Word: flighted
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...August, AirTran moved the departure time of its Orlando-to-Atlanta flight back by five minutes. Doesn't sound like much, but a five-minute delay in arrival in Atlanta meant the Gibsons had just 26 minutes to make their connecting flight - too short a window to be permitted. Therefore, Airtran's system automatically moved the family to an earlier flight to allow more than 30 minutes between flights...
...move was a surprise to the Gibsons, who had called Airtran's automated phone line the night before to confirm the departure time of their original flight...
...family called the airline to get an explanation and was told simply that they had been moved to an earlier flight and that even though their original 6:11 p.m. flight was still on the schedule (and not full, according to a check of the website, which showed seats for sale), the family could not be moved back...
...Outcome: Gibson thinks that her family getting booted to an earlier flight was about one thing: cash. She suspects that AirTran moved her to the earlier, less-desirable - and cheaper, by $120 per ticket - flight in order to free up seats and sell pricier tickets on her original flight...
...Between August and December, AirTran continued to shift its flight times, including those of the original flights the Gibsons had booked, which again allowed for sufficient connection time in Atlanta. Unfortunately, the same automated system that moved the family to the earlier flight failed to move them back to their original flight. A rep for AirTran says "there really is no answer" as to why the system didn't respond...