Airlines - love 'em, hate 'em

The mistake was using AIRTRAN---they are notorious for this type of stuff

Pretty common story when the words Atlanta and Delta come up.

For the most part it is a "get what you pay for situation" and your choice of carriers depends what your wallet says. Frustrating? Helll yes. Airline service is like buying Caddy or an Escort, you get what you pay for. I hope that no one would expect to have the same service for a different dime. I work for a service group and we offer different priced service contacts and I can tell you that 80% of the complaints come from those who look for cheaper deal. The 20% of those complaints who pay premium price I will make up for their inconvienence because those are the ones I want back and on the the other hand I want the cut rate customer to upgrade. This is a basic business model.

I agree with you get what you pay as far as Airtran goes, but the Delta experiance was only a little better!

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I agree with you get what you pay as far as Airtran goes, but the Delta experiance was only a little better!

I'm a tight wad and don't practice what I preach but I schedule to accomadate potential issues. As long as the airline does not have a history of planes falling from the sky I will go with the cheapest available, and until I've been burned bad I will continue with that. I fly Delta because it is the cheapest for my destinations and so far I've been able to live with the "issues".

This is not a recent issue but one that caught me completely off guard. Last year we were traveling to meet a team at a PG showcase to play. My son always carries his glove and uniform in a seperate bag just in case. We were at the airport at the chosen time. Not my chosen time but Continentals chosen time. As we waited we noticed our flight was delayed 1.5 hours. No problem it's the issues that you have when you travel. 2.5 hours later our flight was cancelled. Sons first game is at 9:00 a.m. in Florida and we sit in Houston. Continental rebooks us to a flight that is leaving at 8:00 that evening. At 7:30 we are told the flight is delayed for 1 hour but we are still good for our 10:00 connecting flight. Finally get on the flight and getting to our first destination. We have 1 hour before the flight takes off. Son and I do the grab a bite to eat--bathroom stop and go down to the connecting flight microroom. When we get there to check in they let us know the flight left 10 minutes ago. They had held the flight for us and we did not answer the page. The page that was only in the area of the connecting flight. No other flights going out....sorry, so sad. They told us to rent a car. Rented a car, went straght to the airport to pick up our bags. Its approximately 2:00 a.m. at this time. Went to baggage claim and there sits my bag and my sons bag but no bat bag. At 4:00 a.m. we are told that "someone else" must have picked up his bag. Two aluminum bats 2 wood bats, back up glove and his good luck charm (the only thing I can't replace) and ALL of his catching gear. Son borrows catching gear from the other teams catchers (Nice guys) and plays his game. Weekend went well, had to buy bats and really stiff catching gear but son got his first interest from college coaches that weekend. Continental never found our sons bag....What a drag!

Ouch, what I calculate about a $1000 bucks and much stress. What I have seen is put the bat bag in a large equipment/duffle bag so the bat bag is not sitting on the baggage claim area exposed.