Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Flying Air Tran was a NIGHTMARE!

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Flying Air Tran was a NIGHTMARE!

My husband and I flew Air Tran from Boston to Ft. Myers through Atlanta. No curbside check-in. When we tried to check our bags, the woman (let's call her "Blonde Lady) told us they had to be searched. These were our check-in bags. Well, pain in the neck but OK, we understand. At the risk of being politically incorrect, let me say that we are a middle aged couple, 57 and 62, fair and WASPy looking. We take the bags around the partition and "Security Guy", who barely spoke or understood English, indicated that we were to lift the bags onto a card type table. I lifted the carry-on and it was searched. Fine. I could not lift the 2 check-in bags because they were too heavy. We explained many,many times that my husband had just had a surgical procedure and was under doctor's orders not to lift anything heavier than 10 pounds. Security Guy grabs them, lays them on the floor and searches my husband's. Fine. Then he searches mine, leaving half my clothes in a ball, half in and half out of the suitcase on the floor and then walks away leaving my things like that. I'm kneeling on the floor trying to repack my bag when another security person tells me that I should complain to a supervisor. We finally get the bags checked and this person brings me to a supervisor to tell my story. The supervisor goes over to Security Guy and comes back and tells us that he was very upset because my husband "refused" to lift the bags!!! Then we go through the metal detector gate and Security Guy and Ms. Brunette tell us that we have to be searched again! This is the second time in 10 min. by the same people. They take everything out of my purse and my carry-on again, pass the wand over my husband and make both of us take off our shoes. We finally get to the gate and when we were boarding, guess what? Blonde Lady is there and tells us that we have to be searched! Guess who searched us? Security Guy and Ms. Brunette for the 3rd time in less than an hour! Everything out of my purse and carry-on again and both of us were searched with the wand and had to take our shoes off again. It was nothing but harassment, pure and simple. Then we get on the plane. The rows are squished together like most planes were several years ago but this plane is new. My husband is 6'4" and always has trouble on planes but literally can't fit his knees behind the seat. Blonde Lady had assigned our seats and, to make matters worse, put us in a row where the seats didn't recline. We flew home on Delta. We will never darken Air Tran's door again. My advise is to ignore them at all costs.

Lady, it's not air tran's fault that you were searched!! It's safety regulations, and my god, you were traveling from BOSTON, which is known for the HUGE amount of SECURITY THERE!

I think this is a case of an employee abusing their "power". Whatever set someone off, should still not result in you being searched 3 times by the same people. Pure and simple its abuse. And they know you cant do anything about it or you wont get on the plane. I would be writing a letter of complaint to the airline. This was not a security issue by the 2nd and third search.

Actually, we were told by AA and United employees (family members) that once you are "tagged" to be searched for a full bag search (your check-in luggage), you will be searched at every check point (i.e. you ticket is flagged). The last time we flew from Boston, we got a full bag search, searched at the metal detectors and then searched again when we went to our connecting flight (because you have to go out through security for the AA flights to Chicago). It's just a fact of life that flying is different now. I would rather have the hassle of having my bags searched and be more safe.

alex: I can understand being searched at each "checkpoint" by different security personnel, but NOT by the same people 3 times!!!

And how is one "tagged" for a search? Is it purely random? I find it really crazy when I see elderly ladies taking off their shoes and having their bags searched. The last time we left SJC only those folks who had slip on shoes had to remove them, sneakers or those with laces could keep them on. Now, what's the point of that one??? Nothing, however, can beat the report that police at SFO last month intentially blew up a pair of shoes that were "heating shoes"--ie, to keep your feet warm in very cold weather. They determined that that was what they were and then blew them up anyway. Crazy.

Ten to one "Jackie" mouthed off to the security people and they got even by tagging her. Next time Jackie dear be nice and polite to the people searching your bags and don't piss them off....

Well, if Jackie feels she was being harassed, she should write a letter of complaint to the CEO of AirTran describing the treatment she received. If were her though, I would be polite and firm about it rather than using the same prima donna tone she used in her post.

