The Airtran Fiasco

I guess I had been somewhat lucky with the flights I had taken, only to have a small delay here and there. I experienced my first flight cancellation, which in turn cancelled my entire trip. I was scheduled to fly up to Chicago for Strictly Business 3 for the weekend, but that didn't happen. Here's how the day went down:

We were all boarded up and ready to go. The sky looked cloudy, but didn't look horrible when we first boarded the plane at 8:00 in the morning.

After sitting on the plane for about 30 minutes, the captain came over the speaker saying there was a small front coming through with some lightning. We were going to be delayed for 30-45 minutes.

We sat there 30-45 minutes and it was still raining. The captain said it was optional if we wanted to get off the plane because the delay was going to be for a little bit longer than expected.

It was pouring...

So when they came on the speaker for the third time and said it was going to again be a little bit longer we decided to get off the plane and grab some breakfast n such. While we were off the plane, they made everyone get off the plane until the weather cleared a bit more.

We re-boarded the plane with high hopes because the weather was clearing. I was ready to be on my way to Chicago.

20 minutes after being boarded for the second time, another row of storms came through. Thank you Florida! They again said it would be a bit before they would be able to take off, again making everyone get off the plane.

Frustration and Confusion.

The airport was packed with all sorts of flights backing up on top of each other. No where to sit or stand really.

Again after about 30 minutes, they decided to finally just cancel the flight.

Of course everyone rushed to the customer service line to get re-booked on another flight. We were in line for about 45 minutes just to find out that we wouldnt be able to be re-booked for another two days.

Chicago plans were cancelled.