Hello Everyone,

I had one of the worse & most surprising experience today with AirTran. My 80 yr old grandmother was flying by herself from ATL to LAX on the last flight out today evening at 8.55 PM. Now wanted to point out that being 80 yrs she has trouble walking & neither can she speak or understand English. I had booked her ticket well in advance & at time of booking requested for a wheelchair. We reached airport well ahead of time, checked in (had already done this online earlier during the day & paid for her checked in bag) & cleared security (with assistance of Wheelchair).

We were in front of the gate right at 7.30 PM, since it was too early the wheelchair person who got her to the gate couldn't wait but said that the GA should be able to call for someone from their team when it was time to board. I reached out to the GA at 7.30 PM itself & explained to him about her needing assistance with her bag while boarding - she could walk in but just couldn't hand carry the bag (small bag with max weight of 3 lb. - only medicines & water). At 8.00 PM he made the pre announcement for boarding to begin in 10 minutes & at that time I did not see anyone from the wheelchair team around, so I went back to him just to give a friendly reminder. There were a total 3 GA's at that time, after 10 minutes Mike - GA with whom I have been talking to called her to board, till now there is no one to help. We walked up to the gate & he asked "Does she need this bag?" I replied back stating that she had medicines in them & needed this bag to be by her leg (underneath the chair ahead) so incase if she needed them. To this Mike responds back "I can only take this to the Entrance & then after that I cannot guarantee whether FA will help her out or no (according to him its up-to FA discretion to decide if they want to help or no) & again asked if she could gate check the bag". I guess he did not think that medicines were important, I asked him that what happens if she needed the medicines while the flight was in mid air - this is a pretty long flight. Mike said "I will only take it to the gate & after that either its the FA or if some passenger is willing to help her out, but there is nothing I can do!!!!!". She has travelled quite a few times & every-time either GA or someone from the wheel chair team takes her all the way to her seat, makes sure that she is fine & then comes out. At that point they already called out for Zone 1 to board so I just asked him to drop the bag off in front of the gate & hoped for the best.

So here is my question - Isn't it a standard practice for GA to be helpful of elderly & disabled, make sure that they got on board with their bag?

Was there something else that I should have done at that point or made it any more clear that she needed help?

I feel that AirTran dropped the ball big on this & all the inconvenience it has caused my 80 yr old grandmother, what should I do from here?

I felt like asking this GA what if we both switched shoes & it was his mother or grandmother how would he have wanted me handle this situation?

Thanks Guys!