GrUvGrL
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2008
- Messages
- 42
WARNING!!! LONG LONG Post
2 weeks ago I took my hubby on a Bahamas Cruise for his birthday.
Booked a nice cruise, found reasonable airfare with AirTran and we were all set.
Although the weather in Florida was surprisingly chilly, and we didn't get to stop in Freeport due to weather, we had a fantastic time!
On the way back, karma certainly tested out our kindness. Starting with the couple who on the budget shuttle and no rental reservations asking if we would kindly give them a lift to the airport (very pleasant people - we said yes) to the Lithuanian Acro Team at the airport on their way to the world championships stranded at the airport not knowing where to find their bus (Hubby called the number on their less then informative email transmission and got Freddy the bus driver to come pick them up) to the seats we gave up on our return flight to help a family get to their destination.
Ok, truth be told, AirTran sweetened the deal for anyone giving up their seats... 2 free round trip tickets to be used within a year, hotel accommodations for the night and business class flight back home guaranteed the next day! I felt like all that built up karma was coming back on us! We were planning a trip with the kids in August for another cruise and to Disney and these would come in handy! I asked about restrictions to which I was told, only blackout dates - Checked the blackout dates... all clear!!! How AWESOME RIGHT?!?!
This past Saturday our family pet and best friend Buddy passed
3 weeks shy of his sweet 16 - He had been having some health problems and it was just his time poor lil guy. We needed something to occupy our minds and thoughts and make all the gloomy faces around here smile, so we decided to start planning and booking our trip. 
Since I already have the cruise I want in mind and know dates (just waiting on our cruise planner who has her very own magical abilities to come back from her vacay and work some magic on prices)... I went ahead and booked my Disney vacation this morning.
8 nights at the new Art of Animation - Finding Nemo! FINALLY some smiles around here!
I pulled out my Free trip certificate and dialed the number I was given to book our free flights... well... to ALMOST book our free flights!
Customer Service person tells me, my dates are unavailable they do not have any seats for certificate holders on my travel date... ok... I'll be flexible... "anything the day before? Or the one before that?" I ask. "No ma'am... I do have something the next day at 11:30pm"
Hmm... considering the cruise leaves in the afternoon that day this date will not work for me! And she tells me there is nothing she can do.
So... I call up corporate... thinking to myself... had this been karma working in my favor or have I ticked someone off lately?
Lady answers the phone and I start by telling her "I am VERY frustrated right now, and I want to be clear that I am not frustrated with you... I am frustrated about the situation, so if you feel it's better to put me through a supervisor that I can speak to, it may save us both some time and frustration" she responds with "You have reached corporate... what is the problem?" Geez... where do I start? Is the problem that they oversold their flights? (In the time we were at MCO when we gave up our tickets they had 3 flights overbooked!) Is the problem that I might have been greedy and cashed in my karma points all at the same time? So I start the only way I know how... “I was booked on a AirTran flight 2 weeks ago from MCO to BUF and my husband and I gave up our seats…” and I continue to tell her the details of what happened including that I did in fact ask if there were any restrictions to using the certificates and that I was told only blackout dates, I checked the blackout dates and, well our travel dates are NOT blackout dates. She tells me due to "capacity availability" there are no seats for us and that I signed a form (which I didn’t get a copy of and have no way of confirming what she is telling me, and I do not remember reading anything about capacity availability. But, regardless… now... I'm no rocket scientist (granted), but "I'm looking at your site, there seems to be plenty of available seating on all 10 (yes 10) flights leaving that day!"
Well their definition of “capacity availability” is apparently meant for certificate holders… WHAT!!! “Ok so I need to be able to decipher your work lingo to what the average person would interpret as capacity availability?”
She asked for my certificate number, which I gave to her and she proceeded to ask me what day I was planning on traveling. I have to admit I hesitated and thought to myself… was I too harsh? Am I being black listed? Even so, I gave her the number and she asked how many people. I answered 4, but I only have certificates for 2 of us. “Ok are you planning on using the certificate for all 4 people?” HUH? “Well I can’t the paper I have says the tickets are not transferable so I would have to use them for my husband and I and I would have to pay out of pocket for the children.” Well you have 2 round trip tickets for EACH of you! Oh… well that certainly changes everything! It seems she’s going to let me use my certificates now and I’ll have to figure out how to use these other 2 certificates between "capacity availability" blackout dates and red tape. Which, by this time… I really just want to be able to use my 2 really (that’s all I was expecting).
Ends up she did transfer the 2 extra tickets to my kids and we scored BIGTIME! NO COST for any of the flights except checked baggage and seat selection if we opted for that! Which we always do!
So it all worked out in the end for me! I saved myself $2000 the trip plans are not ruined and there are smiles again! And sorry you had to read all this to get to my final point!
WORD OF ADVISE!!!!
AirTran overbooks their flights. The only way to guarantee yourself getting on that plane and or sitting with everyone in your party for sure is to ensure you select your seats for the extra $6 to $20 per seat. Otherwise you are taking a chance.
If you EVER give up your seats, make sure that when you book your flights, you book your flight first and plan your trip around the flight for the dates available to you.
