To make a long story short, I travel 365 days a year on airplanes to destinations foreign and domestic. I consider myself travel saavy and prepared, but I also have high expectations of airlines because of my experience.
I purchased a ticket on Airtan in Jan from ATL to LGA. When I arrived at the airport in ATL I discovered I was going to have to pay 50 dollars because my suitcase exceeded 62", measuring at 62.5" Keep in mind I travel every day, and various airlines have begun this new rule recently, and I have never had an issue with this bag. I was not about to pay 50 dollards for this, espeically given the fact I was not aware that AIR TRAN had begun this policy. The bag at the curbside told me to take the bag and my concerns inside where my complaint would be addressesd. The woman inside was even worse. She told me my bag now was 63" and did not allow me to measure the bag myself to be sure that it was in fact "Oversized". I also argued that I wasnt aware of the rule and that had I been, I would have shipped my luggage fed ex for a mere 12 dollars. I wanted proof that my bag was indded "oversized" since there was clearly a discrepency in their measurement techniques. Were they all appropriately trained to make this kind of judgement? Not only that, She made no attempt to apologize or appease me for the confusion. To top things off, my flight was delayed to LGA. I happened to be traveling with my fiance, who was also traveling to LGA from ATL on a delta flight, departing ATL at the same time. That flight was not delayed, was actually cheaper, and he didnt have to pay a PENNY for his bag. I informed her that I would be sure to tell everyone i know about this situation and to never fly her airline, which prompted her to be even rude and abbrasive towards me in front of other customers. I had had enough.
I called customer service to tell them about the situation in hopes that maybe they would try to win me back as a customber be even apologizing for my being mis informed. This did not happen. I even told her about the Delta flight that flew the same time as mine for LESS money, and in the future, why would i ever chose to fly air tran if a delta flight leaving at the same time from the same airport was not delayed and did not charge me for a bag? The woman I spoke to on the phone was rude, condescending, and again, did not apologize. We ALL know that everyone charges 50 dollars for an overweight bag. When your bag is overweight you can see plain as day what it says on the scale. You can elect to take something out of that bag to make it weigh less. When this rule began it was all over the check in counters, websites, etc. But no... Air tran made this change un announced to their customers in fine print on some page on the web that you have to go digging for, and this change was also made 2 days aprior to me buying this ticket, unfortunately for me. Basically, to make a long story short, AIR TRAN SUCKS. I was so unhappy with every part of this experience and then the "customer service" experience (or lack thereof) following up that I have made it my mission to tell this story and deter anyone from flying this airline and supporting this nonsense. I wanted to write a letter to the CEO so that I could be forced to get some kind of response from this company, but they don not have contact information anywhere on the website. I tried contacting various people in customer service by email to get this and I got NO response from anyone.
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