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

[ktbugsmom]

I have finally gotten to a place where I can request a refund online with Midwest... but of course, I can't find replacement flights even close price wise. ($220 per seat) Darn!

But, I can fly Midwest from Green Bay to Tampa (yes that adds renting a car, but oh well). It would be about $350 more than I paid for my non-stops out of MKE, but the Green Bay airport is much closer to home.

However, should I be concerned that flight will go away come January?

 

[Inkmahm]

Funny, they moved my flight from 2:51 pm back to 11:30 or so AM! I had to call to say put me back on the late afternoon flight!

Even funnier, over lunch Air Tran moved me AGAIN. This time they tried to put me on an 8 am flight! I called to request the late afternoon flight a second time. The guy on the phone said the computer is updating the schedule and just moves people, they don't understand the logic used either.

I guess I still have to keep checking my flights a few times each day, only now I'm checking the AirTran site instead of Midwest.

 

[Inkmahm]

OMG!!! I could KISS you!!!!

​

You just saved me a HUGE headache. I don't have to drive to Orlando for my Christmas/NYE trip. When Airtran released those new fares they forgot to jack them up for Holiday pricing and I just booked my Christmas/New Year's flights for $201 each RT including taxes!!! That's less than they were charging ONE WAY yesterday.

Yay!!! You're welcome.

Stay tuned, the schedule is still changing... Keep watching your flights to make sure they don't try to move you. Like I said, I've been moved twice today alone! They very nicely put me back both times, but it sure is time consuming to have to babysit the airline reservations.

 

[Inkmahm]

I have finally gotten to a place where I can request a refund online with Midwest... but of course, I can't find replacement flights even close price wise. ($220 per seat) Darn!

But, I can fly Midwest from Green Bay to Tampa (yes that adds renting a car, but oh well). It would be about $350 more than I paid for my non-stops out of MKE, but the Green Bay airport is much closer to home.

However, should I be concerned that flight will go away come January?

Did you try AirTran today? You may be able to get better/cheapr flights since they started to add to the schedule today.

 

[shyjade]

AirTran IS cheaper today than what I paid for Monday. Go figure!

Thanks to this thread I checked our online itinerary and found out we're now leaving for MCO 2-1/2 hours earlier (yeah, earlier to Disney) but they moved us to an earlier flight coming home, which means ME would be picking us up before 6am the morning after we are going to MVMCP. No way! So I called AirTran and they switched us back to our original flight number, which leaves MCO at 12:24pm. And she didn't charge me the $75/ticket penalty to switch!

BUT, she did warn me there will likely be MORE schedule changes as gas prices continue to go up. Ugh...it's going to be a long 3+ months....

 

[tkoran]

Just checked my flights and the times have changed by a bit. That's no problem, but they also changed it to a bigger plane so there was a row between DH and I and the kids. Each of the kids were assigned to be in window seats and NOT over the wing and they changed it to where one of them was over the wing. PLUS they eliminated 2 of our seat assignments even though they are still showing on the reservation. I called AirTran and she changed the seats for me so we'd be togther, but we're now towards the back of the plane instead of in front of the wings and it still appears to me that one of the rows is above (or at least partially above) one of the wings. This annoys me. I may be calling them back again.

 

[tkoran]

OK. I just looked at seatguru.com and the new seats she assigned don't look like they're over the wing there and are actually better in that way than the original seats I picked - ACCORDING TO SEATGURU.COM. Which site is more accurate for seating placement? Seatguru or Airtran? They switch us from a 717 to a 737 on both legs. She switched us from rows 15, 16 & 17 to 23 & 24.

 

[robinb]

Yay!!! You're welcome.

Stay tuned, the schedule is still changing... Keep watching your flights to make sure they don't try to move you. Like I said, I've been moved twice today alone! They very nicely put me back both times, but it sure is time consuming to have to babysit the airline reservations.

With airfares from MKE/MSN/ORD/MDW to any of the Florida airports in excess of $375 I am just happy to be on a plane . I did not pay for seat assignments this time though.

 

[robinb]

Just checked my flights and the times have changed by a bit. That's no problem, but they also changed it to a bigger plane so there was a row between DH and I and the kids. Each of the kids were assigned to be in window seats and NOT over the wing and they changed it to where one of them was over the wing. PLUS they eliminated 2 of our seat assignments even though they are still showing on the reservation. I called AirTran and she changed the seats for me so we'd be togther, but we're now towards the back of the plane instead of in front of the wings and it still appears to me that one of the rows is above (or at least partially above) one of the wings. This annoys me. I may be calling them back again.

What is the problem with the wings? This guy?

 

[leeann32]

For those rebooking on Air Tran, I got notice already today that times for 2 of my 3 trips have changed! Air Tran seems to be adding non-stops to Orlando so look again if you couldn't find a time that you liked previously.

In my case, I didn't like the new earlier departure from MKE so I called and got both trips switched back to nonstops later in the day. You may like the new times though...

Did you have to pay the $75 fee to change?

 

[Inkmahm]

Did you have to pay the $75 fee to change?

No, because Air Tran was the on initiating the schedule changes and I just refused them and asked for the flights I wanted instead.

