Good-Bye Midwest Airlines' Options, Hello...Detroit!

Yeah, we remember the bad old days, when flying was a luxury aimed at business travelers and the wealthy, and if you wanted to get out of Wisconsin by plane, it often meant descending into aviation hell, better known as the Northwest Airlines' hub in Detroit.

For customer misery, it often rivaled Chicago's O'Hare.

I remember missing my grandmother's Florida funeral because an emergency exit chute on my Northwest connecting flight deployed as we were being pulled back from the gate, and our departure was stalled for several crucial hours.

That and any number of delayed flights and chaotic cattle calls at the boarding gates.

Witnesses tell me that things are better now, but to tell you the truth, I haven't flown on a domestic connection out of Detroit in years. Life's too short.

Let's just say that one of Midwest's virtues was that you didn't have to find out first-hand.

Midwest's route cuts will leave us fewer options, but at least we still have the hometown carrier, albeit slimmed down.