diff --git a/google/cloud/spanner_v1/_opentelemetry_tracing.py b/google/cloud/spanner_v1/_opentelemetry_tracing.py
index 34a95ea906..94722516e0 100644
--- a/google/cloud/spanner_v1/_opentelemetry_tracing.py
+++ b/google/cloud/spanner_v1/_opentelemetry_tracing.py
@@ -200,3 +200,9 @@ def add_event_on_current_span(event_name, attributes=None, span=None):
 
     if span:
         span.add_event(event_name, attributes)
+
+
+def record_span_exception_and_status(span, exc):
+    if span:
+        span.set_status(Status(StatusCode.ERROR, "foo"))
+        span.record_exception(exc)
diff --git a/google/cloud/spanner_v1/session.py b/google/cloud/spanner_v1/session.py
index 5650329653..cedfe5babf 100644
--- a/google/cloud/spanner_v1/session.py
+++ b/google/cloud/spanner_v1/session.py
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 )
 from google.cloud.spanner_v1._opentelemetry_tracing import (
     add_event_on_current_span,
+    record_span_exception_and_status,
     trace_call,
 )
 from google.cloud.spanner_v1.batch import Batch
@@ -431,7 +432,9 @@ def run_in_transaction(self, func, *args, **kw):
 
         observability_options = getattr(self._database, "observability_options", None)
         with trace_call(
-            "CloudSpanner.ReadWriteTransaction", self, observability_options
+            "CloudSpanner.ReadWriteTransaction",
+            self,
+            observability_options=observability_options,
         ) as span:
             while True:
                 if self._transaction is None:
@@ -446,8 +449,11 @@ def run_in_transaction(self, func, *args, **kw):
 
                 attempts += 1
 
-                txn_id = getattr(txn, "_transaction_id", None) or ""
-                span_attributes = {"transaction.id": txn_id, "attempt": attempts}
+                txn_id = getattr(txn, "_transaction_id", "") or ""
+                span_attributes = {"attempt": attempts}
+                if txn_id:
+                    span_attributes["transaction.id"] = txn_id
+
                 add_event_on_current_span("Using Transaction", span_attributes, span)
 
                 try:
@@ -458,6 +464,7 @@ def run_in_transaction(self, func, *args, **kw):
                         delay_seconds = _get_retry_delay(exc.errors[0], attempts)
                         attributes = dict(delay_seconds=delay_seconds)
                         attributes.update(span_attributes)
+                        record_span_exception_and_status(span, exc)
                         add_event_on_current_span(
                             "Transaction was aborted, retrying", attributes, span
                         )