 

[ktbugsmom]

Inkmahm - Thanks! Can I give you a kiss as well?

I went to the Air Tran site directly and saw the added flights. I found the flight I wanted. Cheaper than my original Midwest flight. By the time I got a hold of my husband at work - the price changed $30 per seat! Ugh.

But, I booked it anyway. Almost the exact same flight times I had on Midwest - and the price was only $40 more total. I like non-stops. I am not much of a flyer... but driving to Orlando from NE Wisconsin is a bit too far.

Anyway, back to my 3.5 hour drive to Milwaukee, but we will go down the night before the flight and do "park and fly" hotel. Only costs about $50 more than LT parking for 8 days, so worth it to us.

Now, I will bookmark AirTran and just keep checking back to make sure they don't change us!

 

[leeann32]

For those rebooking on Air Tran, I got notice already today that times for 2 of my 3 trips have changed! Air Tran seems to be adding non-stops to Orlando so look again if you couldn't find a time that you liked previously.

In my case, I didn't like the new earlier departure from MKE so I called and got both trips switched back to nonstops later in the day. You may like the new times though...

Did they email you about the changes, or can you see the change on their website?
I booked with Airtran a few days ago, now I wish I would have waited because today they added 2 earlier non stop flights to MCO. I would much rather have an earlier flight but I not paying the $75 fee per person.

 

[Inkmahm]

Inkmahm - Thanks! Can I give you a kiss as well?

How about a hug instead?
I'm glad we're getting decent flights on Air Tran after all the weeks of waiting and wondering about our Midwest flights!

 

[Inkmahm]

Did they email you about the changes, or can you see the change on their website?
I booked with Airtran a few days ago, now I wish I would have waited because today they added 2 earlier non stop flights to MCO. I would much rather have an earlier flight but I not paying the $75 fee per person.

I was emailed from Orbitz about the original changes this morning but I used my AirTran confirmation number to check the AirTran site directly and that's when I noticed the second round of changes after lunch. Try that and if you have been changed, then it is easy to call AirTran and ask them to put you back to the flight that you'd prefer. If they haven't changed you yet, hang around. They are bound to do it any minute and then you, too, can pick out the new flights that you'd rather have!

 

[tkoran]

What is the problem with the wings? This guy?

No, it's not that guy. Since this is my kids 1st ever flight (and quite possibly the last), I wanted them to be able to look out the window and see something other than wing even if it's just the clouds below us.

 

[leeann32]

I was emailed from Orbitz about the original changes this morning but I used my AirTran confirmation number to check the AirTran site directly and that's when I noticed the second round of changes after lunch. Try that and if you have been changed, then it is easy to call AirTran and ask them to put you back to the flight that you'd prefer. If they haven't changed you yet, hang around. They are bound to do it any minute and then you, too, can pick out the new flights that you'd rather have!

Please Airtran change my flight
I want an earlier one !!!!

 

[cbjl]

I just checked my flights - my return had been moved to a different, earlier flight, so I gave them a call. I asked why we were moved since our original flight number still existed, and I was told that if a there is a schedule change that moves a flight to be later vs. earlier, they have to move passengers to an earlier flight. She was fine with moving me back to our original mid-day nonstop. I can't make heads or tails of the charges & credits that they put through, but our final $ total was the same, so I don't care.
We did end up choosing to sort of pay a change fee to get on one of the new nonstops. Because our original fares were higher, I only had to pay an extra 50 cents a ticket. Hopefully we'll be able to stay on that nonstop & won't get moved back to a 1stop in the next round of schedule changes
I would guess we'll see a lot of changes in the MKE market while they figure out how much of the Midwest traffic they absorb.

 

[leeann32]

I just checked my flights - my return had been moved to a different, earlier flight, so I gave them a call. I asked why we were moved since our original flight number still existed, and I was told that if a there is a schedule change that moves a flight to be later vs. earlier, they have to move passengers to an earlier flight. She was fine with moving me back to our original mid-day nonstop. I can't make heads or tails of the charges & credits that they put through, but our final $ total was the same, so I don't care.
We did end up choosing to sort of pay a change fee to get on one of the new nonstops. Because our original fares were higher, I only had to pay an extra 50 cents a ticket. Hopefully we'll be able to stay on that nonstop & won't get moved back to a 1stop in the next round of schedule changes
I would guess we'll see a lot of changes in the MKE market while they figure out how much of the Midwest traffic they absorb.

when is your flight scheduled for?
We are flying out 9/7
Still waiting for Airtran to change us to an earlier flight

 

[cbjl]

when is your flight scheduled for?
We are flying out 9/7
Still waiting for Airtran to change us to an earlier flight

For our return flight, they moved us from an 11am departure to a 9am departure because our original flight had a schedule change and was pushed back to 12:24pm. (We were able to move back to the 12:24 departure without a change fee b/c it was our original flight number)
We did opt to pay a change fee on our flight down to MCO so we could get a nonstop & a bonus of a more reasonable departure time - 8am instead of 6am (gasp!). We'll still arrive earlier b/c the new flight is nonstop. (assuming we don't get moved to a different flight, our flights are in Nov, so lots can change I guess)
I feel like I wrote that in an overly complicated way - hope it made sense