Justin026

Well, AirTran joins with NW (that was years ago)as an airline that has pulled this stunt on me:

The passengers are all waiting on the morning of July 3rd to go from ATL to PHL on the 9:25 AM departure from gate D3. At 9:05 the flight crew walks up, stands at the gate for a few minutes and leaves. Then the announcement: "due to maintenance issues, the flight to PHL is cancelled." The mob dutifully forms at the gate--some pax on the 11:11 AM departure, the rest at 2:30 PM.

Meanwhile the 717 plane, N992AT, sits at the gate. I see no maintenance work outside of it and I see no truck parked by it and no none is in the cockpit. At 9:45 someone walks up and gets into the cockpit. Then it is hooked up to a tractor and towed to gate C17, arriving there at 10:05. (I walked over to C to follow it.) It is boarded immediately, becoming the 10:30 AM departure to Newark.

I decided to talk to groups of passengers about this at gate D2, where we were waiting for the 11:11 flight. We weren't happy.

Then I spoke with Trish, the supervisor. First she said that a mechanic was working on the plane. I pointed out that the plane had been hooked up to be towed at 9:45 and it was boarded immediately upon arriving at C17.

Then she said, "when we said there were maintenance problems at your gate, we didn't mean a maintenance problem on your plane. In fact, it was a problem on the other plane, and we decided to move your plane there."

I walked back over to D3 to speak with that agent. He also said there was no problem with the plane and that he had "lobbied" not to have our flight cancelled but was overruled.

As I left, they were asking for paid volunteers on the 11:11 flight.

What's the right thing for AirTran to have done? What should I do?

SixAlpha

You can always write to AirTran, but I'm not sure it will do you much good. It sounds like they got you on the next available flight, which was less than two hours from your scheduled departure anyways. Just seems to be reality of flying these days.

As for what AirTran should have done, put yourself in their shoes for a minute. You've got two flights and only one airworthy aircraft, so you know you have to cancel one of them. At that point it just becomes a business decision - you cancel the one that costs you the least to cancel. Or if nothing else, you just flip a coin.

Kinda sucks, but could have been much worse. At least they got you out at 11:11.

lougord99

Every airline does this as they should. If a plane is taken out of service because of maintenance issues, and no spare plane is available, the flight that disrupts the least number of people the least amount is then canceled and that airplane replaces the plane taken out of service. What else would you want the airline to do? You say NW is the only other airline to do this to you. How do you know that?

You ask what should you do? I would say nothing.

RSVP

Just another reality of flying in 2008.

ScubaCat

I'd take the free flight, for sure! (Unless timing didn't permit it.)

lougord99

And when didn't all airlines do this?

NEMMRRC

Was the OP given one of those distressed passenger kits? You know the one I am reefrencing. It is a $25 voucher, an airport meal voucher and a comment card.

The last time I was re-schdeuled due to a maintenance delay I got one of those both at my departing station and once I got to ATL. They handed out the kit as we boarded the plane and once we got to ATL they gave us one with our new boarding pass.

$50 and 2 airport meals for a 90 minute delay was not a bad deal for me that day.

Justin026

Moving to a later flight isn't the biggest issue here. What I am more concerned about is the deceptive information. With the passing fad of a passenger bill of rights, there was a gesture made a couple of years ago towards giving passengers better information.

Do you like having accurate information given about "maintenance issues" when you fly? Or is it OK that the announcement doesn't even have to say whether it is your plane that has them?

What about the folks that were coming back from Philadelphia after noon on the 3rd of July? Were they told their plane was yanked to cover another city?

It is a slippery slope. "Weather delay." "Crew rest." "Flow control." "Minor maintenance and we're leaving soon" when your flight is toast. Three hours instead of ninety minutes.

The "less fortunate" already took a five hour delay (to 2:30) from this example. So should only they have been told what actually happened?

When getting rebooked, how do you argue with your treatment for a "maintenance delay"? It gets different when it isn't my plane that was broken. Or a delay that leads to a hotel. Who pays? Isn't the reason important when bargaining for that? Or the willingness of a carrier to rebook you or at least refund your money if you rebook yourself.

lougord99

Deceptive information is never a good thing. However, the airline is in a tough situation. If you agree that it was a legitimate move to cancel your flight because another plane broke down ( you may not agree, but that is certainly my position ), can you imagine the chaos at your gate if that announcement were made? If I were the GA, I doubt I would have had the guts to make that announcement.

NEMMRRC

This type of situation can also happen with a weather delay at another station.

Once I was flying on FL out of PHL and we were delayed due to weather in ATL. They then gave our plane to the folks heading to FLL because theirs had a maintenance delay. That left those of us going to ATL and beyond delayed at PHL on two accounts; weather and maintenance. Fortunately they got us out with enough time to make it to ATL to catch the last flight out (which was delayed due to weather at ATL). I got home around 1 AM on that trip.

The GAs announced that the ATL flight was delayed due to weather (technically true). However, when approached one-on-one the GAs did explain that the aircraft heading to ATL was given to the folks going to FLL.

The flip side of the coin is that the folks going to FLL from PHL left on time 'cause they got to swap their broken aircraft for our weather delayed one.

ScubaCat

As much as I hate airlines in generally and their customer non-service, I really don't see any problem with this. Because not only is it good business, but they're also inconveniencing the least # of people. Sure, it's a bummer if you're in the smaller group, but 50 disappointed people is better than 150 either way you slice it.

formeraa

Every airline has done this at one time or another. Some are more sophisticated than AirTran. For example, some airlines will announcement a gate change to an empty gate. Then, about 15 minutes later, the flight is mysteriously cancelled.

Last Thursday, US did a gate change to an empty gate, sent our original plane to El Paso, scrounged up a new plane out of the maintenance hangar (hopefully maintenance had fixed whatever was wrong), and got our flight out on time somehow.

travatl

There's nothing deceptive about it. The reality is the flight was cancelled because of a maintenance issue. You say that the people in your gate weren't happy, but would any of you have been any happier if it had indeed been your assigned aircraft that was out of service?

I agree with the above poster....it's a good policy when the fewest number of passengers are inconvenienced. And in the end, you were compensated as if it was your assigned aircraft affected, so what's the problem?

ScubaCat

I guess the deception is based on the assumption that the plane that arrives into a particular gate is the one that will be carrying passengers for the next flight departing from that gate. That's more of a mindgame we play with ourselves, though.

Justin026

A pretty elaborate mindgame. There was a timetable, the gate with the flight posted, gate agents, and a flight crew that walked up ready to fly.

Had someone no-showed, should AirTran take their entire ticket value for this flight of the mind? Or is it important for somone engaged in a mindgame to follow rules?

Is it OK to tell fibs at other times? Like when there are these ramp delays in icy weather?