Delta Leaving

[Ardbeg... innit]

Well, the other shoe has dropped locally.

Northwest had served us locally for a couple decades, ever since they absorbed the old Republic Airlines in fact.

Over that time, our local service has gown from 6 flights in/out per day, 3 each to Detroit and Minneapolis. Then we lost the 3 to Detroit, but gained a fourth flight to MSP. Then we lost that fourth flight, and we lost the 50 seat jets for 30 seat props. Then Delta took over from Northwest.

Now it appears that Delta wants to pull out, in 3 weeks. If they do, it would be a 120 mile drive to the nearest airport.

United has hinted it might come in with flights to Chicago, twice per day.

Apparently, the bastards at Delta really screwed fliers outbound this morning. The late flight in last dropped off its passengers at 11:30pm then took of back to MSP, canceling a full flight scheduled to go out this morning at 6:30am. Imagine getting a call at midnight telling you your flight in 6 hours was canceled for no reason.

The part thats confusing is that the flights are at more than 95% capacity, and they were at that level when the bigger jets were flying in here.

Anyone want about 50,000 Delta miles? It looks like Im screwed out of those.

[Chicago Jake]

Well that sounds like it will suck!

But, I guess it goes hand in hand with cleaning out your own septic tank among the joys of living many leagues away from civilization.

[Robin Hood]

120 miles is pretty standard for us to get to a decent airport. We have two choices St. Louis or Chicago. Flying domestic it is a toss up, international though O'hare usually wins hands down.

[Ardbeg... innit]

Difference being, I didnt say "decent" airport, I said the "nearest" airport, that means a runway and at least commercial one gate. Rhinelander Wisconsin fits that, with 4 flights in and out a day, Marquette MI with 5 flights in and out a day. Green Bay is about 250 miles, with a couple dozen flights (which I am sure is at least comparable to Springfield, if not bigger).

Nearest "decent" airport is Minneapolis-StPaul, thats a 7 hour drive.

United is in fact coming in, starting next month. So we get a 50 passenger jet, but we drop to only 2 flights per day, and now everything will go through OHara rather than MSP. Trying to figure out through what combination of airline/hotel/rental car point program to best get mil Delta miles into United miles... no optimal path yet. Have to do that before I cancel my Delta Miles credit card and get a United miles card.