Next up.......AAI/AWA Code Share

[brew3departure]

Ty, I gotta call BS on this one...

With all due respect,

Ty, if you look at your posts over the last few years, you will see a bitter and angry tone towards any talk of Midwest Express/Midwest Airlines. By your own admission, you weren't hired there and went to Airtran - let me be the first to say, GOOD MOVE ON YOUR PART!

Midwest management is inept, resistant to change, but they are still somehow, someway, managing to hang on. I can think of a few reasons why they WOULDN'T want to codeshare with you guys at the time -- so, gloat all you like. Of all the criticisms that can be laid at the feet of Midwest managment, this isn't one of them - it sounds to me like another bitter, told-you-so statement from a one Mr. Ty Webb.

Just my opinion...
-brew3

 

[Ty Webb]

With all due respect,

Ty, if you look at your posts over the last few years, you will see a bitter and angry tone towards any talk of Midwest Express/Midwest Airlines. I can think of a few reasons why they WOULDN'T want to codeshare with you guys at the time -- so, gloat all you like.

I'm not angry toward Midex, not at all. And I certainly hope for the best for the pilots there.

If you are a Midex pilot, than you are certainly aware of your management's open disdain for AirTran. Hell, the interviewer (Ass't Chief Pilot S.S.) stood up there in front of my interview group and slammed AirTran by name not once, but twice during my interview . . . which I thought was incredibly bad form, especially since I had caught a ride on AirTran the previous day to ATL!

So, although I don't have any anger towards Midex management, I do get a chuckle at some of their pig-headedness.

Of all the criticisms that can be laid at the feet of Midwest managment, this isn't one of them - it sounds to me like another bitter, told-you-so statement from a one Mr. Ty Webb.

Just my opinion...
-brew3

I would say that my criticism of their handling of the matter was entirely valid; we could have put butts in their seats going throughout your system, which would put badly needed revenue in their coffers and might- just might- have even gotten some of the 1/3 of your pilots who were on the street back into the cockpit.

If there is anyone that is bitter, it is the decision makers at MEH, for they are the ones "cutting off their nose to spite their face". I have nothign to be bitter about.

 

[FL717]

Midwest management is inept, resistant to change, but they are still somehow, someway, managing to hang on. I can think of a few reasons why they WOULDN'T want to codeshare with you guys at the time -- so, gloat all you like. Of all the criticisms that can be laid at the feet of Midwest managment, this isn't one of them - -brew3

Having spent several years commuting on Midex, and seeing what a GREAT airline they were, I have to say that I also was very disappointed that they rejected a codeshare with us. I always wondered, and never got a reason from anyone exactly why they chose not to.

Your post alludes that you may know several reasons why Midex management elected not to codeshare, please share what you know about it, I'm very curious.

 

[TWA Dude]

Jeepers, I just start a rumor and people start sniping at each other. I guess the only solution is a three-way AWA/MW/AAI merger. You heard it here first. Now talk amongst yourselves.

 

[brew3departure]

I wish I was more in the "know", but I'm not...

Didn't mean to ignite a war here either - thanks for responding to my post in a civil manner. I don't work for MidEx - and whatever the asst. chief said to you was very unprofessional, no matter what airline you work for.

I do have friends there, though, some furloughed, some hanging on for dear life, some a little more senior.

Midwest was doing quite well for themselves pre 9/11 -- even with a slice of the market share, they were profitable for an unbelievably long stretch - I want to say it numbered in the years -- 10 years, perhaps? Their niche was the Milwaukee business traveler - and the MKE traveler in general -- who was willing to pay more, a LOT more, to go to Boston or D.C. because they knew they were going to get top notch service, a fabulous meal and a smile from most of their employees.

Even in the post 9/11 horribly depressed sky-is-falling environment, I think MidEx still covets the same group of people - I think MidEx management was probably scared by AirTran - and rightly so, probably saw you guys growing like mad and perhaps overtaking and squashing MidEx. This is what I've come to understand from my friends there, and if we put all the other decisions that have been made over the past four years at the Cookie Palace, it makes sense.

Enough for now - happy holidays, everyone!

-brew3