Irregular Ops - what is policy when it comes to putting you on another airline?
 

I generally have no problems with AirTran -- when things are running normally, they are pretty good. The free upgrades for elites are a nice benefit. In all of my thousands of miles flying on Delta and United, I've never once been refused a connection on another airline when DL or UA canceled their flight.

Flying out of Dayton a couple of weeks ago, the DAY-BWI departure was delayed and eventually the agents started putting people on other flights...the flight did end up canceling due to mechanical. The elite phone number was of no help, saying they didn't have the ability to put people on other airlines and that the next AirTran flight to Boston (my final destination) was the next day. Since the gate agent had a line of 50+ people ahead of him, I walked out through security to the ticket counter and was told that "operations has control of the flight and they are not permitting us to place passengers on other airlines." Long story short, I canceled my ticket, had the ticket counter refund me, then bought a one-way on Delta and boarded a Delta flight 15 minutes later (at a much higher cost!).

A few days ago, I received a "we're sorry about our cancelation" form letter with a $50 discount on my next flight...nice gesture, but I'm wondering if this refusal to book on another carrier is the norm for AirTran?

I had them place me on JetBlue once due to a big screw up on their part (long story). To do so, they actually had to write out a company check and take it to the JetBlue counter to purchase my ticket.

from the AirTran website --

"• Interline ticket and baggage agreements with British Airways, Frontier Airlines,
Hawaiian Airlines, Icelandair, United Airlines, and US Airways."

These are the airlines that will accept AirTran ticket stock, i.e. AirTran can endorse their ticket to one of these airlines.

That list even surprises me a bit. Airtran, like Southwest doesn't "play well with others," when it comes to accepting and issuing tickets for other carriers. You buy a ticket on them, and that's who you will be flying, com hell or high water.

Haven't had it happen lately, but one night when the last flight was cancelled out of MEM, the agent walked us over to NW and put us on them, they may have paid them via check as the NW agent and FL agent were in serious discussion for a little while, direct to TPA.They were very nice about it though.

The fact that Air Tran has an interline agreement with USairways and United belies this statement.

I am curious why the OP did not pursue a rebook on USairways ouf DAY.

Oh I tried -- I was told that arrangements on any other carrier were not an option...that the only rebookings being offered were for other AirTran flights.

Most airlines will reroute you on other airlines that they have ticketing agreements with. If they don't have an e-ticket agreement, or if AirTran does not issue paper tickets, they won't reaccommodate you. Airlines are very reluctant to issue checks to other airlines (as they must on Southwest) since it costs them considerably more than issuing their own tickets, and there may not always be someone on duty who has access to checks or drafts.

I usually pick Airtran out of MKE as they have a later flight then DL. A few months ago when I arrived at MKE I found out the FL flight was in a maintenace hold and expected to cancel. They agent immediately handed me a document and said to head over to Midwest. They accepted it and I was on my way.

Not sure if this was an interline or what but it was the agent who initiated it and didn't wait to see if the FL flight did cancel. BTW, I checked the monitor in ATL and the FL flight did go quite a bit later.

Kudos to the FL agent.

Was flying to LAX via ATL.... first flight had a mechanical so I missed my connecting flight to LAX by 10 minutes. The next flight was 6 hours later and they refused to put me on another airline when I requested it.
After sending in an email complaint, they gave me a $75 voucher.