BB apologizes to the MKE peeps.

Republic CEO apologizes for comments about Milwaukee - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

I'm eagerly awaiting my apology for him terminating my flight benefits with (less than) 2 weeks notice.

I'm seriously thinking about using my remaining pass privileges to travel down to Indy and attend X-mas mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church. I think it would make me feel a whole lot better to sit down next to Bryan during mass to explain my frustration to him. After all, Christmas time is truly the time to tell someone how you feel about them.

Classic how this guy can't even take full responsibility for his comments:

“Innocent as they may have been, they clearly read as disparaging and that wasn’t my intent.”

As far as this donkey Bedford was concerned, he wasn't being disparaging, it's just that all those Milwaukee folks took his innocent comments wrong...misread him...hence the half-a**ed apology...rrrright!!! He should try reading some Dale Carnegie for a change.

“We are all for fair competition, but at some point we have to look at the market,” he said. “There’s always going to be competition in Milwaukee. The question is whether the competition is fair and sensible.”

Welcome to the real world. Fair and sensible was back in 78 now it is bleed the other guy until he screams uncle. So who has the longest staying power between the three?

To the Midwest guys/gals, sorry to see your airline go down the dumper.

What is just getting started?

I mean, really: why would you buy a ticket on Midwest if you live in MKE?

There are no incentives. Frequent flyer miles take you to less places, service and onboard amenities are the same as the competition if not worse (ERJ-135s!!?), the CEO of the new parent company makes fun of where you live, and more.

Johnso29 is right. What is getting started is probably the grand finale of the end of the Midwest brand altogether.

Must not fly with the senior guys then. CHQ was pay for training up until 1999. I remember a few guys telling me how CHQ pioneered pay for training in the early 90s and Comair and others began shortly thereafter (I cannot confirm that though). I do know for a fact there are pay for training pilots from CHQ still on the seniority list (albeit not many..probably just under 100).

I agree with you there. I obviously have nothing to do with any of this but I wouldn't be surprised if this is all a big transition to the F9 name. People buy a ticket because it says Midwest then get put on a F9 plane and just like regular advertising it breeds a new type of customer loyalty. The Frontier folks run a good airline and have great crews. Regardless of management the character and professionalism of those there doesn't change. While true that it isn't a Midwest painted plane doing all the flying that doesn't mean the people are receiving any less of a product. I wouldn't discount the RAH group in it's entirety as not providing a great service either. Outside of a small few people each and every pilot I've flown with has been exceptional at doing whatever it takes to get the people where they want to go in a very safe and efficient manner.

I know that it's easy for some to see any change as a bad thing here since it's what we do for a living. However I also see a lot of bashing on topics that really don't make much of a difference. Just like this on BB's statement about MKE. Are people here really trying to say that MKE is a tourist destination? My family and I have traveled my entire life and at no point has anyone said "I want to go to MKE". I think things here are being taken out of context and not focused where they should be. I'm not a BB cheerleader by any means but don't feel he's wrong in what he's said here. I do however feel he's going to severely tank if he doesn't do something to up the quality of our FA's. If there is going to be loss of traffic and lack of brand loyalty it's not going to be because of this article. It's going to be because of the trailer park FA's that don't think twice about providing any kind of customer service. Don't confuse the quality of the FA with the quality of the guy in the cockpit. I've always felt proud of the professionalism most our crews show.

Don't know about CHQ, but your statement can apply to a bunch of carriers where PFT used to to be the norm, not the exception. COMAIR (as mentioned), CHQ (as mentioned), ASA, PCL (Express One), XJT (COEX), BIZEX (now AE), ACA (if there were still around), PSA (Jetstream International), etc do or would ALL have pilots still on the list that paid for initial training.

I thought airing of grievances was a part of Festivus and not Christmas.....

I know most here hate RAH, and even more hate Bedford, so I'm just gonna assume that deep down inside you know exactly what he meant when offering these "disparaging" comments, and most of you probably agree with him. Come on, as "airline" people, we sure make ourselves look ignorant, by putting MKE, PIT, and BUF on the same level of PHX, SAN, STT on the leisure travel scale, just because you want to further your grief with RAH.