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Clyde Frog

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 26, 2006
Posts
315
Do pigs fly better than AirTran?
August 4, 10:15 PM · Patricia Leslie - DC Cultural Events Examiner

(What does this have to do with culture in Washington, D.C.? You have to get here to be here. Besides, I am the writer.)
On Friday night the AirTran plane was 3 hours and 45 minutes late leaving Dulles. The Atlanta weather was the cause. Of course. Of course.

By the time we landed in Atlanta at 2:20 a.m. (my memory is fuzzy), I had missed the last shuttle to LaGrange, Georgia, my destination, since it left Atlanta at 1:15 a.m. I will skip details about spending the dreary night at the Atlanta airport , the dearth of rental cars and sleeping accommodations, the 50% tax rate charged on the rental cars (Thrifty), the airport toilets which have power thrusts of Mt. Vesuvius and spew urine and water all over a person, and return instead to adventures at the airport on Sunday night.

AirTran's Web site said my returning plane on Sunday was delayed by one hour. I got to the airport three hours early and approached an unfriendly counter agent hesitatingly for I correctly anticipated the answer but had to ask anyway for if you don't ask, the answer will always be negative, right?

Was there room for me to board the already two-hour late flight to Dulles which was in line ahead of my flight? Oh, ha, ha, ha. Actually, he kept his steely demeanor and said no.

I asked Mr. Grumpy for the departure time, please, of my 10:10 p.m. flight, hoping a few minutes of its tardiness had miraculously been made up in Skyland somewhere.

Nope.

He told me my flight was canceled. Canceled?

Wouldn't it be nice if AirTran could occasionally communicate with passengers and let them know about canceled flights?

Nope.

Was there an announcement that my flight was canceled?

Nope.

He directed me to the "Customer Relations" hahahahaha booth where I joined thousands. Verily I saw unto you: When have you ever passed an AirTran "Customer Relations" hahahahaha counter which was not populated by six zillion unhappy passengers?

I stood in line for 30 minutes and finally reached Vincent who said my flight was canceled because of "insufficient crew."

Why does AirTran book flights when it has "insufficient crew"?

He said, cheerfully, AirTran had booked me to fly 17 hours later.

Wasn't that nice. How kind. The generosity! No deal, I growled. I had a job to get to on Monday morning. Did that matter? Hardly. After all we exist for them. Not vice-versa as most would expect in the retail world. You are locked up, captured, and helpless in Atlanta. Get along, little doggy!

After hassling (actually a word beginning with the letter D more adequately defines the exchange) with him another 30 minutes, he "got me on" a flight to Baltimore. Sweet. Baltimore is 100+ miles from Dulles where my car was. The Baltimore flight was late, too.

With 200 people I stood at the Baltimore counter, waited, and listened to the counter agent announce that the Baltimore flight was further delayed because the crew was in hiding (whoops, my words) had not shown up. In a little while, over the concourse's loud speakers came a plea from AirTran begging crew members to please stand up, be counted and show up! I had my suspicions about their whereabouts.

We stood; we waited. After 20 minutes, the crew began to slowly trickle in piece-meal like water dripping slowly from a faucet. The crowd cheered and clapped.

On board the weary, worn-out "crew" was about as accommodating as a porcupine ripped of its quills.

We landed in Baltimore with such a crash on the runway I thought the top was going to blow off the plane, seriously. It was so late all watch batteries had ceased working and no one knew the time. Two airport employees told me that on Saturday Air Tran had dumped passengers in Baltimore who were en route to Vermont.

My pal, Jason, got dumped in Atlanta, on his way to Savannah by, of course, of course, AirTran.

Why does the FAA permit a carrier like AirTran to operate on patients? (We were: Sliced, diced, and thrown out.) Why does anyone fly on AirTran? Can you book a seat on a flying pig? Actual arrival and departure times may be more realistic.

http://www.examiner.com/x-7654-DC-Cultural-Events-Examiner~y2009m8d4-Do-pigs-fly-faster-than-AirTran
 
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Cooperation is a two way street.

Keep it up.

9 in '09!!
 
I know you payed $30 dollars and are surprised at the lack of awesomeness.

Tell you what. Drive! I dare you. Load your ass in a car for 20 hours of travel time and you will beg for a ticket on airtran.

Hey how about this idea. Take Delta... Except there is no perfect airline. So you have a chance of having the same problem on Delta.

Either way I hate you. You passengers complain constantly. "The plane is too small", "the food sucks", "we're late", "the block times are a lie", "it's too crowded", "security sucks", "crews suck"... Blow me. Airlines have yet to make a profit. We have been giving away tickets for years taking pay cuts the whole way. We provide the best not for profit air service in the world... We would love to cut the flights to three a day charging $2000 a seat... Then we wouldn't have your sorry ass on the plane.
 
The WX was horrible that weekend and crews were timing out. Most of the flights ran until the 3:30 to 4 in the morning that whole weekend. I give Airtran credit for trying thier best to complete thier sked even with the shortage of crews. I didnt see many DAL flights leaving at 2am......
 
I know you payed $30 dollars and are surprised at the lack of awesomeness.

This should be printed on every ticket jacket...oooops, that's right, everyone has even gotten rid of the ticket jackets, and you get a receipt like you would at Crave-Mart.

You get what you pay for...welcome to the new revolution, baby...

Destination Airfare Cost in 1977 Adjusted for Inflation in 2008
Los Angeles to New York $412 $1,485.26
New York to Washington, D.C. $76 $273.98
Los Angeles to San Francisco $51 $183.85
[The airfare costs do not include fees for luggage, nor food or beverage service.]

Sorry for the crappy formatting.

Shamelessly reposted from: http://www.aerochannel.com/features/2445649

Nu
 
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The weather was bad that weekend but I have to ask the original poster why he chose the carrier he did. I'm sure price of the ticket had something to do with it. The airlines are in the situation they are in because the traveling passenger will do anything to save 5 bucks. Airtran has a great product, this post could have been about any airline. Fact is, the airlines are forced to cut everything to the bone to be competitive, that includes hiring overworked, grumpy gate agents and flying crews to their absolute limit. As a result when something unforeseen happens things come unwound. And then, the guy who tried to save a little money, complains.
 
Plus AT is WAY understaffed for the amount of work the Pilot group is willing/able to do right now. If they are trying to bring the amount of flying back up to this level around Thanksgiving and Christmas without hiring/signing a new contract I feel you will be reading about the Tranny in the papers.
 
BWI is only 58 miles from IAD by car according to Yahoo Maps (not 100+ as the author states). Do you think she is a drama queen? Does she possible have an agenda?
 
Cooperation is a two way street.

Keep it up.

9 in '09!!

I think most of you missed the point Senior Frog was trying to make.

"Management can't run this operation without the pilots cooperation."

5 years and a failed POS TA later, AirTran is running at 30% ontime with numerous cancellations. Coincidence? I think not.
 

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