I recently took my daughter to NYC for a week and was booked on AirTrans for the return flight on Thursday August 23, 2007. We were suppose to depart LGA at 4:59 pm. The flight was delayed for a couple hours due to weather which was irritating but understandable. The rest of the trip was not! We circled Atlanta for over an hour and was finally diverted to Augusta. When we landed in Augusta the flight attendant told us we could depart if we wanted to but that wasn't true. Her comments and major concern was that she was suppose to be home in Jacksonville by then. We stayed in Augusta out on the flight line for a couple hours and finally went back to Atlanta. After sitting for over another hour or more we finally deplaned about midnight (4 1/2 hours late) and were told to see the customer representative about connecting flights. The AirTrans flight attendant had the audacity to tell us she hoped we had a nice flight and have a nice day - I have to wonder what flight she was on? AirTrans had ONE customer rep with hundreds of people in line. According to the pilot there were 82 planes delayed - at a minimum of 100 people per plane that's 8,200 people with one AirTrans rep and one Delta rep on duty in the whole airport. A TSA agent told us there was another AirTrans customer service office in the baggage area so we went down there. After standing in that line for two hours and finally getting in the door, the AirTrans rep there told us she couldn't rebook flights - we had to go back to the other rep or wait until the ticket counter opened at 4:30 am. It would have been so easy for her to announce that information to everyone standing in line before they waited to get to the counter. So, I tried to go back to the other customer service rep only to be told by the TSA agent (Note: this was the SAME TSA agent that told me to go to baggage) that I couldn't get in because my boarding pass was for 8:10 pm and it was 1:00 am so it wasn't valid. I asked her if she had a clue what she was doing? She was the person that directed me to baggage - she'd been working all night and certainly should have known that none of the flights were coming in or going out. So I sat on the marble floor for three and a half hours waiting for the AirTrans ticket counter to open. It was a long night - nothing was open, not event the bathrooms. The only people around were the maintenance crew. The seats were all full, the marble floor was cold and hard - we were in hell in Atlanta. When theAirTrans ticket counter did open I was offered a flight the next day going to Ohio. I was traveling from NY to Las Vegas and was being offered to go to Ohio where the odds of a flight landing were minimal since Ohio, Chicago, Wisconsin were all flooded with more storms on the way. I was told that I couldn't get a refund because I refused to wait another 30 hours in the airport for a flight to somewhere I didn't want to go. When I told her I didn't want to go back where I came from but West she handed me a phone number for an air charter company and walked away. I bought two more tickets on another airlines and finally made it home 36 hours after I left NYC. I travel alot and understand delays due to weather, mechanics and circumstances out of your control. But AirTrans should have had control of their service standards and staff. They didn't and it was totally unacceptable. Typically when you're delayed like this when you get off a plane there is a customer service rep with information that you have already been rebooked on a new flight. AirTrans had two flights going to Las Vegas that morning and were oversold - I should have been rescheduled on that flight before I ever left NY. AirTrans put me in the air knowing that I wouldn't make Atlanta, knowing that I would not make my connecting flight and you did NOTHING. Their staff was rude, unconcerned and the worst I've ever dealt with. The fact that a flight that should have taken 6 hours took 36 is horrendous. It is unbelievable to me that the person running the AirTrans Atlanta office would not call in additional staffing to help people, that they don't have a Crisis Communication plan in effect, that they don't train their staff for service nor require them to have one ounce of logic or empathy for their guests. My inconvenience was not even acknowledged - I don't get a refund or a credit - I'm just out of luck! I can't understand how you can still be in business after reading all the complaints online about them but I do know that I will make sure that I let people know their business practices in every way possible and look forward to the day when AirTrans is one of the airlines that didn't make it. Air travel has gotten terrible under the guise of Homeland Security and unfortunately most people accept what should be unacceptable - AirTrans takes advantage of that beyond normal practices. The only thing that kept me from going over the counter that morning was the threat of going to jail and the fact that I was in such pain from the trip.

