Midwest Airlines recently went from having “Signature Service,” with wider seats on its Boeing 717s, to stuffing “normal” coach seats onto the back half the plane and charging $50 extra for the right to sit in the wider seats. The same wider seats that used to be the norm.
Good luck trying to get your company’s travel office to pay for that extra $50 upgrade, each way!
Well, friend of the blog Robert P., a longtime Midwest Airlines booster, has had it. He has written a great letter to the CEO of Midwest Airlines, in which he compares the airline to Schlitz Beer.
It’s a great letter, not because it successfully and efficiently argues for a clean resolution to a customer service problem. No, this isn’t that kind of letter. Rather, it’s a slap-in-the-face, the kind of letter that, if the CEO actually receives it, he’ll remember. He’ll have a laugh, but then he might — just might — realize that the race to the bottom isn’t a winning strategy for a small airline in a competitive market.
We’re republishing the letter here, both for your entertainment, and to make it just a little easier for the airline to take note…
Mr. Timothy E. Hoeksema
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Midwest Airlines
6744 South Howell Avenue
Oak Creek, WI 53154Dear Mr. Hoeksema:
I frequently fly Midwest Airlines for both business and personal travel, and, as a Wisconsin resident, I have been very proud of this Milwaukee-based company. However, two recent flights to and from Washington, DC (Flight 411 on October 27, and Flight 418 on October 28) reminded me of another great Milwaukee company: the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company.
As you probably know, Schlitz was the most popular beer in the United States throughout the 1940s and ‘50s. Indeed, it probably put Milwaukee on the map of the national consciousness. Unfortunately for that great company, in the 1970s, facing an increase in commodity prices, it changed the formula for its beer, adding rice, cheaper yeast, and a different fermentation process. Customers reacted badly to the formula change, particularly noting that the beer no longer kept a proper “head.” To rectify that problem, the Schlitz managers added a seaweed extract as a foaming agent. However, after several months and under the types of temperatures common in a warehouse, the extract would solidify, resulting in “chunks” floating in the beer. Rather than recall the defective product, revert to the tried and true formula, and “weather” the increase in commodity prices, Schlitz instead decided to weather the bad publicity. As you can guess, it didn’t, and Milwaukee lost what was once a great company.
The reason my flights to and from Washington brought this story to mind is because of the new seating arrangements on your Boeing 717s. Midwest has long been known for the comfort of its seating and the quality of its service. I read some time ago that Midwest was refitting its planes to offer two types of seats, but the implication was that the smaller seats were for cheaper, discount tickets and tourist travel, not business travelers. However, you recently decided to start charging an extra $50 fee for the types of seats that were standard on your flights just last month.
Worse, you charge this fee even for full-fare tickets and Executive Miles members, even though other airlines offer their “economy plus” seats to their frequent fliers and full-fare ticket holders as a matter of course. Frankly, I think this is ridiculous. Midwest typically charges more for its tickets to begin with, which I’ve long been happy to pay to avoid being crammed into an airplane like so many sardines. However, your new seating arrangements mean Midwest is now essentially offering AirTran comfort at Singapore Airlines prices.
Furthermore, Flight 411 and 418 lead me to believe that this new policy is not exactly a rousing success. On my flight to Washington, there were 9 people in the “Signature Seating” section. On my return, exactly 3 people. The back sections of both flights were full. The difference was so obvious that I’m surprised that, while you were refitting the 717s, you didn’t add a tail-wheel to address the potential load imbalance.
In other words, it appears that your new seating charges netted you $450 in extra fees going to DC, and $150 on the return.
Paradoxically, $450 is approximately the price of the ticket I paid for this trip, and would have paid on a trip I’m likely to forego in the future. Air travel today is sufficiently annoying that the significant difference in comfort these new seats offer is enough to keep me home from many proposed trips. At the very least, where Midwest is but one of several choices to a destination, there is no longer a good reason to choose Midwest over a discount carrier.
I am confident I am not alone in making these decisions. I know these are tough times, particularly for smaller airlines, who historically have not benefitted as much from government assistance in hard times as have the larger carriers. But alienating long-time customers with poorly thought-through policies is not a recipe for success. And eliminating the very things that make you special is not a way to make yourself competitive. If Flight 418 is any indication, you now have $150 in extra fees, a half-empty flight, and a group of irate customers.
In other words, Mr. Hoeksema, you have chunks in your beer. Please fix it before it’s too late.
Thank you very much for your time.
Best regards,
Robert P…
Related:
- Schlitz beer making comeback [Galesburg Register-Mail]
- “Yours is a very bad hotel” – The art of the testy PowerPoint Presentation
- Reader rant: “Ryanair, the airline for the extremely poor or very lonely”
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October 31st, 2008 at 10:30 am
Yeah, Midwest! And don’t you dare put chunks in the Alterra coffee!
Kevin P.
Costa Mesa, CA
October 31st, 2008 at 10:42 am
Amazing letter. I hope the CEO reads it and takes it to heart. If not, they have chunks in their CEO, and it is time for a new one of those too!
