In today's world of airline travel, it's difficult to pick one airline that treats its passengers the worst. But, I think I've found one: Airtran. That airline takes the "flying bus" experience to a zen level.
This story starts on Friday when I was summoned to Atlanta for work. I was supposed to fly in on Monday for a day-long meeting on Tuesday. As I looked around online, I discovered the majors were all booked up. So I decided to try Airtran. Amazingly, they had plenty of seats. I booked the flight, and selected a seat in one of the several rows with no other passengers.
Somehow in the less than one day from when I booked the flight to when I checked in, the entire plane filled up. I wish someone would explain to me how so many people decided to fly from San Francisco to Atlanta at the last minute.
The seats were cramped, even more so than other airlines. I had no leg room whatsoever. I had to position my feet on either side of my carry on just to keep my legs from cramping. The captain did his little pre-flight thing, and he was very cranky. It was almost as if her were barking at us. No "thanks for flying with us today" or anything like that. He ended his announcement with "And by the way, don't congregate in the aisle. It makes people nervous." I hated hated hated every minute of this flight.
The return flight was only marginally better. I decided to book a business class seat because I couldn't do that again. Business class on Airtran is the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig. The seats are better. Legroom is a little better, but not great. No food. No fine china. Just some pretzels and a drink in a plastic cup. The cabin was hot and stuffy again. They explained they would try to keep the temperature at a comfortable level because "we don't offer blankets or pillows." I guess a "comfortable level" is hot and stuffy. Of course the real reason they keep the cabin like that is because it burns more fuel to refresh the air and keep the temperature cooler.
And I love how they brag about having XM Radio onboard, but they don't have any headsets. You have to bring your own.
The gentleman who sat next to me explained his horror story. He was booked on a flight early that morning. He checked in an hour before flight time and went to get some breakfast. When he came back to the gate, he was informed his flight had been moved to a different gate. It was far enough away so that he couldn't make the flight, and he was stranded at the airport for 13 hours waiting for the flight I was on.
1 comments:
You should have put out a notice you were thinking of using Airtran. I'd have given you lots of reasons not to fly with them. In Wichita, KS, we're more or less captive. Of course we can't get anything out of Kansas going West on Airtran. We have to first fly to Atlanta then take a flight back to the West Coast. That's why I use AMTRAK with an sleeper car. I find most airlines and the hassle of getting through the checking and security just more than I wish to accept.
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