AirTran Airways A+ Rewards - Rebooked three days later? Really, AirTran?

So my PHL-ATL flight Friday afternoon was canceled by the ubiquitous 'weather'. They rebooked me on a Monday morning flight, which was the first opening they had.

I was just thinking, I can't recall EVER having heard of stranding people three extra nights in a city unless there is something big going on, like a major snowstorm shutting down the East Coast taking days to work out. Did I miss something huge? Or are Philly travelers just out of luck this weekend?

So my PHL-ATL flight Friday afternoon was canceled by the ubiquitous 'weather'. They rebooked me on a Monday morning flight, which was the first opening they had.

I was just thinking, I can't recall EVER having heard of stranding people three extra nights in a city unless there is something big going on, like a major snowstorm shutting down the East Coast taking days to work out. Did I miss something huge? Or are Philly travelers just out of luck this weekend?

Guess they didn't want to have to bump and compensate people over the next three days. If you were to fly the next day, someone else would have been bumped and compensated, then for them to fly on the next flight another person bumped. Guess it would get expensive for AirTran.

Load factors are off the charts these days. Like high 80s and low 90s percentages. There just isn't any slack left in the system to find seats to accommodate people.

There are 5 flights daily on the PHL-ATL route. Assuming that your flight had ~115 displaced passengers (85%LF) and the other flights are similarly booked it would take more than a day to flush the 115 people out into the system at about 15-20 per flight. And if any of the flights were already sold out that would take even longer, which is what you are seeing.

You can certainly go standby and take a seat if someone no-shows, but the system is incredibly stressed right now in terms of loads and capacity leaving all carriers with very little flexibility to handle IRROPs. And they will not bump someone else to accommodate you. That sort of process certainly makes sense for you but not for the entire rest of the system.

What's the status of airline agreements with other carriers, for AirTran? I forget what they call them? Interline agreements? Where they can put you on another airline's flight if they have room.

I would assume that they would at least have some sort of agreement with Frontier, since they ARE Frontier. But that's probably the only one, eh? Granted, PHL-DEN-ATL is kind of daft, but if there were seats available...

Oh well, I sorted it out through alternate travel plans (I had to be up in DC next week anyway, so I just skipped the weekend trip home), but I imagine some people had their travel plans seriously screwed up. I'm just surprised the flight loads are so high! Don't people know we're in a recession? :)

What's the status of airline agreements with other carriers, for AirTran? I forget what they call them? Interline agreements? Where they can put you on another airline's flight if they have room.

I would assume that they would at least have some sort of agreement with Frontier, since they ARE Frontier. But that's probably the only one, eh? Granted, PHL-DEN-ATL is kind of daft, but if there were seats available...

Oh well, I sorted it out through alternate travel plans (I had to be up in DC next week anyway, so I just skipped the weekend trip home), but I imagine some people had their travel plans seriously screwed up. I'm just surprised the flight loads are so high! Don't people know we're in a recession? :)

I think AirTran canceled most of their interline agreements two years ago, and if they had any remaining they would be very reluctant to use them since it usually involves paying the other carrier a fare that is pretty close to the walk-up fare.

I don't get it. There are seats today and tomorrow. The 1036AM tomorrow is selling cheap seats still. If anything, have them route you via a florida city; MCO, SRQ, TPA.... There are tons of seats to ATL through these cities.

The OP could have looked more aggressively at leaving from a backup airport -- Harrisburg, Baltimore, Newark, Reagan, Dulles, LaGuardia and Atlantic City are close/have train options,etc. I am looking midmorning on Sunday, and several of these cities still have Sunday service available--Dulles is still on sale for $159 OW so it must be wide open.

But PHL-Orlando is also wide open--there are many backtrack flights to ATL they could put you on from there.

AirTran would be expected to foot the bill for any of the above options.

Amtrak also an option, it leaves PHL every day for Atlanta at about 5 PM arriving 8 AM. The airport train takes you nonstop to 30st St. Station, where Amtrak leaves from.

The drive is about 14 hours.

Yeah, I have no idea why they booked me out three days later either. Originally all of Saturday was sold out, but there were first class seats available on Sunday. It just seems weird.

But like I said, I went to DC and just stayed here over the weekend, which is why I didn't bother to find other arrangements home -- that WAS my other arrangement. It just seemed strange they booked me three days out, when it sure seemed like there were other options. I would've thought they'd have tried a bit harder to reroute, but maybe I'm just used to other airlines being more proactive in their rebookings.

As a former airline agent, I would say the CS agent you were working with had very one dimensional thinking, ie, no other options other than what she saw on your ticket. Most agents in my experience try other nearby departure cities, or creative routings, etc. I will say that many agents do not get much training in this area and they are woefully uneducated about US geography which tends to keep them from understanding that other departure/arrival cities could assist the passenger as long as there is agreement with the passenger to change the ticket.

I think that agents feel pressured to move the passenger in front of them quickly so that a line of passengers can be cleared quickly, as well. I only excuse that when an agent has an incoming flight and she is tasked to drive the jetway. That is a valid reason to limit customer interaction though, but only because of airline staffing issues. I don't think it should be that way, of course.

Very glad your option with DC worked out. Great place to spend a weekend!