October 31st, 2008 at 11:06 am
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how to gripe.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:10 am
Bravo! I found your blog via Consumerist.com. That was one of the best customer service letters I’ve read.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:18 am
Amen Brother.
I too am a Milwaukeean and prefer Midwest Airlines.
But no more. Why?
New small seats.
New smaller planes. (but at least no more early ’80s DC 9s!)
Higher prices.
Too bad you sold out to Northwest cum Delta.
Long live AirTrans!!!
Strangely, Midwest, your comeback will have to be like the Schlitz analogy. Schlitz is now owned by Pabst and is contract brewed by Miller in Georgia. So perhaps my next midwest flight will be in a JAL plane out of Ohare!!!!
October 31st, 2008 at 11:38 am
And it used to be that they just had chunks of chocolate in their cookies. Perhaps now that fuel prices have come back down they stand a chance of correcting their recent mistakes. Since I’m a cynic I don’t anticipate they will. Hats off to the guy who wrote the letter. I share his sentiments…
October 31st, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Good take on the fall of Midwest. I flew Midwest (Express) for many years, mostly because I was a kid and my mom bought tickets on Midwest Express because she couldn’t stand flying on other airlines (usually Northwest in the case of our regular MKE-BOS).
But now… it’s like they’re TRYING to lose all of their customers.
October 31st, 2008 at 3:36 pm
That was one great letter and I love the way the beer is compared to how their service is.
October 31st, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I sent a similar letter to Midwest about 2-3 years ago when they eliminated the meals. I had done my homework and calculated the cost savings they were getting by eliminating the nice meals they used to serve.
The fact of the matter is they have left the boutique airline business and therefore can no longer charge boutique airline fees. Like you, I was willing to pay more — up to $100 each way for the wider seats, the nice meals, the more relaxing flights.
Too bad. It was nice while it lasted.
October 31st, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Incredible analogy. I hope someone sits up and takes notice. I mean, the *right* someone.
November 1st, 2008 at 3:38 pm
As a 15 year employee/Pilot we are embarrased with our managment team and the waisting of our airline. We have work hard and been proud of the product we had. Coorperate greed and poor managment has lead to were we are at.
November 1st, 2008 at 3:53 pm
A letter to the CEO wont do any good. Midwest is owned by Ft. Worth, TX fund called “TPG Capital”. I speculate that when oil broke $100 TPG was losing a fortune on its investment. When oil was nearing $150 the guys/gals that made the decision to buy Midwest Airlines were probably ‘let go’. TPG paid $16/share after Air Tran offered $15.75. Air Tran is about $3.50 a share because of poor oil hedging choices and what looks like a ‘recession’ coming down the pike. TGP has lost a fortune on their Midwest Air investment so they need to do whatever is necessary to keep the airline running and to cut down on further losses..
I live/work in NYC and grew up in Topeka so Midwest Air was ‘my airline’ of choice for a non-stop from NYC to Kansas City. I recently had to use Air Tran because Midwest only had the new coach seats. They hadn’t installed the ‘biz class’ yet. I’m 6-2″ 250lbs. Coach seats weren’t designed for people like me.
November 1st, 2008 at 4:22 pm
I must admit the customer service letter hits home on a lot of valid issues. As a concerned employee of this airline I ask that everyone take a step back and allow the current strife affecting this company to run it’s due course. The 2 organized labor groups within the airline (pilots and flt attendants) are working hard both publicly and behind the scenes to right the wrongs that at present are dragging this once great company down.
Please don’t give up on Midwest. Instead, voice your concerns to our management, insist they return all the good people’s jobs that have been outsourced or flat-out eliminated to go back and fulfill the careers that they once were so proud to accomplish.
November 1st, 2008 at 6:36 pm
This letter is one of probably many like it that no one sees. If you think they treat their passengers bad, you’d be horrified over how they treat employees. I am a former Skyway employee that, like many good people I have known, bled blue for the company. When I began working there, I was so proud of a company I thought had nowhere to go but up. Now Skyway is gone and the only way Midwest is going up is in another air carrier’s plane. Not only that, but my family (new baby included) is directly affected by the epidemic of furloughed pilots. I’m sure that many of the passengers I encountered over the years, singing the airline’s praises, have gone elsewhere. Too bad, because even if Mr. Hoeksema and the rest of his minions don’t care about Midwest’s passengers, know that the pilots, flight attendants, and ticket agents you all encounter do. The employees hate the changes just as much as the passengers do. Don’t believe the rediculous messages Mr. Hoeksema puts out to the media… he doesn’t have a clue.
November 3rd, 2008 at 9:29 am
I want the plaque in the photo. Awesome.
November 8th, 2008 at 6:17 am
Nice post, however, you must not understand the economics of the airlines industry today.
