Airtran-Well, you all warned me but I didn't listen

[ssawka]

Where are you located at? Was driving to another AirTran serviced airport an option?

 

[dudspizza]

So, I coach a u10 girls softball team and something happened last night that made me think of the DIS and some of the people that get mad at us regulars here on the transportation board for just stating the facts, without the pixie dust.

A girl on the other team was running to second base and was hit by a batted ball. Softball/baseball rules state that a runner hit by a batted ball in fair territory is automatically out. I called the umpires attention to it and the runner was called out. The opposing coach got all worked up saying "what? you are going to call a girl out for accidentally tripping over the ball? She didn't mean to touch it". The coach obviously didn't understand the rule and wanted it to go in her favor or possibly felt the girl didn't know the rule so she shouldn't be punished for not knowing the rule.

I immediately thought of this thread and others. You see, if people on here are like the opposing coach, they won't play by or understand the rules and want things bent in their favor because they don't want to hurt anyones feelings or they didn't mean to do it, so look the other way. They may want a "do over" since they didn't know the rules. Unfortunately, you have to know the rules of transportation or you get burned.

I am one of those that feels if you must know AND play by the rules, you will always be able to have a predictable outcome based on actual fact.

Long post to just say that this thread came to my mind at a softball game..... I need a life!

 

[DVCBELLE]

especially if combined with 'trust me' is scary thing to hear when travelingglad it worked out for you.

last i requested (AT)was told the magical # of hours delay, caused by mechanical issue, to equal a flight voucher is two. Not sure if that is 'unofficial' standard industry-wide or not. Dicey asking for anything with AT or SW anyway, as i don't think they follow the rules of the legacy carriers

UGH - i should have requested that for my flights in November. They got us where we were going but we were sitting at the airport with 7 kids for 4 hours - not even a food voucher!!! We didn't mind and it worked out but I never thought to ask for a flight voucher!!!

I still love Airtran though!

 

[keishashadow]

dudspizza's you got the DISboard-bug

 

[PrincessDuck]

There is a big difference in what some think of a spare plane (one sitting around with a full crew twiddling their thumbs just waiting to be called up) and a crew having enough duty hours left to fly another leg and all of the logistics working out to do so.

I totally sympathize with all of these situations, but come on guys! The airlines are not what they used to be.....the consumers have done a lot of this. You can not expect all of these extra things to be done for you and also pay the rock bottom prices. The airline industry is really not like other service industries. There are many factors that most passengers don't have a clue about or just shrug off as insignificant.

I can really see these type of issues from both sides and would totally be upset to not have a flight out for two days, but can understand that the airline does not always have a way to fix it.

And yes, I do have a solution. The airlines need to actually charge realistic ticket prices, but that isn't going to happen unless they all do.

Funny enough, I just had an interesting airline experience on Monday.


I was flying home from New York (from Newark). It was the Monday of a holiday weekend (in Canada) so all of the flights were full/oversold.

By the end of the day (my flight was the second last flight) there were a lot of stand by passengers - a few missed connections and at least one family who showed up late at the airport for an earlier flight and a canceled flight to Montreal (so passengers were being re-routed through Toronto).

They asked for volunteers to be bumped from the second last flight and put onto the last flight (difference of 75 minutes). They guaranteed a seat of the
later flight. Since it is unusual to guarantee a seat on the next flight, I asked about it. The airline DID have a spare plane. They switched out the plane that should have come (seats 73) for a bigger plane (seats 130).

I know this is unusual. The flight was coming from a major hub (Toronto) and ending in that same hub (and it takes about 4 hours from leaving Toronto to returning to Toronto).

Anyway, I got $400 US for waiting 75 minutes.

 

[seashoreCM]

They asked for volunteers to be bumped from the second last flight and put onto the last flight (difference of 75 minutes). They guaranteed a seat of the later flight. Since it is unusual to guarantee a seat on the next flight, I asked about it. .

I have observed numerous instances of volunteers being asked for (including while waiting for my flight and the flight at the next gate was oversold).

It is customary that when they announce what kind of voucher and what kind of replacement flight will be offered to volunteers, that the replacment flight is a (guaranteed*) reservation unless specifically announced as "on your own" or "standby" which announcement I have heard too. On Flyertalk (dot com) I have read instances when the volunteer volunteered away a normal (guaranteed) replacement flight for another round of compensation.

