[perkinsrm]

My daughter (age 16) was scheduled to fly from CLT to PIT with a plane change in Atlanta. I was informed that at age 16 she didn’t need to escorted. When she got to the ticket counter in Charlotte, the ticket clerk talked her into paying an additional $59.00 dollars for a escort that would make sure of her safe passage all the way to Pittsburgh. All went well until she landed in Atlanta on flight 319 at 12:18 on August 14, 2009. Due to her being escorted she was told to stay in her seat until some one came to get her. She said that her escort then went to the back of the plane and was washing dishes and cleaning up, leaving my daughter in her seat well after every one else had left the plane. After some time the girl took her off the plane and handed her off to some one else. That person took her straight to some room and told her that she had missed her flight to Pittsburgh. The flight that she was to be on was flight 985 leaving gate C22. It departed at 12:35. Now what I would like to know is why she couldn’t make her flight that didn’t leave for 17 minutes. She was only 4 gates away from her connecting flight. Had she gotten off the plane with all the other passengers there shouldn’t have been any problems getting to the plane in 17 minutes. I’m sure that the other passengers going to Pittsburgh made the flight with no problems. Now she is stuck in a room in Atlanta, GA for 5 hours and lord knows if any one is watching her or going to help her get on the next flight 990 at 17:22. I called the HR number 866-247-2428 and informed them of the problem and was more or less told o’well **** happens. I asked if they were at least going to feed her and was told that if she has any pocket change there are vending machines in the area. Now I’m not sure if this is the kind of treatment one gets when paying extra money for an escort but I will think twice before flying AirTran again. I also feel that restitution needs made for the full cost of the ticket along with the escort fee for not providing the service as stated by your ticket counter person in Charlotte.