I may just be a 22 year old college grad student from Georgia, but you can believe me when I say MOST unprofessional and MOST horrible airline carrier EVER. Please understand I really do appreciate the lower fares, but is it worth it? Everything is SO CHEAP, incredibly NO FRILLS... and i mean NO as in NONE WHATSOEVER. I have flown AirTran a reasonable amount of times "just to get there" and every time I seem to just shake my head in a negative way thinking "are they serious?" I never once filed a complaint with the so-called airline, but I want to take this opportunity to point out the highlights or "lowlights" of AirTran's service in a nutshell, and then talk about the worse part of the airline's operation: it's people.

AirTran is horrible and leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth every time due to these reasons:

1. Unprofessional, LAZY, slobby, "ghetto", uneducated, clueless, NOT-funny, impolite, ex-Burger King workers, RUDE agents.

2. CRAMPED flights (even at the bulkhead), even MORE rude flight attendants. *** ABSOLUTE WORSE LEG ROOM EVER *** I am not going to lie. You're gonna be packed like sardines. You're gonna be treated like one afterall.

3. Awful inflight service, a bag of pretzels is all you get (the SMALLEST, MOST TINY BAG YOU'LL EVER SEE with about 8 or 9 mini pretzels)- and a cheap plastic cup filled to the brim with ice and very little soda (no they won't give you the can), and a napkin (round trips from Atlanta to Denver and Atlanta to Seattle is the same as flying Atlanta to Ft. Lauderdale or some other short hop flight)

4. Absolutely RUDE and UNPROFESSIONAL gate announcements, almost like they are mean and hate their jobs and only doing it for the free flight benefits. I doubt half these people have a high school education. Poor terminology and inadequate people-skills. Most agents demonstrate little or no eye contact, greeting or personal touch. They scream across the counter to each other and communicate like dirty animals. Good luck getting a good "morning/afternoon/evening" or a "thank you" or ANYTHING pleasant, afterall you're just a cheap fare paying "it was either this or Greyhound Bus Lines" ingrate right?

5. Flight attendants don't smile and offer you zero attention or ask if you would need anything. The flight attendant was VERY RUDE to this sweet elderly lady that sat beside me - almost harassed her... I couldn't believe it. The lady just looked at me and smiled and said "i'm not deaf, I just look like I should be" and laughed. I felt bad for her but you can tell she actually had some education in her past and wasn't going to lose sleep over the 21 year old or whatever she was "flight attendant"'s behavior. - I put that in quotes because some of them do not deserve to be considered flight attendants who are considered inflight safety professionals.

6. DELAYS, DELAYS, DELAYS... Usually not their fault if weather or other problems, but count on a last minute gate changes and multiple stops to your destination when you thought it was non-stop, even when advised such by an AirTran representative.

7. Overall cheap everything, even their logo and paint scheme is a joke. They DO have the youngest aircraft in their fleet, of course, why still fly the hundreds of ex-ValuJet DC9s? Lower case "a" for a lower class airline.

8. They tend to mock other airlines' fares. That's fine. But notice how they boast NOTHING about comparing the quality of service? ha ha.

9. I want to add one positive thing however, they never "lost" any of my checked baggage. Maybe the people on the ramp should work at customer service?!?!?

10. OH OK and get this -- I was flying from Atlanta to Orlando and and as I was leaving, I passed by the slouched over gum chewing flight attendants and saw the captain at the door to the flight deck standing there and I said "thank you" (just to be nice) and reached my hand out to him expecting a handshake back and guess what he said??? He said AND I QUOTE "I DON'T SHAKE HANDS" and I was like uhhh... ok then, the flight attendant standing by the aircraft door kinda gave me this look like "Oh my God I can't believe he just said/did that"! She was kinda cute not like the miserable ugly ex-Burger king employee pilot. That left a rotten feeling in me and i felt like an idiot and i was embarrassed. Figures an AirTrash person would say that.

11. DIRTY ATLANTA HUB - I dont want to say any more about it but WOW how depressing it is to connect in ATL and have to wait at such a dump. It honestly looks like a run down bus terminal. All the other airlines at ATL keep their areas more clean and more comfortable-looking. Whatever. Here is where you will find AirTran's most unreliable most unprofessional and slobby people.

