Air Tran RANT

[OzFan]

Ok, so I have to vent....

I booked our SEPTEMBER flight back in April. Paid for our seats, got our NS flight and thought at least this part was done. WRONG. I just happened to be checking airfare for my sister when I noticed my flight home wasn't there. I called and lo and behold to my surprise(not) my flight had been changed. We now had a 45 min layover in Atlanta, and to boot our seats weren't assigned. I sorta kinda pitched a little fit and got on a much eariler NS flight home. So it did cut into my last day, but at least we were on a NS flight home. When I asked the CS rep when they were planning on informing me of the change they said I would have gotten an email before my flight departed. ??? when would have that been, I asked? The day of? The night before? or when I got to the airport? I had to rearrange several things including the rental car.
Well, since then I check our flights daily. I don't mean I glance at them, I check before I go to work, when I get home from work and right before I go to bed. My husband thinks I need professional help. Anyways, I checked this morning before left for work, all was good. Both flights were almost full and I was feeling confident they would hold. I was oh so WRONG. When I got home from work, I did the usual check. Oh my....both flights were gone. Maybe I did something wrong, went back and checked again, again my flights were gone. In fact, only 1 NS was flying out of Chicago Midway that day, and our returning flight was the same way. I called. The CS rep told me due to the rising fuel charges they were cutting almost all of the NS flights from MDW to MCO. I had already been assigned another time. With a layover in Atlanta and we were NOT sitting together. Same for my return, but they had me coming back @ 9 something in the morning, with another 55 min. layover in Atlanta. I basically told her to refund my money, I was booking with SW. She told me all carriers do this, I told her SW has NEVER done this to me and I would NEVER fly them again. Also said some not so appropiate things that included a small space she could shove my tickets. I had to rebook with SW, for a much earlier flight and a much later flight home at the tune of 375.00 more, but at least I'm not worrying over it anymore. I'm trying to look on the bright side....more time in Disney.
But now I'm trying to adjust my times for my rental car. The code that was sooooo goood to be true doesn't work anymore, I guess with so many people calling and asking if it was ok, tipped them off and now you can't use that code anymore. I'm paying almost a $100.00 more for my rental now.
Anyways THANK YOU all for letting me vent.

 

[CarolA]

Well.... I guess it made you feel good to abuse the agent, but remember she didn't make the changes.

Yes, SW doesn't make many changes but I bet you bought AirTran just because they let you book farther out? Or because AirTran was cheaper?

I am sorry your life was inconvienced, but I think your reaction was out of line. Those folks on the phone have NO control over what mangement does and are at high risk right now of losing thier jobs. Being rude to them only makes you look bad and doesn't accomplish a thing. Send an email or write mangement, but.... if you resemeble a toddler on the phone remember that agents are at lot less likely to be nice in return!

 

[CinderellasSister]

I have to agree with the OP, as I'm about to go through the same thing. I was just casually checking my December Air Tran flights a few minutes ago, and my flight home is gone!! I called the reservation department, and they didn't know what to tell me. They looked at my reservation, and it still showed me being on that flight (to where? the bermuda triangle?!) So she went and asked her supervisor who was, and I quote "just as baffled" as to where my flight went. I have not even been reassigned to a new flight as of right now. I did notice a significant decrease in the number of flights on my 2 days, for both non-stop and lay-overs. Maybe I'll have to re-examine SW as well.

 

[bavaria]

But does this surprise anyone? it is all over the news about airlines struggling, and has been for months. Daily there are reports online, in the newspaper, on the television, on the radio. Why would you not expect changes especially when your flights are months away? Airlines made seasonal schedule changes before the fuel prices started to go up to record levels. That is nothing new.

And I agree with CarolA - abusing the front line staff is not appropriate; they are in fear of their jobs and it is not fair to treat them so poorly on top of that.

 

[CarolA]

I think that everyone should be very grateful that the airlines are still refunding those fares. If you read the contract of carriage you agree to when you buy most of them do not have to do anything but get you from point A to point B on the day you booked. If they change the flights refunds are not guranteed.

I expect that soon this "goodwill" effort will end. Why should they give you money back to spend on thier competetion?

And before someone shows up saying "I will file a dispute with my CC company" The credit card company will contact the airline who will point to the contract and the credit card company will tell you "too bad". The airline will have "delivered the service" they contracted to.

 

[debster812]

Ok, so I have to vent....

I basically told her to refund my money, I was booking with SW. She told me all carriers do this, I told her SW has NEVER done this to me and I would NEVER fly them again. Also said some not so appropiate things that included a small space she could shove my tickets.

