So I promised I would let you know about my experience with Air-Tran. As it turns out, it was definitely an experience. Some of it good. Some of it not so good.

Everything began very well. My friend Karen and I deliberately planned everything so we could get to the airport with plenty of time so we wouldn’t feel rushed or stressed.

The gods were in our favor that day. First, traffic was excellent. It was a Saturday, but it was July 4th, so we didn’t know what to expect. Fortunately, cars were sparse and we got there in record time.

Economy parking was booked, so we had to take Daily Parking. But despite the lots being almost completely full, we were able to find excellent parking just across from the terminal. Since I’ve hiked the mile-long economy parking several times, this was actually a blessing in disguise.

One would have thought the lines for ticketing would be horrible since parking was so full, but when we got there, the lines were short and we zipped right through. Same with security even. Things were looking up!

It got even better when, on being seated in the plane, when Karen and I had to sit in separate aisles, the airline hostess asked if I could switch seats with the teenager seated next to Karen – who just so happened to be sitting in the emergency exit aisle. Of course, I willingly obliged. The double bonus of this is the emergency aisle has extra leg room – and me being 5′10″ – I was more than happy to have the extra space!

So of course with all of this good luck, one would expect the other shoe to drop. And of course it did – while we were waiting for our baggage. We had flown into San Antonio, and being a small airport, it wasn’t long before the bags were being unloaded.

Pretty soon, Karen’s bag popped onto the conveyor belt. I had only one bag checked, so now it was just a short wait until mine came out. So we waited. And waited. And waited.

You guessed it. My baggage was lost. And not only that – it was the ONLY bag that was lost. I’m not really sure how that happened, considering I checked my baggage immediately after my friend’s, but it did.

On the plus side, Air Tran was very reassuring that my bag was probably on the next flight and would be found. When I explained to the customer rep that I was driving to Austin and couldn’t wait the 3 hours before the next flight arrived, she let me know they would deliver the bag to where I was staying for me. I figured since they lost it, that was quite fair of them.

Unfortunately, while the lady told me they’d call “no matter what” by 6pm regardless if my bag was found or not, they did NOT call me. I called them at 6:30pm to find out what was going on.

The woman who assisted me first told me that my bag had NOT been found. Then she found a note that was left and told me my bag WAS found. I asked why no one had called, and she informed me they did call, but received a busy signal. (I have voice mail, so I was skeptical about this).

When I asked when my bag would be delivered, she then told me I’d have to pick it up. Hmmm – this wasn’t going well. I informed the woman I was told the bag would be delivered to me in Austin. She told me they don’t deliver that far. (Austin is only just over an hour away). When I argued with her, she placed me on hold.

The woman then came back on to tell me they WOULD deliver my bag to Austin. Great! On Fed-Ex. Not great. Normally this would be fine, but it was after 6pm on a Saturday ( a HOLIDAY), and the next day was Sunday. Last time I checked, Fed-Ex doesn’t deliver on Sunday. “Of course”, she agreed with me, “You’ll get it Monday.”.

The problem with this, I informed her, is that I LEAVE on TUESDAY. And I really didn’t want to be roaming around Texas in 105 degree heat in the same black jeans and boots I’d arrived in from my flight for two days.

From that point on, I was informed by my “helper” that I’d have to talk to the next girl who came in to figure it all out. I never did understand why she couldn’t help me herself, but apparently she was “just reading the message” and couldn’t help me further. And of course the next person who COULD help me didn’t come in until 10pm.

Long story short, I had to drive back to San Antonio the next morning to pick up the luggage myself. Of course they were very apologetic about my inconvenience, but no enough to waive the $15 I had to pay just to have my bag checked in the first place.

While the rest of my trip was pleasant and I didn’t have any more trouble with the airline, I still came away feeling not too impressed with how AirTran works as a whole. They came across as helpful on the surface, but not really wanting to take much responsibility when things did go wrong. And while I didn’t really press the issue of possibly getting a refund on my baggage fee, I had decided it would have been more a hassle to try than it was worth.

So not bad, but not great. I’m willing to give them a second chance though, if I ever have to fly again.

She tried to make the arrangements online, but wasn’t sure if the credit would be switched over properly. Since there was no way to access her credit online, Karen went ahead and called AirTran’s customer service line.

When she spoke to the customer representative, she was informed that she would be charged $15 for their assistance. Apparently Air Tran charges a direct booking fee simply to have a live person assist you instead of doing it yourself.

Let me tell you, my jaw dropped to the floor when she told me about this. I can’t believe ANY company would charge money – let alone $15 dollars – to try to force you to do your booking online. I’m still stunned!

Maybe I’m clueless and more companies do this than I’m aware of; probably because I usually try to do everything online anyway and avoid talking to customer service reps whenever possible. But if this is standard practice, I’m appalled.

In my opinion, if you have a customer service representative that you’ve hired to assist customers, then this means you expect customers to have need of their help. There should be no extra charge to a customer if they aren’t capable of completing an online transaction without assistance. To me, it’s punishing the customer for their lack of knowledge – whatever it may be. And in my friend’s case, she was being punished for something that wasn’t her fault in the first place.

Let me ask you readers – is this common practice? Have you run across companies who force you to pay fees for using their “direct service” instead of doing it yourself online? Which companies were they and how did you handle it?