Don't Book With AirTran

[bld24]

I really like Airtran. I just booked 4 different tickets with them yesterday and after booking the second realized I had screwed up and put my nephew on the flight my father was to be on. I called them and they stated that they couldn't do a name change at all, but I could cancel the ticket no charge on the internet. I did and they credited my account. Good for them!

13 cruises I won't bore you with them all

Pending: Fantasy(5/4),Mariner(9/04),Splendour(2/05

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[dougp26364]

Last year I did a lot of flying as I was working as a travel nurse and flying home when I wasn't scheduled to work. This meant that my hind-end was on a plane to or from the west coast at least once each week and sometimes twice.

On one NWA flight, we were delayed because of snow. At one point there was one plane in the gate with another sitting just off to the side waiting for it to board and leave.

They had boarded the first flight and had checked to make sure everyone was on. They weren't, one was missing. They called "final boarding" at least three times and called for this woman by name three more times. Finally, they closed the door.

During this time I had noticed a woman so ingrossed in her cell phone conversation that everything and everyone else just didn't matter. Needless to say, she was the missing passenger. She hung up from her call after the flight was closed and walked over to the gate agents desk, only to find she had missed her flight even though she had never left the gate and, the flight was in fact still sitting at the gate with the doors closed and locked.

When she was told she had missed her flight, she became irrate. Then she began to yell and then threaten. Of course she yelled at the gate agent that no one ever called final boarding and no one certainly called her name. If they had she would have heard it and would have been on that flight.

After about 10 minutes of this, I had finally had it and walked over to her. I asked her if her name was the one I had heard called moments before. She wheeled around and in an angry voice said yes it was. In that case, I told her, they called your name several times as well as calling for final boarding three time. If they hadn't called your name, I would not have known it. I told her if she hadn't been so ingrossed in her phone call and had been paying attention to what was going on, she'd have made her flight.

At this point she was flustered but quit yelling and started working on getting on the next flight which was now pulling into the gate to start boarding. She made that flight and was into Memphis about an hour later than she needed to be. As she got off the plane, I was behind her. She was back on that cell phone telling the other person what a rotten airline Northwest was and how it was THEIR fault she missed her flight and her connection. Now she'd be having to spend the night in Memphis and they had darn sure better pay for the hotel. All I could think of was some people never learn.

Now I'm not saying the Airtran doesn't make a mistake now and then. I do know that I've flown enough miles on enough different airlines that I've seen them screw up more than once. However, it just seems common sense to me that befoere one leaves on a trip that has multiple reservations that it is prudent to verify those reservations are intact with the company your traveling, cruising, sleeping at or driving with. Everyone knows people make mistakes and anyone that's traveled a few times knows that things can and will get screwed up.

I'm also not saying that any of the above wasn't Airtran's fault or is the fault of the person writing the post. I wasn't there so I don't really know the facts. What I am saying is that any reasonable person should take all of this with a grain of salt and go by their own experiences.

I am amazed at how many people in airports just don't pay attention to the time or what's going on around them. I'm always checking on my flight time, listening for gate change announcements, checking the baords to make sure I'm at the correct gate et..... Maybe I'm parnoid or something? I don't take anything for granted because when that plane leaves, I need to be on it rather than haggling over who's fault it is. I can't even watch airline anymore because I end up yellling at the TV do to some of the morons I see threatening to file suit over something that isn't the airline personels fault or is actually the fault of the passenger.

So I submit that if you're not going to fly Airtran, you might as well start driving to your destination. That is unless they are consistantly causing problems such as never being ontime, always causing you to miss a connection or frequently having mechanical problems. The occasional problem is just that and you will find it on EVERY airline you fly if you fly them enough.

As for me, I find that Northwest airlines must hate to see me comming. Everytime I've flown them, some odd thing has happened and the flight has been late. I know it's not the norm for them but it becomes that way as soon as I book a ticket. As for other carriers, I have consistant on time problems out of my hometown with Mesa Airlines. They are a regional carrier that flys some of the routes for America West and United airlines. They used to fly some of the routes for Frontier airlines. While I've had little trouble with any of those mainline carriers, I've had frequent ontime issues with Messa, causing me to miss connections or run through the airport to catch a flight. Because they've been consistantly bad over a period of 4 years of flying, I try to avoid them when I can. If I can't, I just know to book extra time in my travel and try to make sure that I'm not the last connecting flight out of the hub when I leave.

