IS NOT THE SAME AS 
So, um, yeah. Who friggin knew that ATA stands for American Trans Air and NOT Air Tran Airways. Not me. Which is why I now have TWO friggin flights to Atlanta for next weekend. I mean, hey its cool if you totally knew that, but I didn't.
I was actually in the airport when I heard that ATA went bankrupt. I was on my way to a conference in Kansas City for work. My colleagues and I were waiting for our flight when someone brought up the news about ATA and how they unexpectedly cancled all their flights. Panicking, I said, "Wait, ATA went bankrupt? Air Tran went bankrupt?! I have a flight on AirTran in the weekend after next! Is ATA Air Tran?!"
My co-workers looked concerned, and all nodded, and commented "oh what are you going to do?"
At that moment our flight was being called to board, so the conversation ended and we hopped on our plane. I figured I'd have to book another flight as soon as we landed and I could whip out my laptop. I had also discovered that to get your money back from ATA, you had to call the credit card company of the card with which you booked your flight. Armed with this arsenal of information (however incomplete), I booked a flight on Delta on cheaptickets.com, and then promptly called my credit card company to see about getting my money back from ATA.
So I get through to customer service, tell them I have to cancel my "ATA flight" and get pushed through to someone to file a claim.
The customer service agent asked me, "You need to get money back for a flight you booked through ATA?"
"Yes, yes!" I said, "I booked the flight about a month ago, and they are bankrupt...all flights are cancled. The website said to call my credit card company."
"Are you referring to the Air Tran flight you booked on March 18th?" the lady asked.
"Yes, thats the one! I need my money back for that one!" I cried.
"Ma'am, I'm sorry, but Air Tran did not go bankrupt. ATA went bankrupt," she responded.
"Yes! ATA! Air Tran Airways!" I was not going to let go easily.
"No ma'am. I'm sorry, but it was American Trans Air."
"What......" I trailed off.
**Long pause in conversation whilst I processed this information**
"Are you sure?" I asked mildy, finally realizing what this meant.
"Yes, ma'am. Are you ok?"
The customer service agent asked me if I was ok, because at this point I was laughing hysterically. I had realized my stupidity in never actually paying attention to the fact that ATA was NOT Air Tran. I had gone to the ATA.com website, thinking it was Air Tran. Ugh. It pisses me off just thinking about it.
ANYWAYS
Now I have two friggin flights to Atlanta. There is a fee to cancel either one. Damn it.
5 comments:
A of all, it's good to see that you got off of your lazy ass to blog. What, have you not been drinking your water?
B of all, I think that airlines should be prohibited for having matching acronyms. Seriously, there are 26 letters in the alphabet and you can't find one that starts with a different letter for your acronym? Idiots.
i-66: yes, i have been lazy...and also really busy at work...and just super popular...
and THANKYOU on the airline acronyms
oh that is confusing......good luck
yeah, somewhat similar situation with airline/airport acronyms. I was flying to St. Louis for a business trip and went to Dulles for my flight. Went to check in and the AA attendant said "sorry but we don't have any flights flying into St. Louis today" I freak pull out my orbitz.com paper work and say "see I have a flight at 7:45" She says "well ma'am your flight is out of National not Dulles" I argue a bit then she points out DCA is not Dulles. This is stupid. Why is there an f'ing D if it doesn't mean Dulles!!! I had to call my mom who was already through the stupid toll to come back and pick me up. I made my flight but felt like an idiot. This is why I am anonymous; out of pure humiliation. Sad day.
p.s.- when did i grow up enough to be a ma'am ????
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