Change Fee?
 

I had a 11/3 BOS to ATL on Airtran. Due to the weather, I was not able to get to BOS to catch that flight (I'm based out of the SFO area). Still having to get to ATL, I changed the original ticket to a flight from SFO to ATL. I was charged the change fee. I told them under the circumstances the change fee should be waived. Airtran said (basically) it is what it is and that I have to pay the change fee. Is it unreasonable to expect them to waive it? Or, due to the weather/delay craziness, they should waive the change fee?

Thanks for any input. I don't fly Airtran much (I'm a *A guy) so I am unfamiliar with how flexible or rigid they are in such matters. I feel they should waive it but am keeping an open mind about how rigid I might be acting.

BOS Change fees are waived until today (11/1)

http://www.airtran.com/weather/default.aspx

Dont get why you didnt check the front page of airtran.com ?

This:

AirTran is offering flexible travel accommodations for our Customers who are scheduled to travel to/from BDA, BOS, BUF, BWI, DCA, PIT, PWM, RIC, and ROC on Monday, October 29 through Thursday, November 1

What could be more clear?

But OPs flight isn't until Saturday 11/3.

Right, so the weather waiver doesn't apply. Just the standard cancellation rules.

I should have been more clear. I was/am fully aware of the blanket wide date range for change fee waiver. My question was regarding outside that blanket period. Considering my A+ and billing is a Bay Area address, I am changing to a Bay Area (SFO) departure instead of BOS, and considering that it is widely known that flights from SFO to BOS are just now starting back up in full (meaning it is reasonable to expect I could not get to BOS), I thought it seemed a fair example for waiving the change fee. I realize the view of some will be rules are rules, period. However as someone who travels a lot, I find most airlines to be flexible when the circumstances are apparent enough to justify felixibility (just my experience, may not be yours).
If AirTran is inflexible on this? I'm not particularly upset about it. That is their call. I was also taken aback a little when the CSR brought up my flight, brought up the flight I wanted to change to, examined what he could and could do on the change fee, relay the price to me.....but then tacked on a phone fee too. Again, I'm not particularly upset about it. That is their call to make the rules and follow them as rigidly they see fit.
It's not like AirTran is missing anything with me. They would only get 2 to 4 flights from me a year (as mentioned I take *A most often).

It would be nice goodwill for Airtran to waive the fee. It's not like he is changing it because of a change in plans. It is weather related even if the first part of his trip is on another airline. Even if the date is outside the range, the only reason he is changing it is because his whole trip is messed up. Technically Airtran is in the clear, but come on.

Change Fee
 

OP,

I suggest you write to Customer Service. I was in a similar situation not too long ago - I was traveling on another airline and had purchased a ticket on AirTran the following day. However, my original flight was cancelled due to a maintenance issue, so I had to wait for 24 hours to get on another flight to the US (I was in Europe at the time). Because of that, I ended up missing the AirTran flight. I had booked a non-refundable ticket (I think most of AirTran's are except Business), so I knew there was nothing I could have done to salvage the value of that ticket even though it wasn't really my fault but I wrote Customer Service anyway. I pointed out the obvious and expressed regret that after the purchase by Southwest they still haven't adopted their No Change Fees policy and several days later, I received a response providing a credit for the amount paid. So, the moral of the story is write to Customer Service - you may get a sympathetic CSR who will take care of these fees - you never know until you try. Good Luck!

76Patriots - Send me your PNR via PM, ill take a look at it for you.

That's another thing i am liking about Airtran. I put up a post onthe United board over some mistake they made with my cousins and how their customre service was so bad. It was not a short thread. yet not a single reply from anyone connected to United.

Its best to refund a few bucks and get several hundred more in revenue per year than not do anything about it...if its a legitimate reason that is. Everything is taken with a grain of salt until one can dig into the official booking.

The best customer service doesnt come from saying "we have the best customer service" or doing something that should be done but proactively making life easier especially when the incremental cost is negligible or none.

Thank you (everyone) for your responses. Very much appreciated.....

You get it refunded?

Change fees
 

I had a flight from BOS to BWI to DAY scheduled on 10-29 at 7:00pm. Knowing the storm was coming in I tried to change starting at 11:00am on 10-27. Only three flight available and these were for 10-28. Problem was I booked with an online travel agent. I will never make that mistake again. But they said they had to contact Airtran about waving fees. Sure enough they came back online would not wave any fees. Cost me like $300 to change. Airtran didn't offer the weather advisory until 7:00pm on 10-27. The whole storm ordeal was awful. At least I made it out though. Airtran would have worked with me. Not so with who I booked through.