By pushing the appropriate buttons on the console, the gate agent can guarantee a reservation. An often used shortcut is pushing the button labeled "Y" (the ancient term for plain old coach) where the agent normally copies a letter such as "K" (the ancient term for economy) or "U" or "T" out of the "class" box on the original ticket.

Long long time ago Delta had evening flights out of Orlando (to Boston) leaving at 7 and 8. More than once I got there to find one cancelled and everyone put on the other (departure time of 8). The time difference was small enough that (at least) I did not ask any questions.

* Except of a severe thunderstorm hits at the wrong moment.

 

[sbrotherton]

We didn't have the most positive experience either. The departure flight went off without a hitch. Very big plus. The return was less than magical. Couldn't check our bags through DME because, supposedly, only one of the five of us had a seat. We paid the extra $$ to choose seats and all of us had seats on the ride there so I'm not sure how that happened. The DME CM told me to call them directly to have a seat assigned. Mind you, I am doing this 25 minutes before we are supposed to leave on the shuttle. Can you say, "stressful?" The agent on the phone tries to direct me to the website. I tell her I don't have access to a computer at the moment (and my iPhone reception inside BLT was so bad that this wasn't an option either), and she tells me how when she stayed on Disney property there were a number of places where I could use a computer for access. Seriously? I had already told her that time was a very pressing issue and she's trying to tell me to go find a computer rather than have her assign a seat. Hello? She says, "well, I'll try" and was able to do it in a hot 30 seconds. I didn't even try to figure out how it happened, I just wanted to check the bags that I had already paid for. Interesting that they would take my $$ for the bags when I didn't have a seat assignment, but they wouldn't take the bag itself.

Then we arrive home. I am missing one of our four bags. Whatever. This happens, right? I go to the office to witness a 20 minute argument between a customer and a combative and unhelpful Airtran baggage claim rep. Apparently, the couple was scheduled on a flight from MCO to STL connecting through ATL. When they got to ATL, they were told that they were being moved to the direct flight. The guy asked at that time what would happen to the bags, they told him that they would try to move the bags, but either way, they would take care of them. So they arrive almost 3 hours ahead of schedule, but their bags didn't make the flight. The rep told them they had to wait for 3 hours for the bag because that's when the bags were scheduled to come in. End of story. According to the rep, the couple should have refused to change flights (who would have thought it was an option when they tell you something like this?) so they wouldn't have to wait for the bags. She kept saying "that's their fault" (meaning Orlando). "They shouldn't have done that." Don't you all work for the same company, lady? The guy tells her now he has to pay more $$ for parking. Her response, "Parking is paid by the day. You aren't going to pay any more." Seriously? They were being picked up by the airport by a family member, not staying in long-term parking. "We don't pay for parking." It took her 20+ minutes to agree to have the bags cabbed to the couple. I never saw anything like it in my life.

I know it's a crap job listening to complaints all day, but personalities like that only make it worse. I can think of an awful lot of people who would love her job and would be a lot more pleasant. Some of the worst customer interaction I have ever seen...couldn't call it service, that's for sure. Next time, I'll wait for SWA to release their flight schedules.

 

[kaytieeldr]

We didn't have the most positive experience either.

Frankly, based on your experience and your observation, you might want to use a different airline in the future.

Then we arrive home. I am missing one of our four bags. Whatever. This happens, right? I go to the office to witness a 20 minute argument between a customer and a combative and unhelpful Airtran baggage claim rep. Apparently, the couple was scheduled on a flight from MCO to STL connecting through ATL. When they got to ATL, they were told that they were being moved to the direct flight.

All that, and the rest of their experience, is somewhere between confusing and bewildering - nonstop from MCO-STL but then they're in ATL but then THERE they get changed to a direct flight to STL? But that's beside the point. If their luggage is delayed it's the airline's responsibility to get it to them. It's not the passenger's responsibility to hang around the airport two, three, four, eight, twenty, whatever hours waiting for a later plane to bring their luggage.

 

[loveysbydesign]

Hi there again. OP here. Now that I fully understand from some of you
just how foolish I was to complain about Airtran, a brief update.

When we had to change our flight, I called and managed to add our lost day to the end of our vacation, which was great. When we got to Pop Century around 930 pm on Saturday, somehow they had managed to cancel our reservation in the system. Yep, no room at Pop. They said they were fully booked and couldn't put us there at all. Luckily I had received the revised confirmation and printed it out that morning. So, long story short, after about an hour of calling and working the issue, a supervisor had us moved to another hotel for our vacation and took care of the problem. I did not have to throw a fit or anything. And guess where they moved us? The Grand Floridian. So all is well that ends well.
The only reason I even re-posted is to illustrate the difference in customer service styles and IN MY OPINION ONLY the right and wrong way to handle a customer problem that was not of the customers' making.

