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This trip was to be my and my family's first trip on ATA. We had a 6:30 AM flight out of IND to FLL. We live in Galesburg, IL, about a 4-4:30 hour drive. We ended up staying with friends in Lafeyette the night before and left at 4 in the morning EST. We arrived at IND, and got our tickets checked and found out that we were selected for a random security screening. I must say that our experience was very pleasent with the screeners. The man that lead us to the Bomb Detection scanner was extremely pleasent and well mannered. Our bags got scanned without a problem and then we were off to the gate. We got through securtiy without any problems and then had about half an hour before our flight was ready. I didnt get the registration, but it was the newest Boeing 737-800 in their fleet at the time. I did manage to get around the gate and take a picture of an ATA L-1011, named Big Ed. I also saw a few Frontier jets. Then it was time to board. We had to be screened again before boarding the plane. It was the typical remove your shoes and open your bags. It did have the advantage that we were on the plane right after the adults with small children. The plane looked and felt new. It was almost like a new car smell/feel for a plane. I had a seat right behind the wing on the right side. The flight took off at 6:59. We were supposed to be in the air by 6:55, but we used the full length of the runway and ended up having to turn around, because there was other air traffic in the area. The pilot made an announcement saying that we were going to be driving to FLL instead of flying. Soon after that, we were on our way to FLL. The only real problem I encountered was the 3 small children that were seated right behind us. I wish that there would have been some tranquilizers on board. I also had a problem with the woman in front of me. She was very insistent on having her seat reclined all the way back. I am 6'3", so that didnt go over to well with me. I ended up pushing her seat back with just my knees while she was trying to recline it. That didnt please her too much, but she dealt with it. About 2/3 of the way through the flight, I looked out my window and saw a plane flying far away from us, but close enough that I could recognize it as an AA MD80. The rest of the trip was uneventful, and we had a smooth landing in sunny FLL. Having been the first time Id ever flown ATA, I must say they are a great airline at a great price. And winglets rule! 
Once on an America West flight from SAN-LAS there was this moron who insisted on reclining all the way. I asked him to put his seat up and he laughed. that got me mad so I put my knees on the back of his seat and pushed it into the full upright position. He reclined again and I did it again. he then called the flight attendant and complained but since me and my friend were traveling as unaccompianed minors she told him that since we were her responsibility she would do something about it. She then left and he started snickering thinking he had won but the head FA came back and told him not to be a moron. That shut him up and we had a pleasent flight to LAS for our connection to BWI. (and no they didn't lose us 
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He also managed to have his seat not work right, as in it would not fold back all the way, and he blamed me for it, saying that I had a large carryon or something like that. I only had a backpack that had a few cds, batteries, notebook, cd player, stuff like that. I think all the F/As were glad when he was gone. Im flying from ORD to LHR again this summer, however my bag will be even smaller, since the only two major items I will have with me are my Apple iPod and Apple iBook. 
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