NJ to Denver via Chicago Midway...from NYC...
Written: Jan 03 '06 (Updated Jan 04 '06)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Cheap, nice seats, nice staff
Cons: Lost hub at Newark made us spend more for our vacation
The Bottom Line: When they lost their hub at our closest airport, they did everything to accommodate themselves and not us!
|
|
|
| thriftymommy's Full Review: American Trans Air |
Ah! Here they are: the cheapest airline on the net for travel from NJ to Denver via Chicago Midway airport. The reasons they are cheap? One is their ability to forego paying their bills by going into Chapter 11 reorganization and closing their hubs in different cities after they are no longer able to coast on credit. Another reason they are so cheap is because instead of booking arrival and departure gates in advance like the larger airlines, ATA makes reservations for the gates to avoid paying the steep fees for having a steady arrival at higher cost airports. Although saving money should be the norm for travelers, the main focus should be on getting somewhere quickly and efficiently without being mistreated.
Here is the horror story of our recent experience with ATA; if you are looking for information regarding the airline specifics and its routes and hubs, there are over 150 great reviews to choose from that have such information. This review deals with their poor customer service and the mistreatment of potentially long-term clients due to our family size. Our travel date was 12/20/05 departure from LaGuardia and return 12/30/05 from Denver.
When it all started:
August 14, 2005- "Wow, honey! Look at this! $248 a person round-trip from Newark to Denver!!"
That should have been my first clue: if it looks to be too good to be true, it is. Instead of listening to the little voice inside my head, I ignored it completely because of the price. 5 round-trip tickets to Denver usually runs us about $385 per ticket on Delta...so, I thought, how bad could it be? Flying during the holidays will be expensive enough; find the bargain and take it...especially when you have five people in your family!!
October 14, 2005- This is the message ATA left on my work answering machine (not home) concerning our scheduled and pre-paid trip with this airline:
"This telephone message is regarding your scheduled flights with ATA out of Newark Liberty International Airport confirmation number_______. As of October 28, 2005, ATA will no longer fly out of Newark Liberty International Airport. Please contact our special services telephone number to reschedule your trip."
My 1st call to ATA: "We can book you out of La Guardia (two hours from our house) or out of Philadelphia. (closest airport but the prices at the time we booked sent us to Newark) "Philadelphia is fine." "Ok, direct flight to Denver. One stop flight from Philadelphia to Denver via United Airlines since we cannot find 5 seats on the same ATA flight. Here's your confirmation number _______."
My 1st call to United Airlines minutes after my call with ATA: "I need to confirm seats on these flights for our trip in December." "I see the first leg of the flight in our computer to Denver but not the return flight to Philadelphia. Are you sure they (ATA) booked your entire family round-trip via United?"
My 2nd call to ATA customer service minutes later and I reached the same person: "I helped you earlier and the flights were confirmed. Let's see what happened." "okay....I'm still calm." "Okay, I've confirmed your flights; you're all set on United round-trip." "Okay"
My 2nd call to United minutes later: "Sorry; we only have 4 seats on the return flight. I don't know what to do or how they booked you. You need to call them back."
My 3rd call to ATA reached the same person again: "Well, can we give you two flights? Can one adult travel with two kids and one kid on the other flight with the other adult?" "Are you nuts?? Don't you think that defeats the notion of a family vacation if one parent must shuffle one or two children alone?"
After hanging up because I was mad, my 4th call to ATA: "We're going to continue to work on this but it may be for another day or even to a different airport altogether. Can you land in Baltimore and then we can put you on the train home to NJ?" (laughing so hard that my coffee came out my nose...)
Transferred to Supervisor at ATA: "We're going to game plan B now. Different airline altogether out of Newark. The problem is, we cannot book you on two airlines for one trip. So, we need to find 5 consecutive seats from Denver to NJ." "The reason we booked so early is because of the difficulties finding 5 seats in a row on one flight to anywhere on any airline."
Transferred to another supervisor: "Let's see if First Class....no, not the number we need." "How about if we leave one of our kiddies home for Christmas?!"
Next person in the airline food chain: "The problem is that you have 5 people in your party. We can't find 5 seats on the return flight for 5 people." "So what do you suggest I do? Should I leave a child at their grandparents for the holidays?" "No, no. We can refund your tickets." "But that means I'll have to find another 5 seats at a higher price on a different airline which is exactly why we bought our tickets so early in the first place!!!"
