AirTran Airways Consumer Reviews - Page 5

ATLANTA, GEORGIA -- I booked flights for myself and spouse on Oct 20, 2013 from BWI to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic - Airtran Flight 817; depart at 9:08 am on Sunday, Dec 22nd 2013; arrive Punta Cana at 1:52 pm, a four-hour flight, and returning on Dec 28th, 2013. I also purchased two advanced seating assignments for the round trip tickets.

AirTran called on Oct 31st, asking if we were willing to take a later flight on Dec. 22nd from BWI to Punta Cana, DR because AirTran sold us an overbooked original scheduled flight. They offered two flight options that were both incomparable and unacceptable because of the departure times, one leaving at 7:55 am from BWI connecting through Atlanta with a six hours layover, and arriving Punta Cana at 8:57 pm. I did not accept the offer to be put on any alternative incomparable flights.

AirTran called again on Dec. 19th, informed me that my flights have now changed leaving on Dec. 22 from BWI at 7:55 am, arriving Atlanta. When I stopped the caller (agent) and asked her why they are changing my flights, the agent's answer was that our original scheduled flight leaving BWI at 9:08 am is overbooked. I called AirTran and spoke a supervisor, ** (agent **), who offered a refund of two one-way tickets and fees for advanced seating assignments.

Because we were not given any alternative comparable flight choice and our trip is scheduled in two days, Dec. 22nd, we were forced to take FLT 133 - departed BWI on Dec. 22nd at 7:55 am, arrived Atlanta at 9:55 am, over 7 hours layover in Atlanta, departed at 5:40 pm, arrived in PUJ 10 pm! All day of our first day family holiday vacation wasted!

** informed us that the Involuntary Denied Boarding (IDB) Rule does not apply because we were involuntary removed (bumped) from our original flight 2 days prior to Dec. 22; subsequently AirTran avoiding DOT rule for IDB, which is legal business practice by AirTran! Overbooking flights is also legal business practice!

DOT defines involuntary bumping. AirTran has the right to involuntary bumped lucky passengers from any of their flights any time, except that we were involuntary bumped on Dec. 19, so rule does not apply to us in terms of 400% compensation; our flight was on Dec 22! What are our rights as customers and as consumers?! DOT is reviewing my case!

I booked a flight for my entire family (including an infant) with AirTran. We have previously flown with Delta and United with the baby and they have allowed the stroller and playpen free of charge (which we were happy to find out). The playpen is a necessity as it allows the baby somewhere safe to sleep at our destination.

Just before travel with AirTran, I decided to review their policy regarding infant items. It turns out that they do not allow a playpen as free baggage, but they do allow a stroller and car seat. I would not be bringing a car seat (we will be renting one at the destination). So I contacted customer support through email to inquire about bringing the playpen instead of a car seat (the collapsed playpen is much smaller than a car seat but 2 1/2 inches longer than carry-on allows) and told them that other carriers allow playpens for no additional charge.

I received an email on a Saturday that stated their baggage pricing structure and stated I would have to pay $75 (each way) in additional costs, nothing more. When I called customer service the same day to address this email, I was told that the customer service department was closed on Saturdays. I did manage to speak with a customer service representative who seemed wholly annoyed with me. She asked if the playpen was over-sized (over 61" or over 50#). It is neither.

When she started huffing, I asked to speak with a supervisor. The supervisor was slightly more agreeable but the complaint seemed to have hit a wall. I asked if my concern could be forwarded on to someone who could reconsider this policy as it made family travel much more costly and difficult. She halfheartedly agreed to forward it on. Ultimately, we have decided to buy a playpen at our destination as $45 (to buy a basic one) is cheaper than the hassle and cost of dealing with AirTran's policy.

Throughout the process, I felt that AirTran was not interested in my concern and was reluctant to forward my complaint to the proper department. I will not choose to fly AirTran in the future and I will discourage those with infants from flying with AirTran.

?, FLORIDA -- Oct. 2012, purchased a round trip ticket from Pensacola, Florida to Houston, Texas. I was going out to Houston to stay with a relative for two weeks who had suffered a stroke. First disappointment was when I checked into AirTran. I was told my agent to put suitcase on scales. At 68 years of age and having had a double mastectomy 8 months prior, I could not lift the suitcase. The agent's attitude was apparent that he didn't like to assist me with the luggage.

