I made it to LA! But it wasn't easy.
1:30am PDT
Day 1 is now behind me.

Things got off to a rough start. After getting the confirmation email from AirTran and double-checking the departure information we loaded my luggage into the car and hit the road to Pensacola/Gulf Coast Regional Airport. When we get to the unloading zone and unload my suitcase the skycap has some bad news for me. My flight to Los Angeles International Airport had been canceled. All of AirTran?s evening flights out of Pensacola had been canceled. And they had been canceled for some time without notice to their passengers the skycap told me. Naturally we call up the customer support line and ask about the flight. Wonder of wonders, good ole AirTran had scaled back their flights from Pensacola to two a day. I had been rescheduled to Saturday afternoon?s flight. Without my notice. Talk about an inconvenience! Well it turns out that the company did try to call me, and they did leave a message on the answering machine at home. But they called after we had left the house to go to the airport. A lot of good that did me, I?m standing at the airport with a car rental reservation in LA that had to be picked up that evening, with no flight out, with no way for AirTran to even place me on another airline?s flight out, and my parents telling me to ask for a supervisor and demand my money back while I was trying to let the poor man on the other end of the line explain things and look for other alternatives.

After he said that all he could do was guarantee me a seat on the Saturday flight I asked if I could get a refund if I could find another flight with a different airline. He said yes. ?Great, I?ll call you back when I find out something,? I replied. So the helpful skycap directed us to the Delta booth while he checked fares at the other airlines. Delta wanted $499 for a one-way to LAX. The skycap came back and said that Continental could do better than that, much to the Delta guy?s dismay. So off to the Continental counter we went.

The lady at the Continental counter was very helpful, and quoted a reasonable fare. $289.70 one-way to LAX with a $10 counter purchase fee. I took it. I called AirTran back, canceled my ticket with them ($164.20) and got a full refund. Continental Airlines: 1, AirTran Airlines: 0.

So I?m not happy with AirTran at all. The gentleman at the customer service line was courteous and helpful, but AirTran?s lack of follow up after cutting service was unacceptable. I can?t say I will be flying with them again or recommending them to anyone. Continental, on the other hand, has impressed me and I will definitely look to flying with them again. And at only a difference of $135.50 between flying on the cheap and actually getting to where I want to go, I think I can safely say that I will fly mid-priced airlines or better from now on.

Here's an important piece of information: If you purchase a ticket prior to your departure date you are randomly selected for screening at the security checkpoint in airports. But if you purchase a ticket for a flight that same day you're automatically flagged for the 'deeper screening' as the security guys lovingly call it. It's not a big deal, they just go through your luggage thoroughly and then go over you thoroughly. No body cavity checks, though! Just the security wand and a pat down. It didn't bother me one bit. If that's what it takes to ensure I get to where I want to go in one piece, then I'll do it every time. And I made it a point to thank the security guys when they finished with me. I think it made their day. And it helped that we shared a few laughs at AirTran's expense.

The rest of my little jog to LA went off fairly well. I had window seats on both flights, despite being near the lavatories. Yech! My rental car was waiting for me at Hertz, and the Comfort Inn I wanted to stay at in Santa Monica had a room open for me. Not too bad, even if I almost didn't get to leave on time.

Well, I've written a lot and it's really late. It's almost 1:30am Pacific time, which translates to 3:30am Central. Well past my bedtime. I'm going to sleep. Maybe tomorrow I'll have some nice pictures to post.

Seeya,

AL