Wow...that is quite an update...I try and remember when things like this happen to me that there is always a reason.
Your reason apparently was so that you could get an AWESOME upgrade!

 

[seashoreCM]

... When they got to ATL, they were told that they were being moved to the direct flight. The guy asked at that time what would happen to the bags, they told him that they would try to move the bags, but either way, they would take care of them. So they arrive almost 3 hours ahead of schedule, but their bags didn't make the flight. The rep told them they had to wait for 3 hours for the bag because that's when the bags were scheduled to come in. ...

The bags were not delayed. Arriving in Atlanta the passengers were moved from an ATL-XXX-STL flight to an (earlier departing? and also) much more reliable "ATL-STL-STL" flight with a 3 hour layover in the middle which was about X miles from their final destination (X roughly equal t0 0.02 or whatever the distance was from the baggage claim office to the outside curb.) No compensation was due since they were put on a flight scheduled to arrive within an hour (or whatever the threshold is) of their original flight. The airline wanted to free up the seats on the ATL-XXX flight and/or the XXX-STL flight.

 

[Dani's First Time]

This is my first time ever posting on a board. Prepping for my first trip to Disney in October (10/20-10/27). There's been a bit of drama so far that I'll post on the resorts thread. I was there this morning and read an AirTran bashing. It referred me over here to this thread.

I am so terrified of something going wrong with the biggest trip I've ever planned. So, I went out to check on my AirTran reservation booked in March. I picked an 8am out of Philly instead of a 7am with Southwest. We live an hour outside of the city and will be traveling with two boys - 4 and 2. We thought it was just too early.

Imagine my surprise when my flight reservation now says I am leaving Philly at 5:50 am with a layover in Atlanta (we were direct before). Not only is this flight unacceptable in terms on time but it's not direct and I was never notified of the change! I called AirTran and asked for my money back.

I moved to the 7am flight with Southwest and paid $140 more in total (for 4 tickets). Thanks to the folks here for saving me a hassle in four months!

 

[Inkmahm]

This is my first time ever posting on a board. Prepping for my first trip to Disney in October (10/20-10/27). There's been a bit of drama so far that I'll post on the resorts thread. I was there this morning and read an AirTran bashing. It referred me over here to this thread.

I am so terrified of something going wrong with the biggest trip I've ever planned. So, I went out to check on my AirTran reservation booked in March. I picked an 8am out of Philly instead of a 7am with Southwest. We live an hour outside of the city and will be traveling with two boys - 4 and 2. We thought it was just too early.

Imagine my surprise when my flight reservation now says I am leaving Philly at 5:50 am with a layover in Atlanta (we were direct before). Not only is this flight unacceptable in terms on time but it's not direct and I was never notified of the change! I called AirTran and asked for my money back.

I moved to the 7am flight with Southwest and paid $140 more in total (for 4 tickets). Thanks to the folks here for saving me a hassle in four months!

Did you check first to see if there was a different time for the nonstop on Airtran first? You could have moved your flight for free to a different flight that fit your schedule better. That's what I love about Airtran.

 

[zimaaaaah]

This is my first time ever posting on a board. Prepping for my first trip to Disney in October (10/20-10/27). There's been a bit of drama so far that I'll post on the resorts thread. I was there this morning and read an AirTran bashing. It referred me over here to this thread.

I am so terrified of something going wrong with the biggest trip I've ever planned. So, I went out to check on my AirTran reservation booked in March. I picked an 8am out of Philly instead of a 7am with Southwest. We live an hour outside of the city and will be traveling with two boys - 4 and 2. We thought it was just too early.

Imagine my surprise when my flight reservation now says I am leaving Philly at 5:50 am with a layover in Atlanta (we were direct before). Not only is this flight unacceptable in terms on time but it's not direct and I was never notified of the change! I called AirTran and asked for my money back.

I moved to the 7am flight with Southwest and paid $140 more in total (for 4 tickets). Thanks to the folks here for saving me a hassle in four months!

Hope you have a magical vacation and all the drama is behind you!