Final disposition: "We've got seats!! You're flying out of La Guardia (further from our house, mind you). Everyone's on the same flight and we have confirmed your seats!! Plus, we're sending you a gift certificate for everyone in your party that you can apply toward the ground transportation to and from the airport. How does that sound?" "Wonderful. Watch how I never fly your airline again!"
Their gift certificate...here's the letter they sent:
"Thank you for the phone call regarding the difficulties you recently incurred with your ATA flights.
As an indication of our desire to retain your goodwill and distinguish ATA as an honestly different airlines, please find five vouchers enclosed in the amount of $50.00 each. The vouchers are valid for one year from the date of issue and do not contain blackout dates. To redeem, please call us at 800-I-FLY-ATA. Advise the agent of your travel dates and that you will be utilizing vouchers. The vouchers must be postmarked within 24hours to ATA or redeemed within 24hrs at your travel agent...blah blah blah...."
What? YOU moved me to a different airport and even suggested we fly separately AND then said you were sending us travel vouchers...how did WE incur difficulties??? GRRR!!! First time flying this airline and absolutely the last!!!
How the flights went:
Well, since ATA does not reserve seats either online or during your phone purchase, you must arrive at the ticket counter at least two hours before your scheduled arrival time would normally be. In order to get seats together, you must have whiny and snotty toddlers in your presence who prove to be too much for the agent to handle and therefore the agent will be more accommodating and graciously place you in at least three consecutive and 2 adjoining seats.
Out of LaGuardia, ATA boarded us as cattle in one en mass group. Supposedly, they call for their "elite" members first along with those who need extra time to board. That extra time equaled 4 minutes at all four legs of our flights on ATA. Our change-over took place in Chicago Midway both ways and the gates were right next to each other.
One big thing that really bothered me is that after all was said and done, we couldn't print our boarding passes from the ATA website because we didn't receive confirmed seating. Now, after all we went through to get the flights, we still needed to arrange for our seats and the ticket counter. I think that all of ATA's coach seats are first come first serve at the ticket counter because the line was long when we checked in at all four legs of our flights.
The planes themselves were clean and well appointed with adjustable headrests that pulled out and molded to your head and larger than average leather seats. The drink service was midway through all four legs of our flight like all airlines and the $5 fee for an alcoholic beverage was average. The snack was pretzels only for afternoon flights; the morning flights offer the Biscoff biscuits.
The only difference between this airline and others we have such as Delta, USAir, and Continental was the age of the flight attendants. On three legs of our flight, it seemed that they had hired retirees to service the cabin. I have nothing against any age group but there were snide comments to us regarding our children and their behavior. It's a plane, we're in the back near the lavatory and engine, and there are no longer in flight meals or movies...we observed all the signs and the verbal orders from the flight deck and the crew. The complaints were centered around the number of times our children needed to visit the lavatory. They're kids; you were one once yourself, right?!
i just wanted to point out here that we were seated smack in the middle of baby-central on all the legs of our round-trip flights. All of the surrounding seats within hearing distance (three or more rows ahead of us on every flight) were filled with families with small children and infants. Our children made frequent visits to the lavatory but did not create a nuisance to other passengers (they mostly slept or played their hand-held games). I would not tolerate our children disrupting other passengers and our children know better...we respect others and have taught our children how to fly politely.
We could have done without those comments about our children but the last leg of our flight had a drunk flight attendant who, while we sat for 2 hours waiting for an open gate at LaGuardia, made sarcastic and snide comments regarding everything from the weather to politics on the intercom...I was surprised she still had her job when we left!
Overall, after the deplorable way in which they treated us and then attempted to "accommodate" our large family (and since when are three children considered a large family anyways?!), their vouchers may go unused and we will probably spend the extra money on our airline tickets with another airline.
Poor customer service, the inability to honor their prior commitments, and empty promises to provide transportation that eventually became vouchers toward future flights made this airline what it is today: in Chapter 11 and losing customers daily. Let's see if I can suggest something that can accommodate them: instead of reorganization, simply call it quits and sell your planes to another company.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
thriftymommy
|
|
Member: April
Location: Home of the Hindenburg Disaster, NJ
Reviews written: 90
Trusted by: 49 members
About Me:
The number of people below the official poverty thresholds numbered 36.1 million in 2005.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.