Well, I'm not going to be one to just let you vent.

You verbally abused a CSR because of something completely and totally out of her control? And then cursed at her?

Like Carol A and Bavaria both said, these employees are seriously in jeopardy of losing their jobs. Some potentially sooner than others. Being yelled at by unhappy and unrealistic customers certainly can't help.

I sincerely hope there are no weather or mechanical delays on your SW flights.

 

[Maine-iac]

But does this surprise anyone? it is all over the news about airlines struggling, and has been for months. Daily there are reports online, in the newspaper, on the television, on the radio. Why would you not expect changes especially when your flights are months away? Airlines made seasonal schedule changes before the fuel prices started to go up to record levels. That is nothing new.

And I agree with CarolA - abusing the front line staff is not appropriate; they are in fear of their jobs and it is not fair to treat them so poorly on top of that.

I agree. It just baffles me every time I see a new thread where someone is mad because their flights were changed. Times are changing folks, get used to it.

I have always booked on Delta months in advance and they have always made changes to the schedules and I have always been right on top of the changes. It takes just 5 min to check.

What are these people gonna do when SW has to make some not so popular changes? Stop using them too?

 

[iloveokw]

Excuse me - there are more posts on this board about Air Tran changing nonstops than any other airline - WAKE UP!

 

[deedeetoo]

While I agree with Bavaria and CarolA that you should not be surprised about these changes, I do think it is OK to be upset about them. I am flying out next week and I have been checking my flights daily, saying a little prayer that they are still the same as I wait for them to come up.

I think the frequent flyers among us get a bit jaded and don't realize what a big deal this is to someone who is not a frequent flyer. Also flying with kids is a completely different experience than flying by yourself. If I am by myself on a business trip and something get screwed up, I deal with it. If I am going on vacation with kids in tow, the same screw up becomes much more substantial.

However, I have to agree that it is not OK to abuse the CSR. It is never OK to abuse the CSR. It is not nice and it doesn't help your cause at all.

 

[ladyjayhawk]

Some of you need to realize that there are vacationers that do not eat, sleep and breathe "transportation news." Many people heading to WDW are not frequent flyers and don't fully realize how the airline industry is changing. If I was an occasional flyer and I purchased a flight that the airline was advertising and allowing me to buy, I wouldn't expect it to be changed and I especially would not expect the airline to delay notifying me about a change. For someone that has worked hard to plan their vacation, a change in arrival or departure (or both!) would be disappointing.


"I think the frequent flyers among us get a bit jaded and don't realize what a big deal this is to someone who is not a frequent flyer. Also flying with kids is a completely different experience than flying by yourself. If I am by myself on a business trip and something get screwed up, I deal with it. If I am going on vacation with kids in tow, the same screw up becomes much more substantial."


OzFan, vent on!!

 

[pigletto]

Some of you need to realize that there are vacationers that do not eat, sleep and breathe "transportation news." Many people heading to WDW are not frequent flyers and don't fully realize how the airline industry is changing. If I was an occasional flyer and I purchased a flight that the airline was advertising and allowing me to buy, I wouldn't expect it to be changed and I especially would not expect the airline to delay notifying me about a change. For someone that has worked hard to plan their vacation, a change in arrival or departure (or both!) would be disappointing.


"I think the frequent flyers among us get a bit jaded and don't realize what a big deal this is to someone who is not a frequent flyer. Also flying with kids is a completely different experience than flying by yourself. If I am by myself on a business trip and something get screwed up, I deal with it. If I am going on vacation with kids in tow, the same screw up becomes much more substantial."


OzFan, vent on!!

I would fall into that category of people that do not eat sleep and breathe transportation news.
And YES I would be upset if I had experienced the frustrations of the OP. Who wouldn't be?
But I would also check myself and make sure I wasn't verbally abusive to a person who has NO control or say in the situation. I mean really all that accomplished was making someone elses day as terrible as your own.
I don't see that as anything to be proud of.