On Thursday June 7, 2007, around 2:15-2:30 pm, I checked into Denver International Airport, (airport code, as I was corrected by an Airtran employee, Lynn, DEN, not DIA) for my flight to BWI, Baltimore Thurgood Marshall Airport. I did not catch the name of the reservationist, but she was very nice, polite, and seemed very efficient at her job. I checked one item and carried on another item. As I was walking away from the ticket counter, i looked down at my boarding pass to look at my seat assignment, the reservationist had complimented me on how I had a "good Seat"-If you're that detail or untented to notice that, then I have more faith in you checking me in. So, imagine my surprise when I looked at my ticket and saw the name "Shane J Ber ens" and an airport code of that was not my destination. I immediately rushed back to the ticket counter and went straight back to the agent that checked me in (i couldn't believe she even looked at my ID! my legal name is LEIGH J BARAN and that is what appears on my Driver's license, not even close to Shane J Berens! The agent apologized and took all the boarding stuff she gave me, including the baggage claim receipt (unbeknownst to me at the time) and trashed it, then proceeded to print new boarding passes. I specifically reminded her I checked a bag, and she assured me the bag would arrive at BWI, she would change it, not to worry. My flight left at 3:35pm so I believed her, then rushed to go through Security. I boarded the flight, a little uneasy, but had very limited choices at this point.

I arrived at BWI around 11:30pm, went to baggage claim and stood around, waiting for my bags. At the end of the "baggage parade" my bag, along with about 15 other folks did not have their bags on the flight! (Many were connecting flights, either from Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and I was the lone Denver passenger) Danielle, the ticket agent appeared very busy and was actually a little rude to the passengers. She is only one person, and she did have a throng of people asking her questions re: their luggage, in my opinion, if Airtran routinely loses people's baggage, they either need to pay them more or hire one more person on staff. Anyway, I was the last person she helped b/c most of the other passengers were flying home to BWI, whereas I am visiting through June 11 and I did not have my temporary address. (it was around 12:15 AM at the time and i had to wake up the people I was staying with.) Danielle helped fill out my claim form, then gave me the customer service phone #, assuring me this number is not the standard 1-800 number. She also told me to call first thing in the morning, to see if the bag arrived. I called today, June 8th at 11:00 am an began the normal customer service ritual, calling the 800 numbers, getting passed around, no one is willing to help b/c they're not the ones who created the problem, so they don't have to go the extra mile, or do their jobs to locate their mistake. The first person I spoke with on the phone was Lynn, at the special 800 "customer service" number that Danielle gave me. She promptly told me she needed to transfer me to the Baggage people at BWI, she's not at the airport. I pointed out that Danielle the previous evening told me to contact this number, didn't matter, she couldn't help, then transferred me to BWI. I didn't catch the name of the person I was transferred to; she was not Danielle, and not helpful. My bas is still missing, and they do not even show I checked a bag in their system!

AHHH! Danielle had tried to call Raleigh, which is where "Shane J Berens" was traveling to, but they were not answering their phones. I tried to get the new lady on the line to do the same, they weren't answering their phones again! I then asked if she could call Denver to speak directly to the ticketing agent that screwed up everything in the first place and she refused! IN my mind, to fix this problem, I would expect a company to be proactive and utilize every measure/idea, backtrack, to locate the missing item, question the people now while they still remember!

Instead, the lady on the line was snide enough to tell me that the agent would not remember me amongst the "thousandths' of people they help each day!

Well, i don't know about you, but if i saw a passenger twice in 15 minutes, that would stand out in my mind! She then told me Then I proceeded to tell her, well, this is about the time I checked in, there were only 4 agents working, can't you find out who it was through process of elimination? Well, that agent would not be working at this time, you checked in at 2:30, it's 9:30 in Denver ( 30 minutes of my life wasted trying to fix a problem I did not create, and I tried to proactively resolve) Finally I told her, just call, please and find out, said our goodbyes, then called the "special 800 #) back, Unbelievably I get Lynn again and she remembers me calling.

I tried to get her to help me locate my bag and was given the same answers, not at the airport, can't help you. Then, that is when I asked her, i thought this number was for customer service- she responded its for customer complaints-what?!? Why are all the AIRTRAN employees more interested in correcting the customer when they're the ones that screwed up? Lynn, let me know I could be reimbursed for anything I had to purchase but no guarantees, and was very good at why she couldn't do something, like call Denver, b/c of corporate policy! With the airline industry already struggling, it appears this airline is unaffected, since they continue to treat the customers as nuisances and they under deliver when they do make a mistake, not putting themselves in the shoes of their customers when they screw up!

Leigh J Baran