On booking my ticket online, I had paid extra ($6.00) to have a window seat. A week before I was to leave to come back to Pensacola, I called AirTran's toll free number to request a window seat. I was told by the agent on the phone that she needed a credit card number to reserve a window seat, another $6.00. I gave her all the information from my debit credit card and was told I would receive an email with the confirmation within 48 hours. 48 hours later, I had not received the email.

I called Air Tran and found out they had no record of my calling to reserve a window seat. This immediately sent up a red flag. Went online to my bank and found out their agent had gone on a shopping spree with my debit credit card and had purchased $1,037.00 in merchandise. Needless to say, this almost wiped my account out. I live on SS and was left with very little monies to make it back home. I had to arrange for a trip to Wells Fargo to cancel my card, and file a complaint. I had to make a police report in Houston and was told to make one back in Florida when I got home.

I did receive my $1,037.00 back from the bank and had requested my airfare ticket cost back from AirTran for all the aggravation, but have had no response. I would like to warn you to not give out any credit card information to anyone on the phone when requesting a seat with AirTran. I am not sure they have gotten rid of the person who did this so beware.

ORLANDO, FLORIDA -- In the first place, on Friday, May 20, before 9 am we learned that our flight #112 at 12:21 pm from Dallas to Atlanta was cancelled, presumably due to weather in Dallas. However, the Dallas weather was perfectly fine until late afternoon, so I do not see why this decision was made. It was the only Atlanta flight of the five on their schedule that day that was cancelled, but they couldn't find us space on another flight until the next day. In addition to causing us to miss an entire day with our grandson, we were subjected to several other stressful situations involving our prepaid hotel and car rental arrangements.

The next day we got to Atlanta just fine, but then my husband and I were passengers on flight 278 from Atlanta to Boston. That plane was not able to land in Boston due to fog. We understand that kind of thing to be unavoidable. My complaint centers around the decision to divert to Providence, where AirTran has no facilities, in order to refuel. This does not qualify as a well-thought-out contingency plan, in my opinion.

While we were on the tarmac in Providence, several passengers became insistent to be allowed to leave the plane and the pilot agreed to accommodate them, which caused even more of a delay because they had to negotiate for a gate and then verify exactly who was still on the plane. As a result, the rest of us wound up staying on the plane on the ground for five hours. Instead of arriving in Boston at 7:19 pm, it was closer to 1 am when we finally deplaned.

By that time, we had lost our car rental reservation, our hotel room, and half the time we were planning to spend with our grandson who had to go to school on Monday; and we started our vacation in a state of stress and exhaustion. The AirTran personnel were pleasant and professional throughout. I feel that the errors were made at a level above them.

My son left today, 12-28-10, to go back to his military base in Florida. His AirTran flight was scheduled to leave from Chicago Midway at 2:39 pm. I dropped him off about three hours before his flight. Within minutes, he called me to advised me that he did not have a seat in coach for his flight to Atlanta or Jacksonville, Florida. I said what happened, and he said that he entered his confirmation number into the kiosk and it told him that there were no seats in coach for his flights. Feeling pressured, he asked a lady with AirTran and was told that he would have to upgrade to get his flights that he had paid for.

I booked his flights and realized that AirTran had a policy that if you wanted to confirm your seat, you could pay an extra $15.00 and your seat would be held. I also read that when you checked in, you could get your seat assigned to you. So, my wife calls the airline and the airline blames the seating on my military son saying that he is the one who upgraded. My wife told the lady from AirTran that he had to upgrade to get his flights back tonight to fulfill his orders. The lady from AirTran asked my wife if he showed anyone his orders or was he in uniform.

My wife responded, "Would that have made a difference because my son did show his military ID," and the lady from AirTran said, "No". Again the lady from AirTran stated that it was my son's fault and that he did not confirm his seat. My wife asked the AirTran lady, "So his ticket purchase did not mean anything?" The lady from AirTran said again that he did not confirm his seat.

We have flown with Air Tran twice before, United Airlines, American, Northwest, Delta, US Air, Frontier, and Continental and have never, never had to pay additional to the ticket purchase to confirm a seat. They told my son that there would be no charge for his bag because he was flying first class so he was saving money. On other airline, his bags are not charged due to him being in the military. We will never do business with AirTran again and would suggest that military personnel stay away from them as well.

