In the air travel landscape of today in the US, in-flight service that make you feel served as a valued customer is hard to come by. Many airlines do not serve meals on their domestic flights, even on 4 to 5-hour long coast-to-coast flights. You can get some snacks like pretzels, chips and bars if you are lucky. Some do have snack boxes for purchase on board. Most only have their flight attendants serve you, in a a-matter-of-factly manner, a beverage to tide you through the most of their flights. Not to mention, of course, that you sit shoulder-against-shoulder, thigh-against-thigh (ok, this one is a bit exaggerated) with your neighbor, or worse, neighbors, and you just have so much space in front of you to stretch your legs.

That is why finding myself on a Midwest flight is like encountering a lovely village in an oasis, in the midst of the harsh, high-altitude desert landscape of Ladakh. I had to fly to Milwaukee for work a few times in the past month. I have heard my sales lady speak of the wonderful airline that they have, based out of this city. As the images of scenes on board aircraft cabins of various American carriers flashed across my mind, I could not help but wondered, how wonderful is wonderful? I did not know, not until I had my maiden flight with Midwest.

I read that this airline differentiates itself by providing the best comfort for coach class (economy class) passengers in the air. That was evident in the wide leather seats, lined two-by-two on each side of the B717 cabin. Each came with an adjustable headrest, wide armrests and a footrest lowered from the seat in front. I would normally only associate these seats with business class cabins. Well, I am also not so sure if some business class cabins feature such class in them.

The flight from Milwaukee back home was not too long – something like around 2 hours. In spite of the relatively short distance, there was food. Yes, they were for sale, but the in-flight magazine said that the dishes were conceived by some chef, which definitely had its marketing effect on me. To top it all off, this airline serves its passengers chocolate cookies that were baked on-board, two of them for each person, and you can still feel their warmth, holding them in your hands. Well, baking the cookies was probably not too difficult, but it was this sense of making you feel at home, or at somebody’s home, making you feel like a cherished guest, that left a deep impression on me.

Like many other people who fly Singapore Airlines and like their service, I believe there is a pampered flyer in me that wishes to be attended to. Nonetheless, I do fly on pretty rugged carriers too and I do not have any airlines that I have vowed to never again fly with. Neither do I usually cherry-pick airlines. Err, ok, I take the second statement back for now. Since I am only 2000 over miles short of a Star Alliance gold status, I am going with their carriers whenever the airfare permits, but normally, I do not cherry-pick airlines *grin*.

Midwest is certainly an airline that I look forward to flying with again. I am actually writing this post in a town close to Milwaukee and I will be flying off from there tomorrow. I cannot take their planes this time as the fares were too high the time I booked. I am flying with United of Star Alliance. Nonetheless, I do hope I will get to fly Midwest again.

Trying to write a post now* in the Snob Lounge of Chicago O’Hare airport. The Snob Lounge is the code name used in my household for airline passenger lounges such as the United Mileage Plus Lounge (the one that I’m in now) or any other lounges that Star Alliance Gold members have privileged access to.

Another aspect of traveling in the New World that I need to get used to is the frequent delays and cancellations. At least, it has happened to me often enough for me to say that they occur rather frequently. Just take this one day alone, there were changes to three out of the three flights I had to take:

1. Atlanta – Chicago -> flight delayed

The flight was delayed for 2 hours. This would have caused me to be just in time, if not late, for my meeting. Luckily, they were able to put me on another airline that was flying to Chicago just an hour after my original departure time.

2. Milwaukee – Chicago -> flight cancelled

Milwaukee and Chicago are over an hour’s drive apart. The airline was thoughtful enough to arrange for a limo to ferry the affected passengers, who still wanted to get to Chicago, to Chicago. Flight delays and cancellations and happy customers are the least likely to be mentioned in the same breath. On seeing the limo arrive after waiting anxiously for it for 30 minutes, we, the passengers, ended up being jolly about it.

I tried taking some pictures of the interior or the limo too, but they did not turn out very well.

3. Chicago – Atlanta -> flight delayed

This was where I ended up seeking shelter in the snob lounge. Come to think of it, it’s really a privilege to be able to have a place where you can chill out, away from the mass in the terminal. The worst part was after I got onto the plane. So, hey, I have finally made it onto the plane. Why did it seem that it was never going to push back from the gate?

Many flights were delayed or canceled this day, due to bad weather. The weather in Chicago looked fine, actually, but I heard that there was stormy weather forming in the mid-west. The picture shows a long queue of passengers with flights delayed or canceled, waiting to get help from the airline’s service counter. This was 9 something in the evening.

It has been a tiring day. Flying around… Driving around… The mind evaluating alternative travel options… On the plane back to Atlanta, I just wanted myself to be home as soon as possible. I reached home at almost 2 in the morning.

*As it turned out, I did not have time to finish the post in the Snob Lounge, but carried on with it the following day at home.