Since airfares are back at summer levels and my company likes cheap airfare I’ve been flying Airtran a lot recently despite my hatred of them and their inability to get me to my destination (although with the current pattern I think I have enough evidence to get a waiver from the travel policy).

This week I had to deal with an airfare cap that is unrealistic for the city pairs so I had to venture down to GSP to comply (since extra mileage is OK, but going over their airfare restriction isn’t :S) and I got to fly Southwest for the first time in a few years.

I’m not a fan of open seating, but since I checked in at 23:15 til my flight I was able to get an A boarding pass for both flights and thus got my window seat.  The planes were much cleaner than any Airtran plane I’ve been on recently, the seats weren’t all falling apart, and the leg room was great.  I don’t think legroom can get worse than Airtran in the US.  According to Seat Guru Airtran’s 717 has 30″ and the 737 as 31″, but it feels about the same.  Southwest as 32-33, but it sure feels like more.  I don’t have to spread my legs to prevent my knees from digging into the seat in front of me.

Airtran is nice with free XM and paid Wifi on every plane, but that only matters if you are into that.

My hope for the eventual merger:

Now that I’m almost Elite on Airtran I’d like for them to keep Business Class, but overall I’d rather have a seat that doesn’t lead me straight to the massage therapist so I’d like:

• Seat pitch and seating configuration of Southwest
• Hub and Spoke of Airtran instead of Milk Runs of Southwest
• Assigned seats
• XM radio
• $5 for all alcohol

I know a lot of this has been discussed and decided, but I’m just chiming in with my $.02

Last week I violated one of my previous tips (always go to the gate) because my phone was dead.

I was flying Airtran and they’re batting 500 on mechanical issues for me this year.  My flight from CLT to ATL was delayed due to a mechanical issue delaying the ATL-CLT inbound.  When I finally got to ATL I was told by the gate agent that I had already missed my ATL-MCO flight although my phone said it was delayed and I might make it.  The problem is that my phone was quickly dying on me so I waited for that agent to rebook 8 of us misconnects and I charged my phone.  The agent was having printing issues so it was taking over 15 minutes to even start rebooking us.  I decided to grab the other guy heading to MCO and we went to Customer Service in the other concourse since that’s where the MCO flights were departing.  Good thing  I finally did because we got to the next MCO flight 5 minutes before they closed that flight.  If we had waited in D for the printer to work we would have been at the mercy of the final flight of the night.

…If my battery had been charged I would have just headed to C, but I figured an open outlet and an agent dedicated to my flight was worth something.

I guess my years of wearing contacts for months without taking them out paid off, or maybe it was hanging out at the pool instead of inside sleeping.  Either way I was 60% healed by day 2 which they said was amazing.

I never took any ambien and I just took normal aspirin instead of the lortab.

They said I would get worse before I got better so I spent all day of day 2 in bed.

Day 3 I was back in the pool.  Same with day 4.  Vision was fuzzy and I didn’t have my laptop.

Day 5 they took the bandage contact out and told me to stop the neurontin.  Vision was good enough to drive, but when I tried to use my computer it just drove my eyes crazy.  Apparently my vision is legal to drive.  It makes me really wonder about others on the road because I don’t feel comfortable enough with my vision to drive anywhere I don’t know.  You know what that meant?  I didn’t drive anywhere I didn’t know (until I had to go back to work).

Day 6 I had to do some phone training and boy did my eyes drive my crazy, but my old pinhole glasses helped a lot.  I also flew on 2 flights without issue with my eyes, but not without mechanical delays.

My vision isn’t 20/20 yet, but it’s better than it was before surgery!  PRK has around a 2 month healing process so my vision may be hazy until then since I have to regrow my epithelium.

I have to use preservative free artificial tears for a while, but considering how much dry eye I lived with in the past I’m sure I’ll be fine.  So far I don’t regret my decision at all.

Somewhere in some math equation I’m sure I was due for a plane issue.  Although flights like the Miracle on the Hudson are very few and far between, I know that on any flight anything can go wrong, odds are that it won’t.

