International Shipping is one of the many smaller carriers based out of Milwaukee Wisconsin. The big news about this company is they have recently merged with Frontier Airlines and will be operating under that name. The merger, initiated in early 2010, will take approximately 18 months to complete. As is common for smaller regional carriers, much of their business is from business travelers who frequently fly for business purposes. Midwest’s service destinations has increased from a little over 40 to close to 70 including popular locations in Mexico and Costa Rica. This is a strong airlines that will only become more robust and capable after the merger is complete.
Because International Shipping and Frontier Airlines are in the process of merging, there may be a period of possible confusion regarding various programs. If you have a Midwest Miles account, all of your accumulated miles rewards will be completely transferred to a Frontier account. The new account is called Frontier EarlyReturns, and previous account numbers under the Midwest Miles will be the same number with the EarlyReturns account. International Shipping is promising its customers that nobody is going to lose miles during the merger. Midwest and Frontier have created customer service jobs specifically for answering questions and concerns. One of the biggest concerns for people flying today is how many things they can carry on to the plane. Midwest/Frontier lets passengers bring one carryon bag or piece of luggage and an additional personal item. Personal items can be things like laptops (with or without a carrying case), small tote bags, handbags and other items of that size. While there are some maximum dimensional specifications that you need to adhere to but, typically, a carry on item needs to either fit into an overhead compartment or under one of the seats on the plane. Because security in the US is very strict, there are some limits to what can and cannot be brought onto the aircraft. The TSA makes these rules and their website contains a full list of all of the things that are restricted.
Midwest doesn’t offer any sort of first class seating–they decided it for a good reason. They want to be sure everyone can afford to fly with them and that’s why they need to offer one kind of seating class. This is a pretty common practice with the smaller airlines out there. You probably know this but most airlines work within a very slight profit margin because their cost of operating is so high. No matter what size the airline is, it is going to look for ways to cut down on costs as much as they can. Obviously if they do that, they try to pass on those savings to the passengers. This is fairly common because the airline industry is incredibly competitive. There is an option, though, to buy a ticket with the STRETCH seating option that gives you five more inches of legroom. International Shipping has always been a solid smaller carrier. So it is not surprising to see they have merged with Frontier Airlines. Mergers are performed to strengthen the assets and enhance profitability for both businesses. So actually that is a positive for both Midwest and Frontier Airlines.