Yes, we all would love to have the signature seats throughout the aircraft. Some have even said they didn’t mind paying extra in the past for the seats and meals that were a Midwest tradition…. So those same people are now saying they will not fly Midwest or pay 50.00 more for a signature seat… but wait.. they just said they didn’t mid paying a premium to fly Midwest prior to the seat modification, so why gripe now? AirTran and all the other airlines also charge more for their “premium seating” and have traditional coach seats in the back. So you are now never going to fly Midwest, but you will fly another airline that offers the same or worse seating? Yeah.. OK.. I guess that makes sense… NOT.
In todays economic environment, the 88 seat 717 was not making money and YX was and is not able to charge more than other airlines with similar flight times. Yes, some have said they would pay more… but the key work is only some would pay more.. are you going to pay enough to cover the cost of those who will not pay more so they fly the cheapest competitor regardless of connections? NO. How would Midwest be able to cover the costs of the business when only a handful of passengers would pay more for an all signature seating configuration… OH and good luck getting your corporate office to pay more money, when you yourseld said they won’t cover the 50.00 fee to have a signature seat now! DUH.
Airlines are a business, and like all businesses, they must change and adapt to the current economic conditions. Midwest had no choice but to change their current business model as there is no way it would be even remotely successful in todays environment.
So many are quick to blame Tim and say he had a failed business plan and drove the company to the ground.. well, he has not. I have heard comments by flight crews saying we should have expanded.. what to very price competitive markets? markets with very low yields, but hight load factors? Yeah.. that works.. NOT. I have heard many say Tim has ruined Midwest.. I challenge any of those who are so smart to come up with a viable business plan that would work and be profitable, pay our flight crew what they feel they deserve.. oh lets not forget the rest of the employees who the unions could care less about.
So bottom line, Midwest changed their business model because they had to, not because they wanted to. We would love to be the “old” Midwest Express, but it is not feasable anymore. i would like to pay .25 for gas, but those days are not coming back.
November 8th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
XY makes a good point, but only so far. It’s clear Midwest’s business model was in trouble. Its new seating arrangements are trying to do what economists call “price discrimination” — charging more to customers willing to pay more. But its doing it in a very half-assed way. Tourist travelers will go for the lowest fare. Some (though not most) business travelers as well. But you have to draw a distinction between a business traveler and the business whom the traveler works for (and who is paying the bill). Corporations often have contracts with an airline or certain guidelines for business travel designed to save the company money in the long-run while not making the travel too onerous for employees. One of the key things these guidelines try to do is make the travel justifiable to shareholders, voters, or whoever else might be in an oversight position. Therefore, you see things like companies willing to pay for business class, but not first class — regardless of the price. This means that any airline with 2 classes that calls the higher class “first” potentially misses out on a lot of fares. The same thing here. A company likely will cough up an extra $50 in the cost of a ticket as the price of current air travel. But it won’t reimburse a business traveler for a $50 upgrade. One is looked at as necessary under the rules, the other as unnecessary. These rules may not be rational, but how many corporate rules are?
The bottom line, in other words, is that by trying to raise revenue from business travelers through fees, you may actually be cutting your opportunity to recoup your costs. This is something the finance industry has long realized. I’m surprised the airline industry hasn’t figured it out yet.
January 6th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
As an Midwest employee for the last 22 years, I know for a fact that writing a letter to this company will not get you anywhere. If it makes you feel better to gripe, then fine…do it. He see’s what he wants to see and hears only what he wants to hear. He wears blocks and blinders like a horse does. The only way the company will change is when he either steps down voluntarily or is forced out. He is very slow to react to the problems in front of him. Had he acted earlier on these issues, we would not be in the position we are today.
Its also nice to hear on the news today that Midwest Connect now flies more passengers out of MKE than any other airline *even mainline Midwest!!). NOT!!
January 29th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
[...] to Heathrow, has been offered a new job: food tester for Virgin. Call me biased, but I still like Robert P.’s letter to Midwest Airlines better. (”You have chunks in your beer.”) Hey Robert, get any job [...]
February 4th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Brilliant! I truly hope other airlines read this letter as well. Even if the CEO doesn’t read this, the letter was well worth the writing simply from the buzz it’s created. Here it is, several months later, and people are still finding it on the Internet (i.e. me!) These are tough times, true, but not every cut back is a smart one.
February 11th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
I’m long standing YX employee and I can tell you that the leaders here have their heads in the sand. I see a lot of communications about how we were ranked #1 yet again for customer service in some obscure publication, and how we’ve provided the best care in the air – yet again! The problem is, and has always been, that this company focuses on the positive feedback we receive and plays down anything negative as some random, ignorable, occurrence. I’ve flown other carriers (and our own) frequently in the past year- something I encourage our leadership to do – and can tell you from my own personal experience, that there are a lot of disgruntled ex-Midwest customers out there. The leaders of this company believe that our service is what differentiates us. What they do not realize, or at least are unwilling to accept, is that our service *does* differentiate us, just not in they way they think. When the people I encounter talk positively about Midwest, it’s always in the past tense, and delivered with a note of pity and sadness.