I think this is a troll. If not a troll, it is a great fairy story. If it actually happened, I would like to hear the facts in the case, because I doubt if we are reading an unbiased report. It sounds to me like the guy behind me at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris who was running close to missing his flight. He was screaming ugly remarks at the poor bus attendant, who had absolutely no control at all over the situation. Finally he shouted, "I am going to write the president about you." I turned and asked him "Which president?" He answered "Bill Clinton." I should have known he never heard of Jacques Chirac. Being selected for a search is nothing new. It is done at random every day, every hour. And the airline has no control over who gets picked. I recently flew from Atlanta to Albuquerque and was designated for a total search. So? I had to go through the ritual. It is not the airline that does the searching, either. By the way, the airline was Delta. As for checking of passengers in Boston, I think it is about time. After all, two of the airplanes that were in the 9/11 crashes were hijacked from Logan Airport in Boston. (If I recall correctly.)Security negligence has been rampant there for years.

Kam, It is my understanding that it is both random and based on certain characteristics (people who booked one way tickets, people who paid for their tickets with cash, etc... are more likely to be tagged). I got tagged (I am not using that as any type of official term or anything - that was just the expression the AA employee used) on a Continental flight from Newark to Chicago when I had to buy a one way ticket because my flight on ATA was canceled. I got the whole nine yards - they opened my mascara, my deodorant, everything in my bag. Plus, they tested many of my items for explosives (that swab they do). The security personnel were extremely professional and polite but obviously serious about their jobs. There are probably good security personnel dedicated to their jobs and some who may abuse their power and I was not trying to justify if an errant security agent did, in fact, abuse their power. But, the way someone reacts to a search request probably plays some part in the way they are treated.

Just a reminder that the weapons used by the hijackers (e.g., box cutters) were legal as carryons at the time; only blades longer than 3.5 inches were forbidden. When I flew Southwest last month, the four people I saw getting searched thoroughly were all young men who were wearing baseball caps. I couldn't help wondering whether they were being singled out for being rude, or whether that was a sign of a dangerous person, or just the faux pas du jour.

If your husband couldn't lift the suitcases onto the table how was he going to get them off the baggage carousel? No wonder the security personnel were tough on you, you were uncooperative. Yes, it is an inconvenience to go through a thorough security search, but not nearly has inconvenient as having your plane hijacked. Get over it.

Wondering: And how did they get them from the car to the desk???

First of all, will call her bags were too heavy. Why do you expect others to pick up your luggage if you can't? Second, you were picked. Once you are picked it is a thru process, at the ticket counter and at the gate. Meanwhile, they are also doing "randoms". Those who are not picked by the computer, but chosen randomly to keep up continuous coverage. You happened to have been picked randomly at the security checkpoint. Odds of that happening are slim unless it is a slow day. All of the above have nothing to do with Air Tran by the way. As for racial profiling, it seemed the way to go. It was my opinion until the issue of Time magazing with the 2 human bombers in Israel, showed 2 lovely, barely ethnic young girls. If they could do it then who is the next to sacrafice themselves for their beliefs at our expense? And finally, the way you labeled each of them, ie blond lady, security guy, brunette lady, clearly shows your lack of respect for people doing their jobs.

This is no nightmare. Coat check at Tavern on the Green...now THAT is a nightmare!

Yep, have to agree. That Tavern on the Green horror story beats this one by a mile.

Yep, at least she didn't have to abandon her suitcase in order to catch her flight.

You guys just had to do it, didn't you!? To dredge up the mindless, senseless horror that took place in that coatcheck alcove leaves me numb. I have been paying a small fortune to a very adept shrink to help me recover from the tormenting visions I have suffered since reading of it. I guess he'll just get richer now. Why, why did you have to do it!?

I am absolutely incredulous at most responses to my report. Yes, it did actually happen. How about my bag being left on the floor with my clothes half in and half out? I did not "mouth off". I was told to complain by another security person! As for lifting the bags, I could "carry" them on the wheels and use my knees to get them off the carousal. The table was much higher. Are you saying that people with disabilities shouldn't fly because they cannot lift a bag up on top of a table?? Shame on you,Fodorites! Lest you think that I am an anti-government type person, I have spent the last 20 years working professionally in politics and gov't. I was chief-of-staff to my Representative for sevral years and ran her State House office. I believe in security at airports. However, when the security people can't speak or understand the language and give you a hard time because of it, something is wrong. If I wanted a job in airport security in another country, I would expect to have to be proficient in that language. It is a no brainer to me that a more efficient use of security personnel's time would be to search more people once instead of the same people 3 times in an hour. I repeat, it was simply harassment. I'm really surprised at the reaction to my experience.

Jackie, Fodors isn't the place to come for sympathy. Have you been reading the board much lately?