I had one of the worst commercial airline experiences this weekend by trying to fly AirTran. I'm putting this out so you all forewarned - if you can avoid flying AirTran, I highly recommend doing so.
I was flying to the Northeast Saturday afternoon, returning Sunday morning in order to attend a reunion Saturday night. We pre-checked in & selected our seats on the internet before we left for the airport. Everything was running okay. Got to the airport and was informed AirTran cancelled our flight (not delayed - cancelled). They would not put us on another airline because they do not have such agreements with other airlines. They would not refund our $ because they said it was weather related and they don't refund $ for flights cancelled due to weather related reasons. Mind you other airlines traveling to the same airport were on time or moderately delayed (40 minutes). AirTran agreed to put us on a 5:40 flight, three and a half hours later from our original flight. That would have gotten us to the reunion a little late but we could still make it. So we agreed and they told us to go to the gate and we would be given a "customer care kit". We go to the gate and are informed they don't have any customer care kits and even if they did, they would not give us one because they don't give out those kits for weather related delays!
So we're waiting for the 5:40 flight and at 3:00 they delay the 5:40 flight until 8:30. I get us booked on a SouthWest flight to a nearby airport that would get us to the reunion in time. But there's one problem - DH checked his luggage on the AirTran flight. We try to get his luggage back and are informed that they no longer have the luggage. They try to convince us that it already went on the flight to our destination. It took an hour to get them to look again because the flight to our destination never left! They spend over an hour and a half looking for the luggage and we miss our Southwest flight. The bright side is they found his luggage. The not-so-bright side is we went home and missed the reunion.
AirTran stinks.
I was flying to the Northeast Saturday afternoon, returning Sunday morning in order to attend a reunion Saturday night. We pre-checked in & selected our seats on the internet before we left for the airport. Everything was running okay. Got to the airport and was informed AirTran cancelled our flight (not delayed - cancelled). They would not put us on another airline because they do not have such agreements with other airlines. They would not refund our $ because they said it was weather related and they don't refund $ for flights cancelled due to weather related reasons. Mind you other airlines traveling to the same airport were on time or moderately delayed (40 minutes). AirTran agreed to put us on a 5:40 flight, three and a half hours later from our original flight. That would have gotten us to the reunion a little late but we could still make it. So we agreed and they told us to go to the gate and we would be given a "customer care kit". We go to the gate and are informed they don't have any customer care kits and even if they did, they would not give us one because they don't give out those kits for weather related delays!
So we're waiting for the 5:40 flight and at 3:00 they delay the 5:40 flight until 8:30. I get us booked on a SouthWest flight to a nearby airport that would get us to the reunion in time. But there's one problem - DH checked his luggage on the AirTran flight. We try to get his luggage back and are informed that they no longer have the luggage. They try to convince us that it already went on the flight to our destination. It took an hour to get them to look again because the flight to our destination never left! They spend over an hour and a half looking for the luggage and we miss our Southwest flight. The bright side is they found his luggage. The not-so-bright side is we went home and missed the reunion.
AirTran stinks.
maybe to protect their dumb employees 
But she did manage to find DH's bags after that.
I don't know if they used to be value-jet but DH told me two things of similar significance (1) if this is the part of AirTran that you DO see, imagine the part you don't see -- like their plane maintenance and (2) AirTran is not doing well financially and, consequently, is doing things to save $ like scheduling just-in-time flights. I'm the first person to say that I don't know anything about these two points other than what I just typed. But apparently DH had read some things about AirTran and was not happy when he learned that I booked our flights on AirTran. Which gets to the reason I posted this thread - to warn folks. 
