Incompetence
 

My husband, son, brother-in-law and nephew flew Airtran from Tampa to Atlanta this morning to then connect to Boston. Their plane arrived on time in Atl, but the jetway was broken. It took 1/2 hour to fix, they couldn't deplane. They reached their connection gate (also Airtran) with 10 minutes to spare but they would not open the doors of the plane to let anyone on - would not hold the plane!! Airtran knew that there were 22 people held up on one of their own planes, but they didn't hold the connecting plane for them. Then, they wouldn't give any vouchers, not even for food, for the inconvenience. DEPLORABLE customer service, and incredible incompetence. Did anyone tell the pilot that there were 22 people missing from the plane??

I'm sorry for the inconvenience your family experienced while traveling yesterday, however I'm not really sure why you are accusing anyone at AirTran of incompetence. Jetways, like airplanes, are mechanical things. Just like your car, mechanical things sometimes break down. I too have missed a flight due to a JetWay issue and it isn't a pleasurable experience but it sounds as if you expected a bit too much from AirTran in this case. Here's why.

I did some research based on your story and timetable and it looks as though your party was on the 7:30AM flight from Tampa to Atlanta (FL120) scheduled to arrive @9:03AM and their connecting flight was supposed to have been FL279 departing ATL @9:50AM arriving Boston 12:18PM. Adding the 30 minutes or so it took them to fix the jetway and deplane, and your explanation that they made it to the departure gate "with 10 minutes to spare" this seemed the most likely itinerary based on AirTran's schedule.

According to AirTran's Contract of Carriage:



So it was well within AirTran's right per their COC to refuse boarding to anyone presenting themselves 10 minutes or less before the scheduled departure time. Now, in a perfect world, they could have held the departure another minute or two given the circumstances of the flight from Tampa, however it was early in the day and based on availability on the next flight(s) to Boston they made the decision that it was more important to get the 9:50AM departure on it's way. According to your post:




Yes, there were 22 connecting passsengers impacted by the delayed de-planing of the Tampa flight, however flight 279 to BOS was a Boeing 717 which holds 117 passengers so potentially there were 95 passengers on that plane who would have been inconvenienced by a late departure. Also, that flight is scheduled to arrive in BOS @12:18PM and then turns around with a scheduled departure back to ATL @12:55PM. 37 minutes is not a lot of time to de-plane, clean, re-fuel, off-load/load baggage, cater, and board the aircraft for the return trip and any delay would have impacted that turn-around time inconveniencing the passengers in BOS going to ATL. Delays tend be be cumulative, so holding the plane for 22 people early in the day may have resulted in that aircraft being behind schedule 30 minutes or more by the end of the day.

So, in my estimation, AirTran wasn't incompetent at all. They made a decision that not holding a plane for 22 passengers who could be re-booked to later flights was much smarter than possibly delaying 100s of passengers throughout the day wherever that aircraft flew.

Now here is where I will not side with AirTran. I assume your husband, son, et al were booked on the next flight to BOS leaving @12:20PM? I checked their Customer Service Commitment online and there is nothing which specifically addresses what compensation will be offered in the case of a delay not caused by weather or air traffic control. Most airlines will, when the delay is more than 2 hours, offer a nominal meal voucher usually worth around $5 that can be used at the airport. Unfortunately since there is no provision for this in AirTran's COC or Customer Service Commitment, you have little recourse for any compensation in your situation. It may be since it is not specifically stated AirTran has no such vouchers to issue. My advice would be to write a letter to their customer relations department:

Don't even address the fact that they didn't hold the connecting flight. Simply state that due to the jetway issue your party was unable to board their scheduled connection and as a result were delayed for 2 1/2 hours. State that you are aware that MOST airlines offer some form of meal voucher for delays of more than 2 hours and that none were offered. Tell them that had they arrived in BOS at their originally scheduled time (12:18PM) they would have had lunch at their destination but had to settle for lunch at the airport which was an unexpected expense. You will also want to mention that the delay inconvenienced the person(s) picking them up as well. You might only get a few low-dollar vouchers to use on a future flight, but something is better than nothing.

Good luck!

they also may not have held the plane due to time slots, traffic etc. If atc told the captain on the aircraft, if you dont depart now, you wont depart until x time (could be a few minutes or hours even). its happend to me on a flight that i worked before

Top class post PHX
 

This is an example to all the airline employees who come on here and adopt the attitude "tough, the airline rules state..." and take an aggressive anti-customer stance. This posting by PHX is a model of a coherant, well argued explanation of why an airline may have acted in a particular way. If some airline employees would take a few minutes and talk to their customers sensibly about why things happen the way they do, much of the anger and resentment aimed at airlines would dissipate. Funnily enough, the posting by PHX is by a frequent traveller, who therefore understands the customers needs; sadly too many of the postings by airline employees illustrate exactly why a site like this is needed.