Midwest Express airlines

SOMEWHERE OVER LAKE ERIE — Midwest Express airlines goes well with J-pop. My favorite Japanese pop music has a smooth, go-go luxury to it - it conjures exactly the sort of suave and sybaritic mood commercial air travel used to evoke in its jet-setting childhood.

It's hard to remember now, but at one point, flying was fun. At one point, flying was a luxury. Attractive and painfully fashionable air stewards and stewardesses served a heady mix of cocktails and real food, delivering high-quality service with a smile — at 20,000 feet.

Contrast this with the surly, air-rage-inducing airborne Greyhound buses most major airlines have become. The problem with major carriers is clear — in an effort to provide the cheapest, fastest air travel, airlines have turned passengers into cargo. Travelers are crammed into tiny seats, fed nigh-inedible "meals" (on the few flights that still offer them, that is), and treated like cattle. A magic curtain seperates the first class fliers from the miserable proles. What goes on up there? Like most Americans, I have no idea. Them tickets ain't cheap.

All I know for sure is that by any given flight's end, I'm ready to rise up, cover the rich in peanut butter, and eat them.

Consider Midwest Express a humane alternative. For $250, I can fly round-trip from Boston to Milwaukee. For this, I receive a wide leather seat, no separation of the classes (there is only one class: comfortable!) and the most polite service in the air.

DJ Tomoyuki Tanaka (Fantastic Plastic Machine) demonstrates how it feels to fly Midwest Express.

A brief example: While writing this review in an old fashioned paper notebook, an air hostess turned the light on for me, and tucked a napkin under my cup of coffee. I like that. It's easier to write with light. I might have gone another 20 minutes before figuring that out on my own.

But the real beauty of Midwest Express is the food. Oh, the food. Every flight features lunch or dinner.

On this particular flight, we were served a large slice of moist turkey breast with cranberry sauce and excellent stuffing. The chocolate-almond layer cake was only passable, but the brussels sprouts were the best I've had.

And although the free wine was not amazing, it fit the bill. I chose red, but passed up the complimentary refill, choosing to switch to coffee after my meal.

A recent report on MSNBC said that Midwest Express spends an average of $10 per passenger on food, more than double the typical expenditure. But when you look at that figure in comparison to the whole price of a ticket, it's a drop in the bucket, considering how much good food makes an air voyage livable — or even pleasant.

Midwest Express has its problems. It's quite difficult to find discount tickets, so fares typically range from $200 on up to $1000+, depending on demand. It has hubs in Kansas City and Milwaukee, so it's not always going to fly where you'd like it to, although it's in the process of doubling its fleet. And, dammit, they only serve you warm, delicious chocolate chip cookies on the lunch flights.

But as a company, Midwest Express has taken an important step back toward humane air travel. It's almost as though the company exists as a backlash to the very worst in air travel — discount carriers like ATA and Air Tran who seem to exist solely to make you wish you'd spent more on your ticket for every minute of your harried, accursed travels.

Modern Western culture has its failings — alienation, mass production and rush for the sake of rushing are near the top of the list. From that perspective, flying Midwest Express is like hopping into a time machine with wings.

— James Norton (jrnorton@flakmag.com)