The AirTran transaction would have been bad under the best of circumstances, as it was a complicated mess.   It was all made worse by AirTran’s unreliable phone system, which tended to generate random hang ups after long holds, so that it took 6-10 trials of listening to long instruction messages and waiting on hold for each of the four rounds of phone calls.  But what made it wholly intolerable was the loud techno-pop muzak blaring into my ear.  AirTran prefers web transactions.  Phone transactions are already punished with a $10 phone fee and a minimum of $20 more on the fare.  Apparently they feel this is not enough and are further reinforcing web use with highly aversive phone experiences.