Today was my day though.  I boarded Airtran flight 311 from Charlotte to Atlanta.  We taxied and took off like any other flight.  I was in row 30 and beverage service starts in the back on Airtran.  The flight attendants had just gotten to an altitude where service can begin when there was a thump and then some thumping that sounded like it was coming from below the floor.  The flight attendant ran to the back to use the phone (which indicated to all that this wasn’t a normal event), but then continued on with beverage service.  That was my indication that we were going to be OK.  Flight attendants don’t want to get hurt any more than we do.  If the flight were in imminent danger I’m sure beverage service would be the last thing on their mind.  They stayed calm so when the lady next to me asked what was going on I pointed that out.  Just another way they are their for our comfort and safety.

We did end up diverting to GSP since the left engine had issues, but everyone was safe and we landed safely.  Good thing GSP recently got Southwest service and Southwest recently acquired Airtran or else I wonder who would have handled us for our several hour wait for a ferry flight.  The Southwest representatives gave us snacks and vouchers.

Even MSNBC picked this up

Last year they “sponsored” free wifi in many airports across the US (I put sponsored in quotes since many of those airports already provided free wifi so to me it was no different).

This year they are sponsoring it on the plane which always requires a fee or a pass.

More Info

Hat tip to Lucky

Link

When people ask me why I chose to live in Charlotte I would often say “it’s a hub for a major airline and Southwest doesn’t fly there.”  It sounds like the second part of that might no longer be true now that Southwest is buying AirTran.  I like how AirTran has assigned seating.  It can only be reserved in advance for a fee or you have to wait til check-in, but I know if I book a rear seat that I will board earlier and have room for my bag.

Other than that AirTran is pretty much crap to and mainly just serves the niche of cheap last minute tickets to BWI and ATL.

Southwest has wanted gates in CLT for a while so this gives them 2 unless they do something to trade for others.

I am still trying to avoid these things at all costs, but today’s circumstances led me to the machine.

• I was running late leaving my house today due to laundry issues
• I realized about half a mile from my house that I didn’t have my wallet and I had to turn around and go back
• I hadn’t printed my tickets at home (just checked in and printed to PDF)
• the Airtran kiosk takes 5 minutes to locate a PNR

All that transpired and I went to the C check point with about 30 minutes before scheduled boarding so I had a bit of time.  The C check point had about 40 people in line while the D check point had 4 so the were urging people to go over there.  Since I don’t use the elite line while flying AirTran (whether the TDC would stop me or not is not something I’d like to waste time to find out) I decided to go to D.  D is the farthest from AirTran, but all other checkpoints had about the same queue length as C.

I got in line at D and quickly noticed where the body scanner is.  It is the second line from the left of 4 total lines.  The left-most line was moving fastest so I entered it.

The lady in front of me was taking forever to clear the WTMD (belt, hitting the side, who knows) so while I was waiting behind her the lady manning the body scanner asks me if I have anything in my pockets thinking she means just things that would set of the WTMD I say “no” although I have my boarding passes and ID in my pockets.  She then determines I should go through the nude-o-scope instead (why me?  why not the lady who took 3 times to clear the WTMD???)

I politely said “I will not go through that thing”

She says I don’t have to, but I will get a special screening.  I have to wait for about 3 minutes for my special screener, officer Miller, to arrive.  In that time the lady manning the WTMD motions me through so I go through.  The lady manning the body scanner (who had since closed it off anyway) asked me what I was doing.  Well…your coworker let me through I thought, but instead I just made the VERY VALID claim that I was keeping an eye on my stuff since it had long since cleared the x-ray and I had no line of site from where they had me waiting.

Finally Officer Miller arrives and explains front of hand, back of hand, etc.  She was professional.  I wasn’t thinking and assumed a position not looking at my stuff and she quickly turned me around so I could watch my stuff.  She told me right away that I had the right to request a private screening.  Heck no!  If you are going to grope me I’d prefer to be where I have witnesses if  I need them.  She was thorough but not inappropriate so it wasn’t an issue.  There were a lot of things I wanted to say, but since I was approaching 15 minutes before boarding and I had to walk to the opposite end of CLT I didn’t say anything.  The screening ended after massaging my feet (do the body scanners really see the bottoms of my feet?  If not then why are you touching my feet) and taking one of the explosive detecting wipes to my ID, BP, and officer Miller’s gloves.  I came out clean and they let me go.