 

[macraven]

i always book my flight in january for an october trip.

this year i waited till february and did pay $20 more than i could have.

united cancelled my return evening flight in may.

i found out like the op did. i checked the schedule and my flight had disappeared.

i called and the rep said i should have received an email to update me.

she apologized for the error and then made sure an email was sent out.

the time they changed me to was not a good one.

there is no way i want to be at ord during rush hour.
the car service would take forever to get me home.

i called united again and they switched me from the layover flight on my return portion and sent me a $50 voucher. she said that in the contract united has, when a change of 3 hours happens with a switched flight, a voucher can be issued if requested.

i saw today that united lowered their fare on my trip by a lot.

when i bought it was $215 then soared up to $400 yesterday.
this afternoon, the same ressie i had went down to $259 rt.

i see you already rebooked with another carrier.
if that doesn't work out, and if you can travel out of o'hare, some better prices are there.

i used midway some years back.
no problem with the airport but o'hare is much closer for me to travel to.

i wish you luck on your flights.

keep checking them as many carriers are changing flights.

united rep told me that the evening ns flights are being cancelled from ord to mco and that 50% of the evening flights to vegas are being scrapped also.

don't let this ruin your vacation.
i know it cuts into your time and that changes park plans.

i have the same thing happening to me also.
i always take the late evening ns flight out of mco but not this time.

 

[danielle.st]

I'm sorry about the flight changes. I can understand being upset, but it wasn't the agents fault either.
I think it is probably easy for some people to think it's no big deal. This stuff is a huge deal to me. I haven't been on a vacation of any sort in 8 years, and haven't flown anywhere in 12 years. I don't live somewhere that has numerous options for reasonably priced airfare.
This is just depressing.

 

[debster812]

Some of you need to realize that there are vacationers that do not eat, sleep and breathe "transportation news." Many people heading to WDW are not frequent flyers and don't fully realize how the airline industry is changing. If I was an occasional flyer and I purchased a flight that the airline was advertising and allowing me to buy, I wouldn't expect it to be changed and I especially would not expect the airline to delay notifying me about a change. For someone that has worked hard to plan their vacation, a change in arrival or departure (or both!) would be disappointing.


"I think the frequent flyers among us get a bit jaded and don't realize what a big deal this is to someone who is not a frequent flyer. Also flying with kids is a completely different experience than flying by yourself. If I am by myself on a business trip and something get screwed up, I deal with it. If I am going on vacation with kids in tow, the same screw up becomes much more substantial."


OzFan, vent on!!

You are 100% correct. My family flies 2 or 3 times a year, and we have one child who's been flying since he was 5. I'd classify us as fairly savvy leisure travellers. No one is saying that the casual leisure traveler should be up on all the ins and outs, but since the airline woes are pretty big news now, it should be getting out there anyway.

What I took huge issue with was the OP berating the CSR who had the misfortune to be on the other end of the phone, and had to endure being cursed at and verbally abused. That CSR did NOT make the schedule changes, that CSR did NOT cut back AirTran's capacity, and that CSR is not out to personally wreck the OP's trip. A little kindness and patience might have gone a long way.

 

[kaytieeldr]

While I agree with Bavaria and CarolA that you should not be surprised about these changes, I do think it is OK to be upset about them.

I think it's fine to be upset. I think it's okay to come here and vent. I do NOT think it's okay to verbally abuse an airline employee who had NO input in any cancellations, flight changes, or other business decisions. And I'm not a "jaded" frequent flyer (two to four times a year isn't 'frequent', right?)

Some of you need to realize that there are vacationers that do not eat, sleep and breathe "transportation news." Many people heading to WDW are not frequent flyers and don't fully realize how the airline industry is changing. If I was an occasional flyer and I purchased a flight that the airline was advertising and allowing me to buy, I wouldn't expect it to be changed and I especially would not expect the airline to delay notifying me about a change

In fairness, while the OP is probably not a frequent flyer, she IS aware enough of the airline industry changes to be checking her flights at LEAST three times a day. As for 'delaying notifying' a passenger of any changes - well, most likely they are notifying passengers in the order of departure. They'd contact passengers flying in July before they'd contact passengers flying in September.

 

[bicker]

Folks really do need to be more careful about learning about what they're buying, before they buy it. In a recent thread, I posted links to all the contracts of carriage. (I cannot find the thread, now, probably buried under all the other "AirTran changed my flights..." threads... did someone happen to grab a link to that list?)

While verbally abusing a CSR is pointless and not very nice, the real issue here is expecting things to work in some manner different from how they actually work. Folks need to really come to grips with the fact that what they're purchasing when the purchase airline tickets is transportation between two points on a specific day, and nothing more. Even when you pay for specific types of seats, all they have to do is return your premium if they don't give you seats like those. No airline is willing to commit to providing the kind of service that some passengers apparently expect, because consumers in general simply don't rewards them with enough profit to make offering service in that manner worthwhile. There isn't any blame there. It is simply something that is, and therefore needs to be accepted (with grace, to the extent possible).

