The plane landed in Memphis, TN, on a Delta airstrip. The older woman was taken to the hospital and as of a week after this happened she was alive. The Memphis airport was closed. Lucky them the new law was in effect. So the airport opened up a lounge for them and they were restricted to that area that included bathrooms. Thank goodness.

You might ask, why did they open a lounge? Why didn't they just turn the plane around and fly away? That would be to easy. First, they took an hour to fill out the paperwork explaining why they had an emergency landing. The next 2 hours were taken up with explaining why they landed on a Delta airstrip when they were too heavy for that airstrip. Duh?! Could it have anything to do with that was were they were told to land. The extra weight was due to fuel coming from California. So, due to government bureacracy they stayed in Memphis for 3 hrs.

Finally, they took off and landed at their connecting airport, Atlanta, GA, around 2am. For some reason, they missed their connecting flight to Washington, D.C. The previous 2 days had seen alot of storms that delayed and cancelled flights in Atlanta. They were informed that the earliest they could be put on another plane to DC was at 2pm. Having had enough, Stephanie's son got a rental car and drove them to DC. The trip took 10hrs by car. Normally it takes 11hrs. Oh, and they took a fast food/ bathroom stop.

In order to get your money back from AirTran you have to cancel at least 45mins before the flight. Stephanie called 30mins before the flight to cancel their tickets. She talked to an AirTran Customer Service rep and explained who she was, what she had done for the woman on the plane and their choice to drive. The CS rep asked her to hold for a moment and when she came back on the line was extremely pleasant and thankful. She thanked Stephanie profusely and not only refunded all 4 tickets fully ($189), paid for the rental car, had their luggage delivered at no charge to their homes, but gave everyone of them a free, no blackout, round trip ticket, good for 1yr to anywhere AirTran flies. Now that is what I call customer service.

By comparison, no one from SouthWest has called, texted, emailed or otherwise contacted my niece to see how her thumb is doing. Her thumb was sore and a problem for her during her whole vacation and the week after. When a guest is injured in your home you always contact them to see how they are. Its just good manners (and in the case of SouthWest good CS).

Looks like AirTran will be their airline of choice from now on. Considering how often Stephanie travels and my Niece travels, SouthWest has made a costly decision.

My Niece graduates from college this December with her Bachelors. My DSis & DNiece might use their tickets to fly to the Carribean the day after Christmas to celebrate. DSis is a CPA and January to April is her busy season.

So, alls well that ends well!