Back in April I flew Airtran roundtrip from Washington National (DCA) to Las Vegas.
The DCA-ATL leg was going to depart about an hour behind schedule. We only had an hour layover in ATL, and we were meeting relatives there to continue onto LAS together, so this had us slightly freaking out. You guys did some really cool things:
1. Announced at the gate that you would try to turn the flight as quickly as possible, so told everyone to get ready to board and take seats quickly.
2. Held the ATL-LAS flight a few minutes! Now I sensed this was kind of a no-brainer, since the gate agent in DCA told us there were like 20 of us making that connection, so I knew it would be a bigger problem dealing with 20 missed connections than it would be to just depart a few minutes late. Still, it was nice.
On the return leg, we landed in ATL on a Friday night in very bouncy, stormy, rainy weather. That was not a fun approach. When we got to our connecting gate, the agent there informed us that our aircraft hadn't even left Chattanooga or wherever it was.
I knew we were in for a long night, so I called Airtran reservations right there from my cell phone. You guys re-booked us on a Sunday morning flight and didn't charge us anything to change it. Since those same relatives live in Atlanta, this actually gave us a "bonus" day to hang out with them, and on Sunday morning we proceeded home without incident. Our bags got there before we did, but for such a short stay that didn't matter.
Incidentally, out of curiosity I called the next day to see when our original flight departed. It was scheduled for 10:00 pm, and it left after 2 in the morning! That would have sucked beyond words.
Anyway, in both cases you did a little extra to keep us happy and avoid hassles, and my family and I were grateful.
The DCA-ATL leg was going to depart about an hour behind schedule. We only had an hour layover in ATL, and we were meeting relatives there to continue onto LAS together, so this had us slightly freaking out. You guys did some really cool things:
1. Announced at the gate that you would try to turn the flight as quickly as possible, so told everyone to get ready to board and take seats quickly.
2. Held the ATL-LAS flight a few minutes! Now I sensed this was kind of a no-brainer, since the gate agent in DCA told us there were like 20 of us making that connection, so I knew it would be a bigger problem dealing with 20 missed connections than it would be to just depart a few minutes late. Still, it was nice.
On the return leg, we landed in ATL on a Friday night in very bouncy, stormy, rainy weather. That was not a fun approach. When we got to our connecting gate, the agent there informed us that our aircraft hadn't even left Chattanooga or wherever it was.
I knew we were in for a long night, so I called Airtran reservations right there from my cell phone. You guys re-booked us on a Sunday morning flight and didn't charge us anything to change it. Since those same relatives live in Atlanta, this actually gave us a "bonus" day to hang out with them, and on Sunday morning we proceeded home without incident. Our bags got there before we did, but for such a short stay that didn't matter.
Incidentally, out of curiosity I called the next day to see when our original flight departed. It was scheduled for 10:00 pm, and it left after 2 in the morning! That would have sucked beyond words.
Anyway, in both cases you did a little extra to keep us happy and avoid hassles, and my family and I were grateful.