My spouse and I recently flew round trip from Atlanta to Cancun on AirTran Airways. The flight to Cancun was uneventful. The return flight was a joke. I have flown both charter, as well as commercial flights for over 30 years, and find this particular service deplorable. The first problem arose when AirTran in Cancun declared our checked bag was over the limit by 1 1/2 pounds. We chose to redistribute the weight to or carry on bags, right there at the check-in counter. As we discovered while waiting in the terminal for the flight, the majority of ticket holders had the same issue. Coincidence?

After sitting at the departure gate for nearly 45 minutes, we were informed there was a gate change. Everyone had to relocate to another gate. After that move, I thought I heard the AirTran check in person mention my name to someone on the telephone. I approached the desk and asked her if there was an issue. She confirmed the seats we had been assigned were going to have to be used by the flight attendants, as the jump seats were broken. We were assigned one seat in business class, and one seat in economy. Therefore, my spouse and I were not able to sit together on the flight home. We had no choice because the flight was full.

We waited 30 minutes to be re-ticketed. Not a big deal until we walked on to the plane and the business class flight attendant had the gall to tell me, "we have been waiting for you". I took the business class seat, and my husband took the economy seat. We were only 4 rows from each other, but not one of the AirTran flight attendants even made an attempt to even offer my husband a cocktail or "business class" snack for the inconvenience. Because we had boarded last, my husband was forced to stow his carry on in one of the rear overheads, even though he was sitting in the 2nd row from the front.

About an hour before landing he retrieved his carry on and placed it in the overhead above my business class seat, so that we would not be separated while deplaning. The business class flight attendant told him he was not a business class customer, and did not belong in the business class section. He ignored her, and went back to his seat. My husband is a Vietnam Vet, and did say, on his way back to his seat, "if we had her in the Nam we would have won". I believe her behavior was unacceptable, and she should be reprimanded.

I can honestly say, I would not fly AirTran again, however, I won't have to worry about it for long since Southwest, which is a far superior airline has bought them out. The flight was AirTran 45 out of Cancun to Atlanta at 12:00 noon.

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA -- I'm very disturbed by my recent flying experience with AirTran. I bought an $80 ticket from Indianapolis to Newark and thought I was getting a great deal. Apparently not. When I checked in, an AirTran employee who I can only describe as a total ** decided that my bag was oversize. I couldn't believe it. I'm an extremely experienced traveler and I've never had this problem with this bag ever before on any other airline. Not only did they slap me with the $20 bag charge, they hit me with an additional $50 for the oversize bag, bringing the total checked bag charge to $70. Literally, the bag charge was almost as much as the actual ticket. Unbelievable.

While I voiced my complaints to the AirTran employee checking me in, two other employees stood there laughing. Seriously, I mean, really? As if it is so absolutely hilarious that they get to screw people over behind their counters. It looked like they were having fun. Awesome, good for them.

AirTran embodies everything that I hate about the modern corporate world. The company operates without any humanity, all it's worried about is the bottom line. I imagine some shady corporate executives sitting around in a boardroom discussing subtle ways to squeeze their customers for more money without causing much trouble. It disturbs me. I bet they have a good laugh about it at headquarters. "You do what you got to do, let's squeeze these chumps for some more money, HA HA HA...."

Part of the reason this baggage scam makes me so mad is that it's just bad business. Ripping people off is a horrible way to establish a loyal and valuable customer base. I would venture to guess that AirTran's shady baggage policy is actually COSTING the airline money in lost customers. Guess how much my bag was oversized by? Two inches. I kid you not. I actually laughed out loud when the guy told me that. What a joke. That measurement screams BS louder than my 10th grade English papers. Whatever, enough. People, just never fly AirTran. Trust me.

