AirTran Airways A+ Rewards - AirTran fiasco

What a fiasco!

Just coming back from a trip to Florida, my wife and daughter missed their connecting flight from Atlanta last night because their airplane refused to land due to weather that dozens of other planes were taking off in and then when they finally did land they missed their connecting flight by just minutes because the connecting flight refused to wait for the landing passengers at all.

So, hey needed to get a hotel which the airline refused to pay for and was only offering a 10% discount on the rooms at a certain hotel which quickly got overbooked because of all the people that missed their connecting flights and then they had to take a cab to their hotel because so many of these people were needing the airport shuttle that arguments and yelling matches started up amongst the passengers over getting on the airport/hotel shuttles!

And to top it all off, My wife also witnessed the airline refuse to do anything for this poor little old lady who hadn't been delayed but still missed her connecting flight because her connecting flight took off early and the airline refused to do anything for her at all stating it wasn't their fault that the flight took off early and she missed it!

What a horror that must've been for all of them!

In your travels, if you can help it then I recommend you steer far away from using AirTran. Their service is horrible!

What a fiasco!

my wife and daughter missed their connecting flight from Atlanta last night because their airplane refused to land

I hate it when they get stubborn.

I don't get why they are allowed to take off early, knowing connecting passengers have not boarded. The only valid reason I can think of is beating some incoming bad weather, so bad the flight might not get out that night at all. It seems desperately unfair to passengers, in fact cheating passengers.

Anymore, you need to allow 2 hours for connecting domestic flights for possible delays and beyond that, make sure there is a later same day flight as back up. If you arrive 1-1/2 hours prior to boarding and wait 2 hours on your connection, 1/2 hour at baggage claim, 1 to 2 hours transporting to and from the airport, plus flight time...for all the time wasted in airports, an all day drive is starting to look good.

I hate it when they get stubborn.

My thoughts exactly... ;)

As this is not a trip report I shall move it on to the Other North & South America Frequent Flyer Programs forum.

Moomba
Moderator: Trip Reports

Whoops, this thread attempted to disembark at the wrong stop - maybe hidden city ticketing? ;) Off to the AirTran Airways A+ Rewards Forum it goes.

JDiver, Senior Moderator

Something doesn't sound right..and it's more than stubborn airplanes

OP. I'm sorry to hear of your misfortune. But when bad weather occurs, ATC may require more spacing between takeoffs and landings, thus flights may be delayed or even canceled while you still see runway arrivals and departures occurring. ATC determines the priority of flights, not the airlines.

The airlines are not required to provide you with overnight accommodations nor sustinence when these occurrences happen. It sucks but that's the breaks. That's the treatment you'll receive from any airline in the US, particularly if you have no frequent flyer status. You can get pissed and blame the airline all you want but it really won't make a difference.

<redacted>

OP. I'm sorry to hear of your misfortune. But when bad weather occurs, ATC may require more spacing between takeoffs and landings, thus flights may be delayed or even canceled while you still see runway arrivals and departures occurring. ATC determines the priority of flights, not the airlines.

The airlines are not required to provide you with overnight accommodations nor sustinence when these occurrences happen. It sucks but that's the breaks. That's the treatment you'll receive from any airline in the US, particularly if you have no frequent flyer status. You can get pissed and blame the airline all you want but it really won't make a difference. <redacted>

A first post by OP which says ... OP is upset because of bad weather and what was overheard about some other pax's situation.

Maybe it's just me, but I am just as happy to land safely and not crash. Not sure why FL would pay for a hotel room for WX difficulties and not sure why a flight can't push when all the pax at the gate at T-10 are boarded.

Maybe it's just me, but I am just as happy to land safely and not crash.

+1. Inconvenience happens, but I will never fault an airline for putting safety first.

In your travels, if you can help it then I recommend you steer far away from using AirTran. Their service is horrible!

Good recommendation. I'll fly Southwest instead! :D

because their airplane refused to land due to weather that dozens of other planes were taking off in

. . .

In your travels, if you can help it then I recommend you steer far away from using AirTran.


