Having hoarded a large number of Airtran's flight coupons from Wendy's, my girlfriend wanted to take the two of us to New Orleans for our birthdays this past weekend. The point being, the tickets were 'free', and we got just what we paid for.
This being my first flight, I was a little nervous, but I thought we would make our transfer in Atlanta so that we'd be in New Orleans by 11 AM. No one on our flight made their transfer, owing to the extra hour spent de-icing the plane at Midway.in fact, she (my girl) overheard one of the flight attendants being told to "shut up" the numerous passengers already voicing their concern.
We were fated to spend the entire afternoon at the Atlanta airport, where we quickly went through the $7 food voucher we were handed as a consolation. Because Airtran had already given us our boarding passes, we decided to stick to the gate and wait for our 4:55 flight, the last to New Orleans that day.
Time passed slowly as we watched other passengers arriving and leaving late, not to mention the tendency of the employees to rush passengers on board once the flight crew had arrived. It seems as though they will hold a flight for their crews, but not for passengers whose day is passing them by as they wait for a transfer flight.
Finally, we inquired about our flight fifteen minutes before it was scheduled to leave - and we were told it was in the next concourse over! Fearing to lose our last flight, we walked as fast as socially acceptable, ran down the escalator, hopped on the train to the next concourse, ran up the next escalator and to the (correct) gate.
We panted and heaved as the next five minutes passed without one employee batting an eye. Then, at long last, we were told the boarding was complete for our flight, even though the plane was just outside the window.
After all that, we were completely deflated when offered a hotel room for the night and a flight back to Midway in the morning. But since I had an interview on Monday (today) we didn't want to risk any more delayed flights.
The last flight to Midway was leaving only five minutes or so later, necessitating another short jog to the gate.By this time my girlfriend was in tears, her perfectly planned Saturday crumbling around her; my own short temper was finding new limits.
The salt in the wound came when the pilot (who apparently didn't know why we two ruffians had business-class seats) thought I had maligned one of his flight attendants by curtly refusing a drink. He said he wanted to "lay down the law" right away and that he didn't want "any trouble" or he'd throw us off the plane.
After a lot of bad noise and feigned respect for authority, he left us alone to resume his jovial camraderie with the crew. I think I enjoyed the part about him wanting to get to Midway "in record time" the best.
Not only will I never fly on Airtran ever again, I may never fly on ANY airline for the rest of my bitter days.
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