2 weeks ago I took my hubby on a Bahamas Cruise for his birthday.
Booked a nice cruise, found reasonable airfare with AirTran and we were all set.
Although the weather in Florida was surprisingly chilly, and we didn't get to stop in Freeport due to weather, we had a fantastic time!
On the way back, karma certainly tested out our kindness. Starting with the couple who on the budget shuttle and no rental reservations asking if we would kindly give them a lift to the airport (very pleasant people - we said yes) to the Lithuanian Acro Team at the airport on their way to the world championships stranded at the airport not knowing where to find their bus (Hubby called the number on their less then informative email transmission and got Freddy the bus driver to come pick them up) to the seats we gave up on our return flight to help a family get to their destination.
Ok, truth be told, AirTran sweetened the deal for anyone giving up their seats... 2 free round trip tickets to be used within a year, hotel accommodations for the night and business class flight back home guaranteed the next day! I felt like all that built up karma was coming back on us! We were planning a trip with the kids in August for another cruise and to Disney and these would come in handy! I asked about restrictions to which I was told, only blackout dates - Checked the blackout dates... all clear!!! How AWESOME RIGHT?!?!
This past Saturday our family pet and best friend Buddy passed
3 weeks shy of his sweet 16 - He had been having some health problems and it was just his time poor lil guy. We needed something to occupy our minds and thoughts and make all the gloomy faces around here smile, so we decided to start planning and booking our trip. Since I already have the cruise I want in mind and know dates (just waiting on our cruise planner who has her very own magical abilities to come back from her vacay and work some magic on prices)... I went ahead and booked my Disney vacation this morning.
8 nights at the new Art of Animation - Finding Nemo! FINALLY some smiles around here!
I pulled out my Free trip certificate and dialed the number I was given to book our free flights... well... to ALMOST book our free flights!
Customer Service person tells me, my dates are unavailable they do not have any seats for certificate holders on my travel date... ok... I'll be flexible... "anything the day before? Or the one before that?" I ask. "No ma'am... I do have something the next day at 11:30pm"
Hmm... considering the cruise leaves in the afternoon that day this date will not work for me! And she tells me there is nothing she can do.
So... I call up corporate... thinking to myself... had this been karma working in my favor or have I ticked someone off lately?
Lady answers the phone and I start by telling her "I am VERY frustrated right now, and I want to be clear that I am not frustrated with you... I am frustrated about the situation, so if you feel it's better to put me through a supervisor that I can speak to, it may save us both some time and frustration" she responds with "You have reached corporate... what is the problem?" Geez... where do I start? Is the problem that they oversold their flights? (In the time we were at MCO when we gave up our tickets they had 3 flights overbooked!) Is the problem that I might have been greedy and cashed in my karma points all at the same time? So I start the only way I know how... “I was booked on a AirTran flight 2 weeks ago from MCO to BUF and my husband and I gave up our seats…” and I continue to tell her the details of what happened including that I did in fact ask if there were any restrictions to using the certificates and that I was told only blackout dates, I checked the blackout dates and, well our travel dates are NOT blackout dates. She tells me due to "capacity availability" there are no seats for us and that I signed a form (which I didn’t get a copy of and have no way of confirming what she is telling me, and I do not remember reading anything about capacity availability. But, regardless… now... I'm no rocket scientist (granted), but "I'm looking at your site, there seems to be plenty of available seating on all 10 (yes 10) flights leaving that day!"
Well their definition of “capacity availability” is apparently meant for certificate holders… WHAT!!! “Ok so I need to be able to decipher your work lingo to what the average person would interpret as capacity availability?”
She asked for my certificate number, which I gave to her and she proceeded to ask me what day I was planning on traveling. I have to admit I hesitated and thought to myself… was I too harsh? Am I being black listed? Even so, I gave her the number and she asked how many people. I answered 4, but I only have certificates for 2 of us. “Ok are you planning on using the certificate for all 4 people?” HUH? “Well I can’t the paper I have says the tickets are not transferable so I would have to use them for my husband and I and I would have to pay out of pocket for the children.” Well you have 2 round trip tickets for EACH of you! Oh… well that certainly changes everything! It seems she’s going to let me use my certificates now and I’ll have to figure out how to use these other 2 certificates between "capacity availability" blackout dates and red tape. Which, by this time… I really just want to be able to use my 2 really (that’s all I was expecting).
Ends up she did transfer the 2 extra tickets to my kids and we scored BIGTIME! NO COST for any of the flights except checked baggage and seat selection if we opted for that! Which we always do!
So it all worked out in the end for me! I saved myself $2000 the trip plans are not ruined and there are smiles again! And sorry you had to read all this to get to my final point!
WORD OF ADVISE!!!!
AirTran overbooks their flights. The only way to guarantee yourself getting on that plane and or sitting with everyone in your party for sure is to ensure you select your seats for the extra $6 to $20 per seat. Otherwise you are taking a chance.
If you EVER give up your seats, make sure that when you book your flights, you book your flight first and plan your trip around the flight for the dates available to you.