12. I really can't get over the unprofessional, rude, lazy and slobby disorganized employees, more or less "agents" or whatever they call themselves. Might as well refer to Waffle House floor moppers "agents" too. (Sorry Waffle House, just making a point) Most of them are high school level or failed college students it seems. Thanks to AirTran, i learned ebonics in one year. I am not racist or anything so don't even go there. I just think they'll hire whoever, whenever.

13. Misinformation - There was a flight departing Atlanta for Akron/Canton, Ohio and it continued on to Boston, but the sign indicated ONLY Akron/Canton. MANY confused passengers and the agents didn't know ANYTHING!!! It was flight 198 (I wrote this down) at gate D-11... Guess what the rude gum chewing "red-coat" (supervisor) did? She sent a bunch of Boston-bound passengers to ANOTHER gate at ANOTHER CONCOURSE (C) for a different Boston flight, when they were in the right place afterall because they can READ their boarding passes just like I read mine. The sign behind the podium should have said "Akron/Canton with continuing service to BOSTON". Since I was on THAT flight to Boston, a bit confused but I figured it out myself, I tried to stop the passengers and tell them it only made a stop in Akron, but OH NO, not according to the AirTran people... don't investigate or anything, just let the poor people miss their flight. What idiots at THAT gate on THAT day. MY boarding pass said Gate D-11, ATLANTA-BOSTON. No indication it "stopped" in Akron/Canton (which the agents repeatedly called canton-akron - typical backwards everything) Maybe I should have been a gate agent, I would have actually looked into it - maybe even worked!!! Hmmm... it's not rocket science, How come I know these things and THEY don't??? And I never worked for an airline in my LIFE but flew MANY MANY Times, could be why. I guess you had to be there. If it were ANY OTHER airline, they would have known.

14. Dear AirTran employees: GET RID OF THE GUM!!! It just makes you look a bit more UNPROFESSIONAL and STUPID!

15. I have seen gate agents and ticket counter agents be REAL rude to passengers. They use words like "No, you can't" or "I don't know", "maybe, if you wanna" --- the typical uneducated trashy talk. Just watch them work some day, if you're an experienced traveler. You'll laugh in disgust.

16. They are making the whole airline industry look SO BAD.
but, whatever guys - money talks.

17. They ALL need another lesson in Customer Service Training, maybe have another airline like Delta or American train them.

18. Their fares ARE lower. BUT you really REALLY do get what you pay for.

19. UPGRADE TO BUSINESS... It feels like normal coach. And their coach feels like... crap? I can finally feel my legs again.

20. They all hate their jobs. They don't smile and VERY rude and unfriendly -- ok I think i covered that enough times. They miss their jobs at Waffle House.

21. They make such a big deal about XM Radio... OK no one cares guys, seriously. welcome to the year 2007 where airlines like jetBlue has had DirectTV for since the day they initiated service, which is WAY better. The people are cooler too. But at least if you don't own an iPod or equivalent, you can listen to XM Radio to help drown out the noise of the puppies and kitties and birdies and whatever mini-zoo they'll have fly with you whether you're allergic or not.
Oh, bring your own headphones because the cheap ones they provide you hurt and pinch inside your ears (I tested the comfort level... big thumbs down. Ouch, so uncomfortable, kind of like the seats!)

Basically, AirTran sucks. It's a cheap, cold, boring, unattractive low-class,low-fare "airline". Only fly them if you ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO GET FROM POINT A TO POINT B (sometimes it feels like point A to point D due to the amount of stops you might have to make) because the fares are usually lower. I can go on and on, They're just TRASH.

O N E L A S T N O T E :

I'm sure the "airline" has some people that actually DO care and weren't raised in a barn, or some that actually have airline experience and/or a college education. To those people I am sorry you have to work in such a disorganized unprofessional hostile messy environment. Just keep doing what you are doing, I am sure you are out there and I hope you get hired with a better paying job at a REAL airline where you belong - with a legacy carrier. Never lose your pride and dedication to what you do. Maybe -- just MAYBE -- others might wake up one day and learn a thing or two from you. You might actually be an inspiration to many slobs and Airtrash bums. But, who am I kidding, it's AirTrash afterall. (keep your heads up)

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