 

[zimaaaaah]

Did you check first to see if there was a different time for the nonstop on Airtran first? You could have moved your flight for free to a different flight that fit your schedule better. That's what I love about Airtran.

Sorry, but I totally see her point after my experience. They already changed it once and didn't even notify her. The money is minimal compared to the stress and hassle if they go messing with the reservation again at a later date. Just my opinion.

 

[Inkmahm]

Sorry, but I totally see her point after my experience. They already changed it once and didn't even notify her. The money is minimal compared to the stress and hassle if they go messing with the reservation again at a later date. Just my opinion.

And my opinion is that the poster likely wasted $140.

 

[Dani's First Time]

I definitely don't see it as $140 wasted. I paid for peace of mind. After reading the anti-AirTran posts and not being notified of changes to my flight, I don't want to spend the next four months checking on my flight and wondering when it will be leaving.

The agent said she could look for another flight but was not very helpful. She had no information about why my flight was moved, what happened to my original flight, or why I wasn't notified of the change (they had my e-mail with the reservation).

I will never book with AirTran again. I'm on the just say no to AirTran bandwagon.

 

[ibcnu]

Weather-related problems are not the responsibility of the airline, nor is any issue with the airport itself, and the weather doesn't necessarily have to be where YOU are flying out of if you are waiting for a plane to arrive before it takes you off. This is our story:

Not Disney-related but airline related, we were to fly home from Myrtle Beach last March. The plane was to arrive from LaGuardia and get into Myrtle Beach to take us to Atlantic City (home). Well, major thunderstorms delayed the flight out LaGuardia, delayed to the point where our 7:30pm flight might get to Myrtle Beach after midnight *BUT* the airport closes in Myrtle Beach after midnight because in March they perform their yearly runway resurfacing. So, the flight to Myrtle Beach was cancelled, then the flight out of Myrtle Beach was cancelled, ripple effect.

Sooo .... weather-related delay, eventual cancellation NOT the airline's fault. airport-related dealy, eventaul cancellation NOT the airline's fault.

EVERYONE on that flight was put on the next AVAILABLE FLIGHT WITH SEATS which was the next day or the day after.

They did offer refunds on the price of the tickets, as some people gave up and rented cars to drive back to Jersey.

So, another day of car rental and another night in a hotel room on our dime.

 

[crashbb]

Weather-related problems are not the responsibility of the airline, nor is any issue with the airport itself, and the weather doesn't necessarily have to be where YOU are flying out of if you are waiting for a plane to arrive before it takes you off. This is our story:

Not Disney-related but airline related, we were to fly home from Myrtle Beach last March. The plane was to arrive from LaGuardia and get into Myrtle Beach to take us to Atlantic City (home). Well, major thunderstorms delayed the flight out LaGuardia, delayed to the point where our 7:30pm flight might get to Myrtle Beach after midnight *BUT* the airport closes in Myrtle Beach after midnight because in March they perform their yearly runway resurfacing. So, the flight to Myrtle Beach was cancelled, then the flight out of Myrtle Beach was cancelled, ripple effect.

Sooo .... weather-related delay, eventual cancellation NOT the airline's fault. airport-related dealy, eventaul cancellation NOT the airline's fault.

EVERYONE on that flight was put on the next AVAILABLE FLIGHT WITH SEATS which was the next day or the day after.

They did offer refunds on the price of the tickets, as some people gave up and rented cars to drive back to Jersey.

So, another day of car rental and another night in a hotel room on our dime.

Travel insurance should have covered those costs (assuming, of course, you had some).

 

[ibcnu]

A rule of thumb from seasoned cruisers: Do NOT take a flight the same day that your cruise leaves. Taking on an extra day or cutting a day short can be done at a resort, but the ship will NOT wait for you if your flight is cancelled.

If you cruise, fly out 2 days before, or at least 1 day before, but definately 2 days before, especially during Winter months when some airports could be closed for an entire day or two!!

 

[crashbb]

A rule of thumb from seasoned cruisers: Do NOT take a flight the same day that your cruise leaves. Taking on an extra day or cutting a day short can be done at a resort, but the ship will NOT wait for you if your flight is cancelled.

If you cruise, fly out 2 days before, or at least 1 day before, but definately 2 days before, especially during Winter months when some airports could be closed for an entire day or two!!

To extend that - if there is something you absolutely cannot miss, do not cut it close. In other words, do not arrive 2 hours before your daughter's wedding or the morning of your son's PhD graduation.