More ATA bad news

[EEyorelover22]

Well, just when I thought everything was a-ok since our flight was canceled, things did get worse. Now ATA is discontinuing service to our airport completely!!! NO CALL either!

We are now flying out of the closest city they serve, but it means leaving a day early and staying over night somewhere.

A friend emailed me this morning since it was the headline in our paper today. We don't subscribe to the paper so I wouldn't have known otherwise.

DH doesn't want to drive to another city 2 hours away, but now that they are gone, cheap flights don't exist out of here anymore and I am sure they will only continue to climb. The reason they have been lower the last few years was due to ATA being here.

 

[Jestocost]

ATA was historically a charter airline, but expanded into scheduled service to select leisure destinations several years ago. They have struggled to be successful in that line of business, and have cut back on their service a number of times. St. Louis briefly had scheduled ATA service, but they dropped all flights from here a few years ago.

Sorry to hear about your hassles. The low-cost carriers can offer great fares and force all of the airlines to reduce their prices, but very few of them have any long-term track record. Southwest certainly has proven they know how to make money, and Jet Blue and Air Tran seem to be doing OK, but the rest are still question marks in my book.

 

[EEyorelover22]

I am sure now other flights that other carries offered will now be cut. When we were first married there was a non-stop from Cedar Rapids to Detroit (where I am from) and they dropped that and it came back recently with the addition of ATA and I am sure now that non-stop flight will be gone. Cedar Rapids is a good size city. I don't understand why we cannot get better fares out of here. Oh well...off to Moline we go. Every trip we have had troubles with airlines. TWA went bankrupt, they dropped flights from the NWA schedule and now this. I guess our family is bad luck for the airlines We're still going and that's all that counts in my book!!

 

[inkkognito]

I've been flying ATA ever since they switched from charter to the "Vacation Airline." They are in the midst of some major changes, and I'm not sure I am pleased with them. Chicago is one of their hubs, so I don't think I'll have to deal with schedule cutbacks. But they are moving away from their no-frills approach and adding business class now. I prefer a no-frills airline, so it will be interesting to see how this strategy affects things. I love their frequent flyer program, which awards a free companion ticket after three flights with no blackout dates. But the business class thing makes it sound like they are going to become just like all the other airlines. I hope they don't start making changes to their frequent flyer program too. I fly them to Orlando an average of twice a month.
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[pumpkinboy]

Let me know which Airline you are flying next time so we can either avoid it or short-sell its stock . Wow, but that's a bummer. Better luck next time.

 

[EEyorelover22]

You know what they say....
if I didn't have bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all