Regarding notice: Unless the airline clearly promises to do otherwise, consumers should expect to be contacted personally or through their travel agent or online booking engine about three weeks prior to the date of the flight. Expect that before that point in time, it is possible that there will be further schedule changes. Note also that if you go through a travel agent or online booking engine, it is that party's responsibility to inform you of changes, not the airline's responsibility.

 

[n2mm]

This exact same change happened to me too. Both flights disappeared and I've been trying to let people know to check daily. Don't wait for Airtran to contact you if you see your flight disappear. Unlike the OP, I called after my flights disappeared (yes both of them out of Dulles to MCO). I asked why they were not on the search anymore and if they had been cancelled. The agent looked and came back and said how sorry he was, but I was correct and they are both cancelled. I asked him what my options were. We moved me to another nonstop and complimentarily assigned me seats. He refunded my original seat fee of $42 to my account. He then worked on my return flight. I thought the return was too early for the little ones with us, so asked about my refund options. He said no problem and that it would be on my cc within 4-5 day. He was so nice and apologized. We talked and I certainly understand what is going on. I have flown AT and we had a great experience flying them just this May. I did not hesitate choosing them again. I now have a credit and I got my refund for my return flight on my cc in 3 days. I could never have taken my frustration out on the agent because he had nothing to do with the change. I figured they are overwhelmed and folks need to become vigilant about checking their flights. I was lucky that Jetblue had a decent flight home at a decent time for only $13 more pp. And strangly the next day the JB flight dropped another $8 PP and I called and got a refund times 6 people (I now have a $48 credit with JB too). Note: I just finished posting on another Airtran thread where folks are also seeing their flights disappear and most are saying they are going to wait to see what AT is going to do. I have tried to get my message out and tell folks they need to take charge of their flight. OP, at least you tried to stay on top of any changes.

 

[CarolA]

Some of you need to realize that there are vacationers that do not eat, sleep and breathe "transportation news." Many people heading to WDW are not frequent flyers and don't fully realize how the airline industry is changing. If I was an occasional flyer and I purchased a flight that the airline was advertising and allowing me to buy, I wouldn't expect it to be changed and I especially would not expect the airline to delay notifying me about a change. For someone that has worked hard to plan their vacation, a change in arrival or departure (or both!) would be disappointing.



OzFan, vent on!!

Disappointing is fine. Expressing disappointment is fine. Telling the agent to "shove it' is NOT ACCEPTABLE!

When you children are disappointed because you won't let them do something would you allow them to tell you to "shove it up some small hole" I hope not!

I am sorry but cursing, acting out and behaving LIKE YOUR TODDLER are not grown up reactions to disappointment.

 

[TDC Nala]

Some of you need to realize that there are vacationers that do not eat, sleep and breathe "transportation news." Many people heading to WDW are not frequent flyers and don't fully realize how the airline industry is changing. If I was an occasional flyer and I purchased a flight that the airline was advertising and allowing me to buy, I wouldn't expect it to be changed and I especially would not expect the airline to delay notifying me about a change. For someone that has worked hard to plan their vacation, a change in arrival or departure (or both!) would be disappointing.


"I think the frequent flyers among us get a bit jaded and don't realize what a big deal this is to someone who is not a frequent flyer. Also flying with kids is a completely different experience than flying by yourself. If I am by myself on a business trip and something get screwed up, I deal with it. If I am going on vacation with kids in tow, the same screw up becomes much more substantial."


OzFan, vent on!!

They need to start expecting it. This is how the entire industry is operating right now, with the exception of Southwest, which will eventually need to follow suit unless the price of jet fuel comes down. Anyone who has a flight booked (whether they are traveling frequently for business or occasionally for leisure) ought to be following the specifics of that flight, because all airlines (except for Southwest at the moment) are cutting capacity, discontinuing nonstop flights to many locations, rerouting planes to more profitable routes (which are NOT vacation destinations because vacationers prefer not to pay the big bucks), and shifting different planes with different passenger capacity and seating configuration to other routes. They're not doing this to screw you over, they're doing it because they can't afford to continue to operate as usual AND pay for the fuel.

I also agree that it is never a good idea to verbally abuse the customer service representatives, who did not make the decisions. Not only are they not at fault, but you might find it more difficult to make changes to your liking if you are abusing someone to get them to make such changes.

 

[Hoopfamily]

I check my flights every day as well, Today they were changed to insane times. All it took to be happy, was to call Airtran and they happily put me on flights with better times than the one I had. I booked the original flights for flight more than convenience knowing there would be a good chance that they would alter my times. Also knowing that they would offer a change to better flights for no charge. I say keep changing the times, sooner or later they are gonna mess up and get us on a direct flight.