Folinazzo

Official statement from ATA website
I can’t say I am surprised. This airline should have ceased operations years ago. I never had a positive experience with ATA and the last time I flew this airline, back in 2002, I swore I’d never fly ATA again. And I didn’t. Looks like I won’t have to worry about it anymore.

I do feel sorry for the people who had vacations planned and now, suddenly, their trips have been cancelled. From what I read on the ATA website, some people may even have a difficult time getting a refund. I feel sorry for some of the employees, but definitely not the check-in agents and gate agents who worked for ATA at Midway Airport. They are some of the rudest, most ignorant creatures on the planet. I believe I never told my horrible ATA story on this blog. Maybe I should do that now in an effort to explain why I swore I’d never again fly ATA, and why I am not surprised the airline has been grounded for good.

My friend Laura had planned a 10-day Panama Canal cruise with another friend of hers. Tickets were bought, payments were made, and then Laura’s friend backed out on her. That’s when Laura asked if I’d like to go. Of course I said yes and even then I was a little leery about flying ATA. Our flight to Miami was to leave Midway at 8:15am on Saturday; our cruise ship was to leave the port at 5:00pm that same day. Since it was only six months after the September 11th attacks, we arrived more than two hours before our scheduled departure time in order to make it through the check-in process and the security line in time. We arrived at Midway and it was a madhouse. The ATA check-in area was the most chaotic. People were lined up all over the place; there was no order at all. There also were no employees anywhere to ask for more direction. Luckily, Laura and I managed to get in the right line, only to be at a standstill for two hours. At 8:15, as our flight was taking off without us, we were still in line waiting to check in. Turns out there were only two agents working. We weren’t the only ones who were left behind, though. There was a group of ten behind us who were en route to Miami for their spring break. There was a couple ahead of us who was flying to Miami for a cruise, too. My thought at that time was, Is anyone even on that plane that’s taking off? It seemed that all the passengers were still in line. We finally got up to the check-in counter and we were met by all kinds of attitude and incompetency on the part of the check-in agent. She showed no sympathy for the fact that we’d missed our flight, and it was no fault of ours, and made no attempt to supply us with information on how we could get onto another flight. I had never missed a flight in my life. I really had no prior knowledge to work with on what to do in this kind of situation. Everyone who went up to the counter had the same problem and still, there was no supervisor or additional personnel present to try to help.

It seemed like an eternity had gone by and we found ourselves at the gate. The gate agents informed us that there were no available seats on any flights to Miami on any airline that day but there were seats the next day. We explained that we needed to get to Miami that day because we had to be on the cruise ship that evening. It was at that point when one of the gate agents said, “Well you’re stupid for booking your flight on the same day your cruise ship is leaving.” Sure, to be safe, we should have flown out the previous day; however, the fact that she flat out called us “stupid” sent me into a raged frenzy! We asked for a supervisor and the same ignorant gate agent told us that there would be no supervisor responding for us to talk to. I wanted to punch her at that point. Thankfully, another ATA employee appeared and was much nicer and actually willing to help us. She was even looking for flights out of O’Hare for us. There were no seats at all. She said the best she could do for us was to put us on the standby list for a flight to Fort Lauderdale that was leaving later that day. Given that the flight was on time, we’d arrive in plenty of time to make it onto the cruise ship. Laura was #3 on the standby list; I was #4.

Hours passed and it was finally boarding time for that flight to Fort Lauderdale. Laura and I were hanging out at the counter anxiously waiting to find out if there were any seats for us. The gate agent cheerfully told us that there were three standby seats available. I was #4 on the list. That meant that #s 1 & 2 could have seats, and so could #3 - Laura. She immediately started crying and said, “I’m not going without you!” I said, “You go get on that plane and go on that cruise. I will be here getting my money back!” I was insane with anger. Laura reluctantly boarded the plane, still crying, and I did feel badly that she was going to have go to on a 10-day cruise by herself. A few minutes later, one of the boarding agents came running down the jetway, seemingly in slow motion, waving her arms and yelling to me, “Hurry!! We have a seat for you!” I was stunned. “Huh?” She again said, “Come on! We have a seat for you!!” Confused, I picked up my belongings and got onto the plane where I was greeted with applause by the passengers already on board. I still had no idea how that fourth seat had become available…

I sat down and one of the flight attendants came to me and said, “You better thank your friend for getting you this seat. She had to beg and even offered money to the people sitting next to you.” Again, Huh?? Here’s what happened: Laura got on the plane and saw a young couple with a baby. Both adults had a seat of their own and the middle seat was occupied by the baby’s childseat. Laura asked one of the flight attendants if he could ask the couple to hold their baby in their laps so I could have the seat that was taken by the childseat. The flight attendant told her no. Laura then said, “Well then I’m going to ask them!” Laura approached them and told them our whole story and asked if I could have their child’s seat. The couple wasn’t too keen on the idea at first so Laura offered to pay them $250. They declined the money but then said, what the heck - your friend can have the seat. Apparently there was some shrieking and clapping going on at that moment, and then that’s when the boarding agent came bounding down the jetway to get me. There is a happy ending to this story in that Laura and I did make it onto the ship and we had a blast cruising Central and South America, but it was no thanks to ATA. I am forever grateful to that kind couple who agreed to let me have their seat, and who held their baby for the entire flight.

When we returned from the cruise, Laura and I both wrote to ATA to complain about how horribly we were treated. We sent a series of letters to members of ATA staff at all levels. We received some responses but not one included an apology. Basically, ATA said it was our fault and no fault of theirs that we missed our original flight (even though we were at the airport more than two hours ahead of time and they had only two check-in agents working on a busy Saturday, at the beginning of the Sring Break rush); that they could not believe any ATA employee would ever say such rude things to any passenger; and that we did not deserve any kind of refund or consolation gift for our troubles because, ultimately, we made it onto the cruise ship and were able to go on our trip. That’s when I vowed to never fly ATA again, even if it were free. So ha ha ATA! You suck and always have.

Posted by Francesca

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 11:47 am and is filed under Our travels & travel news, Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.