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Thursday April 15, 2004
AirTran Flight 102
LAS-DFW-ATL
Boeing 717-200 N965AT
Seat 31C
After the nightmare that was my flight to LAS, I decided to try to get to the airport early enough to try to snag either a Business Class upgrade or at least an exit row seat on Flight 8. I arrived @ LAS a few hours earlier than I had originally planned, because I thought I'd be spending some time waiting to return my rental car (I waited nearly 90 minutes to pick one up when I arrived in Vegas on Sunday, so I basically thought that returning the car might be time consuming. Turned out I my return to about 5 minutes.) Got to AirTran's counter fully expecting a line, but was the only person in line. When I checked in, the ticket agent asked me if I wanted to catch an earlier flight (The thought had occurred to me on the way to the airport, but I couldn't remember what time it left LAS), and after the flight out there, I was more than willing to avoid Ryan Int'l and their A320s. So I was put on standby for Flight 102, LAS-DFW-ATL. When through security, took about 20 minutes (@ ATL, I was already at my gate in the amount of time it took for me to get to the train @ LAS). Got to the gate, just a few pax sitting there, so I decided I'd go grab a snack. Before getting something to snack on, I decided to play one more slot machine before I left Vegas. Put in $25 and ended up winning an additional $50 (And they say not to play the slots @ LAS). Grabbed my snack and waited for them to call me for my seat. When I got my seat assignment, the agent apologized, saying this was the only seat that was available for both legs of the flight. I told I didn't care, as it sure beat the Ryan Int'l a/c, to which he seemed to understand completely. Row 31 on an AirTran 717 is the bulkhead row, no recline, no window. I didn't care, as I at least had enough room to sit comfortably, plus the rear seats on a 717 beat the same seats on the now-retired DC-9s, nowhere near as noisy. The only thing about the row that sucked was they were right by the lavs, and traffic was heavy there. It was good to be on a flight that was true AirTran service, from the flight deck to the cabin staff, no crabby Ryan Int'l staff here folks. Left on time, and the flight to DFW was unevental, except for a patch of some wicked CAT, the a/c pitched hard to the left, then hard to the right before getting back level. Since I had no window, I pretty much read and listen to my MP-3 player the entire flight. Inflight service was standard AirTran, Biscoff cookies and drinks, but with a better level of service from the F/As than what Ryan Int'l offered. Everybody got a full can of whatever drink they ordered. Got to DFW on time, and a few of us through pax got off and got something to eat. The DFW-ATL was practically a full flight, 115 of the 117 seats filled. Flight was uneventful, inflight service good, another full can of coke and a pack of pretzels. Got into ATL about 10 minutes early, and parked @ C-6. My rating for this flight:
Preflight:
Check in: 5
Gate: 4
Flight:
A/C: 4
Seat: 3 (if it wasn't for the location, it would have been a 4)
Inflight: 4
The only thing the AirTran does that I don't like is their new cashless inflight payment system. If you want an adult beverage, you have to pay with a credit card or a debit card, and they use an imprinter to make a paper copy of the card. To me, there is too much risk of the slip falling into the wrong hands and the potential of fraud. A much better solution would be one of the following:
1. Offer the vouchers at the time of the booking. When the pax checks in for the flight, the vouchers get printed along with the boarding pass.
2. Offer them for sale @ the ticket counter and customer service desk.
3. Set up machines in the gate areas that take cash and print out drink vouchers.
4. Do a prepay card like Starbucks and Kinkos does on their services.
AirTran Flight 102
LAS-DFW-ATL
Boeing 717-200 N965AT
Seat 31C
After the nightmare that was my flight to LAS, I decided to try to get to the airport early enough to try to snag either a Business Class upgrade or at least an exit row seat on Flight 8. I arrived @ LAS a few hours earlier than I had originally planned, because I thought I'd be spending some time waiting to return my rental car (I waited nearly 90 minutes to pick one up when I arrived in Vegas on Sunday, so I basically thought that returning the car might be time consuming. Turned out I my return to about 5 minutes.) Got to AirTran's counter fully expecting a line, but was the only person in line. When I checked in, the ticket agent asked me if I wanted to catch an earlier flight (The thought had occurred to me on the way to the airport, but I couldn't remember what time it left LAS), and after the flight out there, I was more than willing to avoid Ryan Int'l and their A320s. So I was put on standby for Flight 102, LAS-DFW-ATL. When through security, took about 20 minutes (@ ATL, I was already at my gate in the amount of time it took for me to get to the train @ LAS). Got to the gate, just a few pax sitting there, so I decided I'd go grab a snack. Before getting something to snack on, I decided to play one more slot machine before I left Vegas. Put in $25 and ended up winning an additional $50 (And they say not to play the slots @ LAS). Grabbed my snack and waited for them to call me for my seat. When I got my seat assignment, the agent apologized, saying this was the only seat that was available for both legs of the flight. I told I didn't care, as it sure beat the Ryan Int'l a/c, to which he seemed to understand completely. Row 31 on an AirTran 717 is the bulkhead row, no recline, no window. I didn't care, as I at least had enough room to sit comfortably, plus the rear seats on a 717 beat the same seats on the now-retired DC-9s, nowhere near as noisy. The only thing about the row that sucked was they were right by the lavs, and traffic was heavy there. It was good to be on a flight that was true AirTran service, from the flight deck to the cabin staff, no crabby Ryan Int'l staff here folks. Left on time, and the flight to DFW was unevental, except for a patch of some wicked CAT, the a/c pitched hard to the left, then hard to the right before getting back level. Since I had no window, I pretty much read and listen to my MP-3 player the entire flight. Inflight service was standard AirTran, Biscoff cookies and drinks, but with a better level of service from the F/As than what Ryan Int'l offered. Everybody got a full can of whatever drink they ordered. Got to DFW on time, and a few of us through pax got off and got something to eat. The DFW-ATL was practically a full flight, 115 of the 117 seats filled. Flight was uneventful, inflight service good, another full can of coke and a pack of pretzels. Got into ATL about 10 minutes early, and parked @ C-6. My rating for this flight:
Preflight:
Check in: 5
Gate: 4
Flight:
A/C: 4
Seat: 3 (if it wasn't for the location, it would have been a 4)
Inflight: 4
The only thing the AirTran does that I don't like is their new cashless inflight payment system. If you want an adult beverage, you have to pay with a credit card or a debit card, and they use an imprinter to make a paper copy of the card. To me, there is too much risk of the slip falling into the wrong hands and the potential of fraud. A much better solution would be one of the following:
1. Offer the vouchers at the time of the booking. When the pax checks in for the flight, the vouchers get printed along with the boarding pass.
2. Offer them for sale @ the ticket counter and customer service desk.
3. Set up machines in the gate areas that take cash and print out drink vouchers.
4. Do a prepay card like Starbucks and Kinkos does on their services.