Shocking Travels

AirTran airways is a low cost carrier based out of Atlanta, Georgia. The airline recently was bought out by Southwest Airlines and is currently in transition and re-branding.

I had flown on AirTran several years ago before the buy out. At the time almost all flights on AirTran had to go through their hub in Atlanta. The flight was from Philadelphia to Phoenix via Atlanta. My grandmother was also traveling with us and headed to Denver. She was on the same flight from Philadelphia as us but was then catching another AirTran flight in Atlanta that would take her home to Denver.

We were able to get out of Philadelphia on-time before weather hit and get to Atlanta on time. However, the issue with doing that is many of the planes being used by AirTran got caught in the weather in the northeast, thus when we got to Atlanta there were no planes there to connect with.

When you get delayed at airports you certainly try to make the best of it especially when it comes to weather because know one can control and and everyone just wants to get where they are going safely. Walking up and down the terminals checking out some of the little shops and their crap souvenirs can pass some time as well as finding the local bar and hanging out there. Unfortunately when you have a lot of people who are also delayed bar stools become a hot commodity to the extent that a black market starts to develop on who is going to get the next seat.

One of the issues that did arise during this delay is AirTran would constantly be changing which gates are going to have which flights. I understand that in these situations it becomes a free for all as an open gate gets more plans in so people can get on their way. However, it seemed the gates were changing multiple times on different concourses. You would leave one concourse to go to another just to realize upon arrival you needed to go back to where you were. This became very frustrating as we were trying to catch 2 different flights and help my grandmother to get where she needs to go.

There was a very nice gentlemen who was a gate attendant for AirTran that was very helpful in forming us on any possible changes so we didn’t have to keep running all over the airport. This alone, was probably one of the reasons I would fly AirTran again because jumping around to multiple gates an hour trying to find your flight was VERY frustrating and discouraging.

Once airborne again, the flight is fairly standard with nothing too exciting. The usual complementary beverage cart and peanuts/pretzels.

Overall Grade: 2.5 out of 5

Could be lower because no one likes to get stranded and be gate hoping across multiple concourses. However the score is higher because of recent events since this flight. AirTran is one of the only airlines I know that still issues standby tickets. It is only good for students age 18-22, but the offer is still there. Secondly, the recent buy out from Southwest. I enjoy flying Southwest and glad to see that via the buyout they are adding international destinations to their schedule

Update 8/26/2013 It appears AirTran is no longer offering their standby program for students. The program’s Facebook page has not been updated for over a year and the website directs you to the main page of airtran.com