Let me explain this stupid situation by detail to let you (the viewers) know a little bit about these snakes and there employment opportunities. It was 2008 and fall was in around then. I applied for a job with Airtrans and got an interview blah blah blah to make that long story short I got the job I was heading to Atlanta for training. Took there plane out to Georgia (hate flying it makes me sick) and they put me in a hotel with about 50 other people give or take. It was a 2 week stay and within those 2 weeks we were required to learn everything about the customer service and baggage handling and then we were home free. I studied everyday, I minded my business, I was prepared to do what I had to to make ends meet. While I was at the hotel I somehow contracted some kind of infection in my testicles (lol personal) and it didn't make me unable to perform the job in any way shape or form but it did bother me a little. At the same time, I kept it quiet because who wants that kind of business put out there in front of people you are not familiar with (so much for that). Someone else that was just hired as well had notice my limping a little and decides to bring it to the managers and supervisors attention (nosey) and to make another long story short, I was forced (meaning I had no choice) to see one of THEIR doctors. I was checked and told that I had something that had nothing to do with what was wrong and this was before I was going to take my last test and then go home to work the exact day. They sent me home and I was unable to reapply unless I could get a second opinion saying that the diagnosis was false. What did I do????? EXACTLY!!!!! I received a second opinion and they even faxed it for me to airtrans. No call backs, no acknowledgements, nothing. Why was I sent home?????? Was it racial profiling because I am black (and white, I am mixed)???? Was it because they had too many people for the job???? NO EXPLANATIONS!!!! NOTHING!!!!! I definitely felt a lawsuit, but instead of that I would rather just let future employees know (and hopefully they read this) that these snakes are not worth the time and effort.

I have always had good experiences with AirTran in the past (or so I thought); maybe I was deluded by the ridiculously low fare from Dayton, OH to Baltimore, MD. Well, it's low for a reason. One instance of particular dissatisfaction stands-out to me.

Several weeks ago I took my usual route from Dayton to BWI to the Capital to attend Jon Stewart's Rally. I was very excited and had a great time, but when I got to the airport, the check-in attendant leisurely took my information and started chatting with a co-worker even though I knew my flight was close to boarding. When she handed me my boarding pass, all the information (Gate #, Seat #) had question marks where the information should have been, and in response to my desperate look she said, "Oh, just talk to the gate attendant... person... thing." WHAT?

I make my way through security to find no one at the gate desk, though there is an AirTran worker taking boarding passes for the adjacent flight. I tried to get his attention several times and he ignored me completely, finally saying "I'm busy, ma'am" and going back to taking the boarding passes. I persisted, though, telling him I needed to be on the flight at the adjacent gate and he didn't even look me in the eye but said, "The doors are closed." WOW! Really helpful! Not.

When I finally did find a functioning AirTran desk, the FOUR (4) workers there were all chatting with one another and when I came to the front of the line, the girl said, "Um, I didn't say I was ready for you." At this point I was so frustrated I thought I was going to cry. You know those angry tears? Yeah. But I explained my situation anyway and she said I could either be put on stand-by for a flight that she knew was over-booked or I could buy a ticket for the next day and pay an exorbitant flight change fee. No empathy, no questions.

Let me preface this by saying that I was on a 5-day trip to Washington DC, with a round-trip AirTran with one stop. Friday was Los Angeles, Oregon, DC and Tuesday was DC, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. 3/4 trips were fine, spectacular, especially from DC to Atlanta.

So we arrived in Atlanta and because I was seated in row 11, I was in boarding zone 8. First, it takes an excruciating amount of time to board, given when we were supposed to take off, and it turns out some lady had knee replacement surgery and had to be accommodated, and she was crying about them embarrassing her when she was single-handedly holding up the flight. Then, zone 8 boarded and this employee declares that there's no room aboard the plane and everyone else needs to check their bags. I requested an aisle seat specifically so I could leave the plane ASAP.

I told her that my bag will fit. It is smaller than the dimensions on their bin. It has fit on the other 3 AirTran planes and on Delta planes under the seat. She insisted on checking it because there was no time to see if it fit because the plane would be late. I get on the plane and see that the bin on top of seat is full. With a laptop where my bag could have gone because the inconsiderate excuse for a human being behind me didn't want to jeopardize his leg room. Evidently some people don't realize that unless one is sitting in row 11 A, B, or C, their luggage does not belong in that compartment.

In another overhead compartment, there was a flat backpack where my bag could have gone. Basically the employee didn't even get on the plane to see whether all available spaces were filled before she declared everybody had to check their bags. That alone wasted half an hour of time at the airport. Their employee did not make the right call. Yes, the plane was in danger of being late, but there were empty spaces left in the cargo bins. I know they could have fit my bag because they shoved in the knee replacement lady's bags on the plane instead of checking them.

Also, if someone needed special treatment, they should have known beforehand, not 30 minutes before the flight takes off. Their lack of planning should not result in a waste of my time. Finally, the charm I had on my bag broke because it was not meant to be on a bag that needed to be CHECKED because the bag itself was smaller than most of the bags on the plane, minus the flat backpack.