We moved to Connecticut and tried them out again. This time, they were Midwest Airlines, their planes were 717s, and the legroom was dismal. Service was OK, but 9/11 and cost-cutting measures reduced the Midwest advantage to a cookie. I'm 6'6" tall and don't have much choice in the matter--I'm forced to sit in the same areas as everybody else. And flying with kids eliminates any chance of exit row seating, too. My legs are proportional to my height, and I was quite literally jammed in between the seatback in front of me and my own seatback. The net result was a very, very uncomfortable flying experience. And that's a shame, because I would love to support an airline in which I still hold stock. (Forget using a laptop or the tray table...)

I'm glad to hear knope2001's commentary on the seating and the net gain in kneeroom. If there's an improvement over the older configuration, maybe we'll give them another try.

Except those behind you also get cookies....

@gatewaytoheaven:

I'm Indian...and I don't care what style I sit, there's no knee room on an Airtran 737 beyond row 10 (excluding exit rows of course)!

Legroom is overrated. Sit Indian style.

As a Wisconsonite who tries to buy locally whenever possible in an effort to keep other Wisconsinites employed, I will continue to use Midwest whenever possible. I will also pay the extra money for the extra leg/butt room. It is a small price to pay for the little bit of comfort that can be found as a coach passenger right now. And that seems to be a good value in more ways then one.

I just flew Midwest this afternoon with my two kids. We only fly Midwest once a year when we visit family in Kansas City. The new seating arrangement was quite a surprise. The benefit was that the three of us got to sit together, but still, the seats were not what I had picked out online. Then we started chit-chatting with a flight attendant, and she mentioned that she was getting laid off in two days. So the seats didn't matter to me as much after that.

The cookies are OK, but heating them fills the plane with the hot cookie smell, which is the real attraction.

They were marvelous the LAST time I flew with them. My 9AM flight from San Diego to KC was 1.5hr late when I checked in. At 3PM it was officially cancelled. At 4PM I was given a boarding pass on a flight leaving at the other end of the terminal. I was not told it was a 4:10 flight. When i returned to the original gate, I was told there were no more flights on any airline to KC that day. When asked if I needed a room for the night, i told them I would stay with my parents. They did not offer me transportation. The next morning when I arrived for my flight, I met the 2 ladies that had also missed the flight the day before. They told me about the hotel they stayed at and about the round trip tickets they were given when they were getting there rooms arranged. When I got back to KC I called, emailed, and faxed MW.Over the next 2 months I recieved 2 responces stating that someone would contact me soon. When they finally did they offered $75 off a ticket. They said that they wanted to treat everybody equally and this is all they offer. If Midwest folds, I say good ridence!

The world is not ending here, people.

First of all, Midwest is NOT decreasing legroom. The current configuration is 22 rows, and so is the new configuration. There is no lost legroom. As a matter of fact, anyone who has flown on the Midwest 717 knows that in spite of a decent "pitch" (33.0") between rows the leg room doesn't seem that generous. That's because the 2x2 seats are remarkably bulky and so your useable legroom isn't that hot today. In the new configuration, the 40 2x2 seats will have pitch increased to 35.0-36.0" for *more* legroom. The back 59 seats will have a 32.0 inch pitch instead of the current 33.0", but because the newer seats are better designed for legroom and are far less bulky, the useful legroom will be increased for those seats as well.

Seatguru has incorrect stats for the new configuration and I have contacted them about it.

As for the survival of the airline, this is a *good* development. Certainly for those used to getting the wide seat for rock-bottom discount fares, the narrow seat is not a benefit. Of course not. However the days when business fares were high enough and costs were low enough to subsidize the luxury coach service for all fares has passed long ago, and Midwest was a holdout. This modified plan is far more economically viable than if they had continued to hold on to all 2x2 seating. And different than other airlines, Midwest still gives customers the option of paying a relatively nomincal fee for the larger seat. No legacy carrier offers this kind of option, and even AirTran's business class upgrade fees are steeper than this upgrade cost. Higher level coach fare buckets will automatically get the upgrade on MIdwest. And with 40% of all their seats being the bigger 2x2 ones, the ability to upgrade on Midwest is far better than any other carrier.

Midwest definitely has challenges, and this doesn't assure their survival. But it's a heck of a lot better odds for them that they are trying to adapt rather than closing their eyes and hopting things get better on their own.

I guess it's a good thing I'm so short.

It means that customers, by their purchasing habits, were showing that they refused to pay more for more legroom, and that the cost of offering lots of legroom wasn't being recouped. The passengers who "want a choice of seating" really are passengers who want just plain cheaper seats and are "willing" to sit in cramped quarters to save money. They buy the cheapest ticket and don't care how much leg room there is, or just complain about it afterwards rather than basing their ticket purchase on it.

And as for the cookie, that's probably one of the best marketing tricks out there. For some reason, even though you probably had no urge to eat a cookie otherwise, or would never give a rat's ass about a free chocolate chip cookie in your own house, you add one to an airline flight, and people will do the stupidest things, including flying on a certain airline, to make sure they get one and eat it. Or the fact that when you think about it, first class really consists of just a cookie, enhanced by the fact the people sitting in back don't get to have one.

All I can say is this: if you usually end up with whatever is the cheapest seat, you have no right to be taken seriously when you whine about airlines with good service that are taking cost-cutting measurers. It's because people who aren't willing to pay a little more for better service that they're doing poorly.

I hope for their sake that they will accommodate people who are too tall to fit into their new regular seating, at no extra charge, or they risk legal action being taken against them.

I'm flying to Milwaukee next week and thanks to Midwest Airlines and competion it is possible to fly from San Francisco to milwaukee for $271 in first class on both US Airways and Continental.

Ok, I'm flying to see the Cowboys kick the Packers butts on the 21st and I want my leg room. I bought my ticket months ago with the underdstanding that this is agreat airline. I better at least still have a flight.

it seems like 2-3 inches total lost.. what's the huge problem?

Or they now have the "choice" to fly on a seat or not, since there now may be a cramped seat on that flight they would have otherwise been bumped off of.

Here you get to pay a little more and get a little more.

@PeteyNice: I guess I should apologize. I had always thought they were Otis Spunkmeyer cookies. It appears as though I was wrong.

[en.wikipedia.org]

@PeteyNice: Or said company could just buy a pack of Otis Spunkmeyer cookies instead of a whole airline.

I did fly LAN once to South America and the difference between them and AA was night and day! They had bigger seats and plenty of legroom as well as individual screens on the headrests.

Now you're no better than Delta or American.

I am very glad to hear that they are taking measures to ensure that they remain in business. Yes, corporate speak is a pain in the bum, but they're not sitting there waiting for a government bailout. Also, from what I read, they are not attempting to decrease service, just legroom.

I'd speculate the problem is that their jets are older and less fuel efficient.

Seriously when has any customer requested less leg/butt room on an airplane? Customers requested a choice of seating my ass.

"Our customers have told us they want a choice of seating, and Midwest Class enables us to respond to their needs," said Randall K. Smith, Midwest Airlines' vice president of sales and distribution.

I hate corporate-speak. This sentence suggests the seating change was affected by something other than the fact that they lost 80% of their fleet. Instead of coming right out and saying that the change is due to the fact that with fewer planes flying, they need to increase the number of passengers on the planes that are flying, they blame the consumers and say that we asked for "more seating options" (i.e. more cramped seats).

Funny, this is exactly why everyone resisted the Airtran buyout. Now Midwest is doing it all on their own!

"When you're down to 23 planes, you have no reason to exist anymore."