Future cruises
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=CD20CD&cdt=2005;01;14;17;00;00&timezone=GMT-0600[/img]
Monarch OTS - Mexico Baja 1/05
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Explorer OTS - Eastern Caribbean 11/04

Past cruises
Vision OTS - Alaska 7/03
Legend OTS - Alaska 7/02

[hdawson]

I had a recent experience with AirTran personnel at the Miami airport. I was returning from a cruise on Brilliance which by the way was outstanding. I was supposed to be Best Man for a couple getting married onboard and was carrying my just received Best Man's gift which was an expensive lighter engraved with the date of the wedding/cruise. The couple and their son were killed in an accident prior to the cruise so the lighter was very special to me. Well, TSA doing a thorough job, took the lighter from me since unbeknown to me is a prohibited item to carry onboard. No amount of begging helped. I was telling the story at the AirTran gate and a very nice lady asked the details. She insisted on going with me back to TSA checkin and was going to take the item to her car and then ups it to my home address. She wouldn't even accept any money, not even the ups charge. Her supervisor had even a better idea, taking it to the baggage section downstairs and putting it in my bag. CAn't imagine how much trouble it was to find my bags in all those that were waiting to be loaded. That is definately customer service way beyond what anyone would expect. I did write a letter to Joe Leonard the Chairman of AirTran so that she would be recognized for represnting her company in such an outstanding way. People are people. Some mediocre, some not so good and some that are just plain fantastic individuals. I guess we should all choose what kind we are every morning when we get out of bed.

[brooms]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by pjm327:
I had Air Tran to Orlando last month and checked my flight the day before departure to find out my flights were cancelled and they booked me on another flight that would not work with the cruise I took. They did not even call, email, nothing. I suppose they would tell me when I got to the airport. I was routed through Atlanta with layover hell both ways. I booked direct flights 2 months in advance. Airtran needs a lesson in customer service. The only negative on my Sovereign cruise.
Myself and 11 other girls booked to fly from Buffalo to Orland Oct. 7/04 to sail on the Sovereign Oct. 8/04, please let me know how the flights were and also how your cruise was, booked our airfares thru a travle agent--does that help, will she be nofified? How did you rearrange your flights and why was the stop over in Atlanta so terrible?
SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS CRUISE 4/19/04
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[pjm327]

brooms,
After I called Airtran the day before departure to find out that my flights were cancelled I was told they booked me on different flights. I told them that what they put me on was not going to work. I was given a choice of another flight with with layovers in Atlanta or to cancel. I had no choice with this short notice but to fly with them. To add 5 hours onto my travel time was a real inconvience with other arranged plans. Weather it was Atlanta or anywhere else would have made no difference. When agent said hang on and I'll get my supervisor to waive the $50.00 fees for flight changes, I just laughed and said but of course. My concern with them was that they did not call, mail, or email me in advance of the changes. They changed my flights automatically to closest times with layovers. The biggest problem was they had me leaving at 9am from Orlando when I would still have been on the ship. After I made the changes the agent said would you like me to email you the changes, I said yes. It was never done. To avoid this I suggest you check online with Airtran reservation using A plus rewards account number. Had I done that I would have found out 6 weeks prior. But after all I was on a cruise vacation and it did not spoil my great time. Have a great cruise.

SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS CRUISE 4/19/04
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[hdawson]

Maybe it's like cruiselines. All up dates and notifications are through your travel agent, in this case Travelocity. With all airlines cancelling flights and rescheduling times, I check several times prior to departure.

[jackandkareng]

I have always had great flights with AirTran. This is the best Airline to Fly! They have all new Boeing 717 aircraft, the youngest fleet of any Airline. There planes are always clean and the flight attendants are friendly.
I was able to upgrade to Business class for $25.
Try doing that on Delta! Ha!
Any Airline that is showing Profits while the others are in the red, must be boing something right. It was great to have preassigned seats, last time I flew on SWA I felt like cattle being herded onto the airplane! I will Flight AirTran every chance I get! Try them you will be glad you did!

[hdawson]

Jackandkareng. It looks very much like USAir will be filing bankruptcy AGAIN soon and Delta is looking more likely to file every week. United, who knows what will happen to them Strange that the only airlines that are profitable are AirTran, JetBlue and Southwest. The majors aren't only not making a profit, but loosing more and more money. When a stock has a negative value of $50 and selling for $5 or less, what chance do they have of ever making a profit?

[cofgren]

I have always had good luck with airtran over the years.they generally have cheaper flights and they fly direct from my city to orlando.also they are the only airline that uses fresh air in flight.

[imsulin]

I think someone already mentioned that the crash in the Everglades was on ValuJet, and not AirTran. AirTran, which was a small company, bought ValuJet, and expanded over the years. I've flown AirTran many times from Atlanta, and have never had a problem. Better prices than Delta, and great service. I'm one of those who really likes this airline!

[Riviera Deck Randy]

Yes imsulin you are correct Airtran has never crashed that was Valujet who went bankrupt after that and a young startup called airtran bought the planes in brankruptsy to get a fleet cheap fixed them up and flew them. The last valuejet plane left the fleet in 2003. all planes now are Airtran jets.

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