AirTran Airways is a “very poor airline” in my opinion, based upon their inability to manage customer expectations and make decisive decisions.
After over nine hours of delays, excuses and three consecutive de-plane and re-boardings, AirTran finally cancelled a 3:14pm flight bound for Philadelphia at 11:15pm last night. “It took AirTran Operations Center over nine hours from their first delay announcement yesterday at 2:45pm until almost midnight to share with its customers the fact that they would indeed cancel this flight,” states Adam Brown, an upset AirTran passenger and author of this blog. “[AirTran] could have made the cancellation decision at around 4:00pm yesterday afternoon, enabling passengers to consider other travel alternatives, but instead they delayed, de-boarded, re-boarded, made excuses and manipulated passengers for an entire day.”
Following is a rundown of yesterday’s timeline, outlining the poor decisions made by the AirTran Operations Center resulting in dozens of passengers sleeping in the airport – since AirTran did not provide hotel or meal vouchers to their inconvenienced customers. AirTran spokespeople claimed that since the delay was “weather-related” and not AirTran’s fault, they were in no position to compensate the weary travelers. “While the inclement weather was not AirTran’s fault, they do not seem to be taking responsibility for their poor decisions and indecisiveness in waiting nine hours to cancel this flight,” claims Brown. “They created this situation by refusing to take the best interests of their customers to heart.”
12:30pm – Adam Brown, passenger on AirTran flight 339 to Philadelphia, arrives at Atlanta airport early for a scheduled 3:19 departure.
2:45 – AirTran gate agents announce some weather in the Philadelphia area, and that boarding might be delayed a bit.
3:30 – AirTran gate agents announce that the weather is Philadelphia is still challenging, but they are going to go ahead and board. Flight 339 boards and pushes back from the gate.
4:00 – AirTran Captain announces that all flights into Philly have been delayed, but that we were going to stay on the taxiway so that we can be the "first to depart" once a slot opens up.
6:00 – AirTran Captain announces that delay is indeterminable and that we are going to return to the gatehouse to wait this one out. Plane returns to gate.
7:13 – AirTran re-boards the plane, announces we have "immediate clearance" to depart to Philly.
7:47 – Plane pushes back from gate, heads towards runway, then abruptly U-turns and returns to gate two minutes later. No one is allowed to deplane. Passengers are waiting on news from the AirTran Captain.
7:58 – AirTran Captain announces that it will be at least 35 minutes before we are allowed to leave the gate. Everyone must remain on board.
8:42 – Plane pushes back and moves to taxiway, where engines are cut off. AirTran Captain announces that it will be at least 50 minutes before we can depart. Drink carts come out, as people are awfully thirsty (and hungry), Passengers begin to realize that we came out to the taxiway for only one reason – not because we were planning on departing for Philly, but because AirTran needed to use our gate for other flights. So, we’re hostage. We have been deceived.
9:39 – One hour later, the AirTran Captain announces that we cannot depart to Philly because of weather both in Philadelphia and Atlanta, so we’re heading back to the gatehouse to await further direction.
9:55 – We’re still not at the gatehouse. You see, there are no available AirTran gates! This makes everyone realize that our pushback at 8:42 was purely to allow another plane to use our gate and that we were deceived and manipulated by AirTran.
10:34 – We arrive at a non-AirTran gate, D4. This is the second-farthest gate from the Hartsfield terminal and an entire concourse away from any AirTran customer service representatives. We’re told to wait in the D4 gatehouse for further direction.
10:56 – We are told to get back in line to re-board the plane (now for the THIRD time), we have been given clearance to depart to Philly. An unhappy, unprofessional and rude AirTran Supervisor decides to re-board the plane row by row, only calling two rows at a time. Travelers who have been patient to this point are now at their breaking point. The AirTran Supervisor starts at the rear of the aircraft and does NOT allow elderly or business class to board first. Not surprisingly, many passengers begin to revolt. It takes 30 minutes to re-board the aircraft for this THIRD time.
11:28 – The AirTran Captain comes on the PA system and announces that AirTran Operations has now cancelled the flight, a full eight hours after planned departure time. After three re-boardings of this plane, multiple excuses and explanations, passengers are understandably upset. They want answers, they want compensation, they want honesty. Sadly, they get none of these.
Postscript – Since AirTran claims that this was a weather delay, they will not provide hotel or food vouchers for the stranded passengers. Seeing that it is past midnight, most passengers are unable to find a hotel, even on their own dime. Additionally, all concessions at the airport closed hours ago.
Travelers waiting for their baggage had to endure almost two more hours of waiting. Baggage did not arrive back at the terminal until 1:30am, according to George Bott, a Houston passenger traveling on the flight. AirTran baggage representatives had mentioned that baggage would take at least an hour to be taken off of the aircraft, upsetting the already weary passengers. An hour came and went, with no bags. Baggage actually took closer to two hours, making an angry crowd that much more upset. AirTrain baggage representatives were indifferent and unapologetic.
Even though my blog is called “GumpRants.com,” I don’t often use it to rant negatively about something. This is an exception. I’ll be sharing this situation (and this Web site) with AirTran Customer Service and asking them to respond. When they do respond, I will post it here.
In the meantime, I encourage all of you to email a link to this article to all of your friends, family and co-workers. While we can’t hold AirTran responsible for the weather, we must help them understand that customer expectation management and decisive decision-making regarding flight cancellations ARE their responsibility, and something they are currently doing very poorly.
This is not my first serious issue with the AirTran airline regarding poor decision making and customer manipulation, I will share my other experience with you in a later blog posting.
-aB
