) and that *none* of our seats were really there and we'd just have to work on that when we checked in at the airport.
Nope. I explained that I was really concerned about how much they may have overbooked the flight if they had 2 passengers assigned to the same seat - had they done that with other seats on the plane? This is not a typical overbooking where they just stop assigning seats after they sell a certain % of the seats. I asked for a refund, she hemmed and hawed, but said ok - it would take 60 days.

I've got to say that I am still just astounded at how badly they are handling these changes. Enormously bad communication before they released the new schedule, ridiculously long hold times when it finally came out, and the rebooking process is crazy. How can they double book an assigned seat?

I don't have a lot of faith that they will even exist in 6 months (What will they do to get people to trust them enough to make new bookings?), and I just hope they have enough cash to pay out all of these refunds....

If you are on the rebooked flights, I'd keep an eye on your seats.

Let me get this right. When you look at the plane configuration online (when selecting or checking seats) - that is the old plane not the new one! WOW - really a mess. Thanks for the heads up - I guess we'll be getting to the airport rather early.

 

[KathylovesPooh]

Has ANYONE been booked BY Midwest on another airline or have all of us either taken a reassignment on another Midwest flight or a refund to book our own flights elsewhere? I still haven't heard of Midwest booking anyone on another airline. Not a single person.

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

 

[Em&Lex]

I received that same email and called this morning. We are still on the flight but like you said it is now leaving at 9:20 and the return flight at at 1 something instead of 6:55. My thought is that they are hoping people will just go ahead and ask for a refund then they are able to resell those seats at a higher price. I only paid a little over $200 for each ticket, there is no way I could get a plane ticket at that price now. They did tell us that we were no longer sitting together. We are traveling with our grandchildren (12 & 4) and there is no way the 4yo can sit alone. They said that we would have to arrive as early as possible and tell them that we are traveling with young children. Hopefully this all works out.

 

[cbjl]

Let me get this right. When you look at the plane configuration online (when selecting or checking seats) - that is the old plane not the new one! WOW - really a mess. Thanks for the heads up - I guess we'll be getting to the airport rather early.

That's what I was told this morning. But, it makes zero sense to me, so who knows if it was accurate information. An early airport arrival or tracking seating assignments before your trip is probably a pretty good idea, though.

 

[KathylovesPooh]

That's what I was told this morning. But, it makes zero sense to me, so who knows if it was accurate information. An early airport arrival or tracking seating assignments before your trip is probably a pretty good idea, though.

Thanks - I will call later this week but either way will be in the airport early that day! Kathy

 

[KathylovesPooh]

Those of you rebooking - don't forget Tampa as an option if you are renting a car. I realize its not as convenient. But its less than 90 minutes and a really easy drive.