AirTran fiasco
 

What a fiasco!
Just coming back from a trip to Florida, my wife and daughter missed their connecting flight from Atlanta last night because their airplane refused to land due to weather that dozens of other planes were taking off in and then when they finally did land they missed their connecting flight by just minutes because the connecting flight refused to wait for the landing passengers at all, so they needed to get a hotel which the airline refused to pay for and was only offering a 10% discount on the rooms at a certain hotel which quickly got overbooked because of all the people that missed their connecting flights and then they had to take a cab to their hotel because so many of these people were needing the airport shuttle that arguments and yelling matches started up amongst the passengers over getting on the airport/hotel shuttles!
And to top it all off, My wife also witnessed the airline refuse to do anything for this poor little old lady who hadn't been delayed but still missed her connecting flight because her connecting flight took off early and the airline refused to do anything for her at all stating it wasn't their fault that the flight took off early and she missed it!
What a horror that must've been for all of them!
In your travels, if you can help it then I recommend you steer far away from using AirTran. Their service is horrible!

Sorry to hear your wife and daughter had such a difficult time. I can understand your irritation. Weather along the eastern seaboard has caused problems for a lot of travelers recently.

However, not to be argumentative or anything but, guidelines for safe landings are not the same as those for safe departures. Would you rather the pilot had attempted an unsafe landing just so passengers could make their connections? And what if it had all gone very wrong? These things do happen you know...

[sarcasm]Impossible story, since AirTran has been owned by Southwest for 14 months already; it is fact Southwest can do no wrong.[/sarcasm]

Anyways, it's absolutely silly to say something like "the airline refuses to land its plane at ATL". And the rest of the experience is simply par-for-course traveling in the US during weather. I don't see anything particularly bad about AirTran in this story.

Identical rant, i.e.cut-and-paste, posted on flyertalk. I happened across it when looking for Emirates trip reports. OP was soundly slapped down by the guys there...

OOH boy (!) . . I can just imagine the reaction over on FlyerTalk >)

Kelly - for future reference, if it was weather related, passengers are not entitled to hotel rooms, meal vouchers, expenses. Anything they got (like the 10% discount) was just the airline trying to help. They didn't owe your family anything.

"<i>their airplane refused to land due to weather that dozens of other planes were taking off in </i>" has got to be one of the silliest statements I have ever read. You are a qualified pilot or air traffic controller??

Some additional contradictions and comments - hotels and transportation to hotels were busy/booked - but I thought this one flight on evil Air Tran was the only one experiencing any problem?

It is extremely unlikely the flight of the little old lady took off more than a few minutes early - and since one must rpesent themselve to the gate 15 minutes prior to flight, it should not have made a difference.

The connecting flight refused to wait - this is rarely done anymore. How would you like to be sitting on a plane waiting for some random passengers who were late, for whatever reason - and then risk missing your connection.

Certainly a fiasco - I agree. And a gigantic trip interrupter and pain in the butt - but unfortunately all within expectations of air travel today. In the rare instances DH or I have had major trip interruptions and have to pay for food, alternate transportation or a hotel, I wonder what people who do not speak English or do not have $ to pay for these things do.

The

If you want to be taken seriously (even though I agree you don't really have a leg to stand on) don't post like a raving lunatic. I mean, just look at that first sentence!

The OP probably won't read any of this since he only registered here (and on FT) to post his complaint. Doubt if he is actually interested in what others have to say.

I agree, Brian......it's hard for me to take a rant seriously when there is no punctuation.

Longest run-on sentence ever on Fodors.