ldsant

Not sure how a lot of the AirTran folks are going to integrate into Southwest's more "upbeat" style of dealing with passengers. Had 4 different encounters on my flights SEA-MKE and MKE-PIT where the employee was just nasty and rude to passengers (myself included). They made UA employees look like "Singapore girls!" in comparison.

flyYX

MKE - MSP for me on AirTran. Amazing how such a short flight can make the FA's cranky. I wouldn't even mention this, but I have co-workers that experienced the same crankiness on this route. On the flip side, I upgraded to business class and the FA was very friendly.

RSVP

Also, on the flip side, I have found AirTran employees among the friendliest in the industry.

The FAs wiling to go that extra mile.

ldsant

Yep - I was flying Business SEA-MKE - that's where the nasty FA was. Could not be bothered and really - what is the point of not being nice to people when you're interacting with them for <10 minutes a piece? I just don't get it. The FA never came around during the flight after she walked through at the beginning, made an offer for something to drink then sat down, talked with her fellow FA for the next 3 hours and never offered anything again. Definitely was not worth the $99 upgrade price.

saneman

she didnt even come around with the basket of snacks on that route? I would have gone to her and asked for that basket or just summoned her if she was that rude.

I generally have had excellent service with airtran. Some exceptions, of course. I was on the PHL-ATL route. Some passenger was complaining to the female gate agent about how rude she was. I am guessin the argument was about some oversized carryon she wanted to bring on board, couldnt tell if it was related to the baby she had with her and her husband on that flight. Then the GA just tore into her shouting at her and then calling someone on her phone for help. Just a half hour prior to thjat, I had to approach her because my elite status wasnt printed on the ticket , so I had to make sure I got an upgrade. She looked kind of surly in her facial expression, but she turned out to be nice, giving me the upgrade an hour in advance and not even making it out to be a big deal. So I am guessing the passenger lady was just being a ..... with the oversized package she wanted to bring on board.

I had a rude pregnant FA on ATL-ACY route who seemed friendly only with her fellow FAs , but in no mood to be friendly with any of us. She seemed to look at us as a burden. Thankfully, she was serving BC only before the flight took off and switched duties with a male FA after the flight took off. THe dude was much nicer. He didnt give me the stinkeye even once despite my mooching on the snacks.

Justin026

Have always found AirTran's flight attendants to be in line with other airlines, though there are fewer senior ones because the bulk of the airline is (was) less than 20 years old. And I have found the ground staff has gotten MUCH better in the last few years and more consistent from city to city.

plagwate

I think the ticketing agents at ATL are going to be some of the toughest to break into WN's smiles and happy attitudes for everyone equally. I hate to say this out loud, but I have witnessed first-hand the difference in attitude of many of the TAs toward fellow African-American customers versus everyone else. Sadly this is far too common an observation to be an isolated incident.

Alpha737

Please elaborate?I seen some good and not so good Ta's

bigbuy

Trying to open up a can of worms?????

plagwate

Not trying to open up anything. In fact, I was trying to be as sensitive as possible with my choice of words. Regardless, there are many on FL's front lines at ATL who are surly/indifferent/throw attitude at passengers who do not share similar ancestry. Sad, but true.

Alpha737

I have not seen that in my case.I have seen some gate agents get surely with customers of all races and vice versa.Case in point the gentle man that beat up the TA a few years back.Interesting oberservation of all the ta's to say the least

lougord99

I think the general consensus on the WN board is that WN employees are no longer any better than other airline employees. They are adequate, but rarely go above and beyond as they once did.

Simply another aspect of WN becoming just another legacy.

bigbuy

Well, for what its worth, I just had the same type of situation this morning at ATL, only it was with a Delta rep and very obvious. It is sad, but very true.

saneman

I call BS on this "difference in attitude of many of the TAs toward fellow African-American customers versus everyone else." . Yes, the two women I complained about in my post were African American. But the flight attendant who was not pleasant was joking around with her white colleagues the same way she joked around with her black colleagues on that flight. Same with passengers. Her attitude seemed the same with all races of passengers- not that great.

Are there African American FAs who tend to treat other African Americans better? I am sure there are some. I have seen white FAs on other airlines(especially a couple of the foreign ones) do the same with whites versus Indians(I am Indian American). On Airtran, however, I haven't felt that. I have been happy with both white and black FAs and TAs overall in the last 10 years of Airtran.

It is possible that more black FAs, especially in Atlanta, tend to be oversensitive to any perceived "tone or attitude" from white customers and react more rudely based on some past experience which is not fair to the current white customers of Airtran. So I will grant you that you may have experienced some of that and it is the FA or TA"s responsibility to get over that. But I refuse to believe in the numbers implied here that it is such a common problem.

plagwate

Earth to Saneman: The world (and all of the responses to this post) does/do not revolve around you. Read a little more carefully before you quote me and call BS. My comments were specific to the ticketing agents at ATL. There is no mention of flight attendants (who I believe have much better customer interface in my experience).

Racial tensions in ATL as a whole are still widespread and are not unique to AirTran. Spend a little time living in Atlanta as a Caucasian and you'll see it first-hand, particularly if you're in an environment that is majority African-American. It doesn't occur in every situation but it happens. BTW, just what numbers do you think were implied by the term "many"? Frankly, I think any is too many.