With all due respect, with a statement like the above I don't put much confidence in your ability to recommend an airline.

airplane refused to land due to weather that dozens of other planes were taking off in and then when they finally did land

So often OP credibility can suddenly drop to zero.(and on first post! YIKES).

So often OP credibility can suddenly drop to zero.(and on first post! YIKES).
I wouldn't say their credibility drops but clearly they don't have an understanding of how the aviation industry works. I wouldn't hold that against them as we were all there at one point.

It's just unfortunate that the OP probably won't come back here where we can help them get a better understanding of what might have happened and why. Because of that, they are destined to have a similarly unpleasant experience at some point in their future.

Good recommendation. I'll fly Southwest instead! :D

Funny, I knew prior to reading the entire thread that somewhere, somehow, the above statement was sure to appear in some fashion.

As for me I'll stick to Airtran (the airline that beats up little old ladies).

What a fiasco!
Just coming back from a trip to Florida, my wife and daughter missed their connecting flight from Atlanta last night because their airplane refused to land

I hate when airplanes refuse to follow orders, damn them... Bad plane, go back to the hanger !!!!

Won't fit, thats what the coats go on. Hangar, now thats another story.

In all my years of flying Airtran, if there was one thing Airtran was guilty of, it was actually delaying planes long enough to accommodate connecting passengers. So this is weird news to me unless the new Southwest management has curbed this practice or we got Airtran employees no longer giving a crap.

1) The WEATHER issue. Sunday night was just fine in Atlanta. I do not know what the hell weather problems Airtran claimed they were having as an excuse for the delay in landing. But there had to be a reason . I doubt the flight crew enjoys flying to such an extreme that they decided to joyride for an extra 15-30 minutes.
2) The lack of any hotel vouchers for delayed passengers. I wonder if Airtran pulled the weather excuse to get out of any reponsibillity for the delay. If it was mechanical or a logistic screwup , then maybe they would have been under more pressure for free or severely discounted rooms?
3) I do not know why the connecting flights were not delayed for 15 min or so. The one that left early - no excuse at all.

Problem is the OP gave very few details so that someone like PA42 can check the veracity of these claims. Which FL airport was he coming from? What time? And where was he headed out to?

Rather than posting negative attributions, ad hominem and overly unwelcoming and personal replies, which have been redacted, why not merely move on? We never know who speaks / writes English as a second or other language, who stays and learns, who rants and never returns until we apply 20-20 hindsight.

Thanks for helping keep FlyerTalk welcoming and topical.

JDiver, Senior Moderator

This is the type of situation where you file a complaint with the BBB.

Deleted

OP. I'm sorry to hear of your misfortune. But when bad weather occurs, ATC may require more spacing between takeoffs and landings, thus flights may be delayed or even canceled while you still see runway arrivals and departures occurring. ATC determines the priority of flights, not the airlines.

Exactly! I talked to one woman who, while she was talking on the phone with her Husband in SFO when she asked what the problem was. I assured her was a very real ATC Ground Delay Program. Husband said weather was clear and lots of aircraft were taking off and landing.

I suggested if he doubted me to check SFO by airport on flightstats.com and he'd see the delays and likely many cancelled flights.

That day it could have been higher winds or runway maint work or a combination of the two.

Later that night I checked it myself and sure enough for that scheduled arrival time period and just before and after lots of delays and cancellations.

Realtime delay info from the FAA http://www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/flyfaaindex.jsp?p=0&ARPT=ATL

Right now it's reporting-

Delays by Destination: No destination-specific delays are being reported.
General Departure Delays: Due to WX:Thunderstorms, traffic is experiencing Gate Hold and Taxi delays between 15 minutes and 29 minutes in length and decreasing.
General Arrival Delays: Arrival traffic is experiencing airborne delays of 15 minutes or less.

BTW That's a good report for connecting passengers... as it's now late at night they seem to be prioritizing inbounds but that's not always possible given limited "hold out" spots on taxiways.

I just chose ATL though you can easily change the last three letters to any US airport you want.