Where do you complain about poor treatment of pregnant people?

[Anonymous]

So I have a customer service issue. Lovely Air Tran airlines won't accommodate my use of a travel voucher and basically said they don't care if you're 9 months pregnant or if you can fly with a newborn baby. I'm pissed for multiple reasons: one is that they wouldn't let me use the voucher in the past when it was neither a holiday nor a weekend and basically said for weekday travel nothing was available. At that point they also said I can extend the voucher for 1 year. Well now they said no, we extend for 3 months, so basically I need to book a trip by end Nov. which means the baby would 1 week old. Brilliant. And you can't transfer the voucher to your husband or anyone else.

This is BS, they won't transfer you to someone more senior to at least get a complaint out. I'm pissed, this is just not cool and I'm sick and tired of hearing a rehearsed response from these customer service people. So what do you do? Bureau of better business? Contact the press?

[Anonymous]

You should write a letter to the president of Air Tran. I've done this a couple of times (Comcast and issues with a Mortgage Company where I had been going back and forth for months). Anyhow obviously the president won't read your letter, but someone in their office that actually cares does read it. I've been able to get the issues resolved within a week of sending both letters. Just spell out the facts of what happened clearly and someone high up enough will hopefully resolve your issue quickly. Just be sure to tell them that you've tried numerous times to deal with the customer service reps, but they have been no help. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

I'm confused. Air Tran said b/c you're 9 mo. pregnant you can't use the voucher? If so, that is actually not that uncommon because many airlines don't want to be liable for an unexpected birth on a plane.

Also, how long have you had the voucher. Most vouchers usually expire in 6 mo. and Air Tran even extended it by 3 mo. which, from my experience with the stingy-airlines, is relatively generous.

Sorry, I don't mean to be harsh, but I'm not sure why this is a problem with Air Tran. It just sounds like you're too late using this voucher and due to being pregnant/newborn baby soon you are sorta at a "use or lose" situation. A tough dilemma, but not really Air Tran's problem (and no, vouchers very rarely are transferrable - it should say that in fine print).

[Anonymous]

I am sorry, but I am totally confused by your post. Is the situation that you can't use it now because you are pregnant, and want to use it later? What is throwing me is the "they don't care if you are 9 months pregnant." Do you want to fly pregnant and they won't let you?

Maybe I am slow.

[Anonymous]

I was also confused by the post.

[Anonymous]

You've got 3 confused PPs.

Care to clarify?...misery loves company

[Anonymous]

OP here, sorry about the confusion. I am 9 months pregnant right now and my voucher is about to expire. The issues is not that they won't let me fly, but I am not planning on flying anywhere in the last month of my pregnancy or the first few months with a newborn.

Airtran told me months ago I can extend my voucher by a year (at that point I was 4 months pregnant and tried to use the voucher but there were no seats available on those flights for vouchers) and the Airtran person said I should call back a few weeks before expiration to extend it.

Well I called back now, and they said sorry, we can extend it for 3 months. That's not helpful, b/c I'm not going to fly anywhere in the next 3 months. And they said (of course) that I can't transfer the voucher to anyone else.

The customer service folks were plain rude basically and said use it or lose it. (Btw, I got the voucher b/c they canceled the flight I had booked originally 5 times!!!) They also wouldn't connect me to anyone more senior or tell me where else I could complain.

[Anonymous]

Try sending an email through their website to customer service. Honestly, I have had much better luck with that than with dealing with the people on the phone at most airlines. They are trained not to give you a response other than what the script says and not to send you to management. I would definitely point out that you spoke with someone about this months ago and that you relied on that advice to your detriment. If that doesn't work, try the TSA. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

It's not the airline's fault that you're pregnant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not the airline's fault that you're pregnant.

Not the airlines fault that you are pregnant or that you waited so long to use the voucher. Maybe sell it or have a family member watch the baby while you take a weekend trip somewhere?

I am not trying to be mean in the least but poor planning on your part does not constitute and emergency on their part. They have an expiration date for a reason. The circumstancs surrounding the reasons that you cannot use it are not their problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not the airline's fault that you're pregnant.

I agree. I assume you've had the voucher for awhile. It's not really Air Tran's problem that you waited so long to use it. Sure it sucks that now you are too pregnant to fly and able to use it so you have a choice to use or lose it (I think another PP already said that).

Poor planning. I understand how frustrating it is that the airline gave you false hope that the voucher could get extended for another year, but only gave you 3 month extension instead. Be sure to get those things in writing or a person's name you spoke with (and a confirmation number) for the next time.

Also, very rarely are vouchers transferrable so I don't think you can sway the airline with that argument.

[Anonymous]

Not transferable so you can't sell it.

It's not the airlines fault I'm pregnant, but you're missing the point here. Without going into too many details I tried to use it multiple times and every time I wanted to I couldn't because of capacity control, so poor planning on my part is way off.

At some point you as a customer need to have some options too.

[Anonymous]

You can complain about not being able to use the voucher -- but how far in advance did you try to plan your trips? Usually to use a voucher you need to plan and purchase your ticket several months in advance, and forget travel around any major holidays. The airline was accomodating by giving you a 3 month extension, and you can complain that you got bad advice from a customer service rep. However, I see nothing here that implies that you received poor treatment because you were pregnant.

[Anonymous]

I'm also a little confused by what the timeline actually is. The way most vouchers work, you redeem them when you book the flight. But the actual departure day of the flight can be many months into the future. In fact, as other PPs have pointed out, it usually is -- airlines only set aside a small handful of seats on each flight for vouchers/FF mile redemption, etc.

Why not call and use the voucher to book next summer's vacation? You won't be pregnant, your baby will be at his smiliest and everyone will come out ahead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not transferable so you can't sell it.

It's not the airlines fault I'm pregnant, but you're missing the point here. Without going into too many details I tried to use it multiple times and every time I wanted to I couldn't because of capacity control, so poor planning on my part is way off.

At some point you as a customer need to have some options too.

Well, if every date you wanted to fly was already booked because of capacity control, couldn't you just ask the airlines what dates/seats were available?

As you are finding out, vouchers are a pain. The don't transfer, there is a usually a 6 mo. use-or-lose deadline, and they are tough to redeem because airlines typically don't block off seats for potential-voucher-redemption.