I wish I had remembered the name of the lady who pulled me aside and forced me through the ordeal.  I paid attention to the TDC and the secondary screener, but missed the other lady’s name.  Her ego was crushed when I didn’t want to play her game and even though she shut her machine down and I cleared the WTMD without an event I still needed to waste 2 officers’ time with my secondary.

Things had been going well since my name change, but this past week I had 2 issues.

1. I never got a new Delta Sky Club card issued.  Apparently I have to “order” a new one.  The guy at the desk didn’t specify if “order” means pay for a new one like a replacement or if he just meant I needed to request one.

Normally this doesn’t matter because when I fly Delta I just give them my boarding pass.  I have flown other airlines while using the ORD lounge and give the agent my SC card and ID and they swipe the card and compare the name on the screen to the name on the card.  The man working in ATL didn’t comprehend this.  He looked at the ID, at the card, at the ID.  I said “I never got a new one when Delta changed my name.”  He replied “You are supposed to order a new one.  It’s easier to just use your boarding pass.”  I told him I didn’t have a boarding pass  on Delta because I was flying AirTran and he should swipe the card and look at the computer.  He did finally and let me in.  I’d trust the computer more than a card anyway.  It shouldn’t be too hard to spoof a Sky Club card if one really wanted to, but having it swipe correctly is something that would probably be hard.

2. For some reason Priority Club likes to send my reservations to a particular hotel (which I had never stayed in before changing my name) using my maiden name.  They also like to print the wrong address on receipts.  You’d think if I reserve a room as Jane Doe and pay with a credit card with the name Jane Doe on a priority club account with rooms at other hotels as Jane Doe that this hotel would have me as Jane Doe. Nope.  Darn IT people!

I was going to call this: You aren’t the only person on the plane but figured I’d take a softer title instead.

On a recent Airtran flight from MDW to ATL we were delayed quite a bit leaving MDW and thus our 40 minute connections quickly became 15 minutes.  I always sit towards the back of the plane to get zone 3 seating so there is space for my overhead.  This also means that short connections get even shorter when the plane is slow to deplane.  The lady the row behind me was very adamant that Airtran needed to make an announcement that people without short connections should remain seated so she could make her flight.  The flight attendants did eventually make this announcement which appeased her, but when everyone began deplaning she got upset.  She didn’t believe that many people would also have such a close connection.  I explained that’s how hub work.  She said that Chicago is a hub too and no one was connecting.  I said MDW isn’t a hub for Airtran and therefore people aren’t usually connecting there because they connect in ATL.

So to my point: every day there are situations out of your control: traffic accidents leading to delays, people not showing up when they say they will, internet downtime.  Sure, they suck.  I hate them too, but there is nothing a passenger can do about a plane delay that will make it any less delayed.  The only thing you can do at that point is exactly what I did: find out the gate your next flight is at and run like the wind to that gate.  That’s it.  The flight attendants can’t get it any faster, the pilots would if they could, but usually either the FAA or airline controls are preventing them from going anywhere.

Breathe in, breathe out, and wait for your window to open.

They had been renovating the Check-in area between the B and C checkpoints for a while (the short-lived Midwest check-in area). Now I find out why. Before Delta, United, American, Continental, and Airtran were crammed in between the A and B checkpoints. Now United and Continental have jumped into the area between the B and C checkpoints and they are really emphasizing the Star Alliance affiliation.

I did not wander down to see if any changes have been made to jetBlue, Lufthansa, or US Airways.

Press release here. US Airways has had ads on tray tables for quite a while, but I almost never see them because I don’t always put down my tray table. Now Airtran is placing ads on seat backs.

If this means lower ticket prices I can’t really argue with this.