AirTran? Usually fly Jet Blue.

[gigicnm]

We usually fly Jet Blue out of Boston/Logan. Their fares just came out and are much higher than Air Tran's. I know I have to pay for baggage on AirTran, but that doesn't come close to the price difference.

Anyone have experience flying AirTran? Should I wait a little longer to see if Jet Blue's prices come down? We're just at the six month mark.

Thanks,
Gigi

 

[Girlie1]

I had the same delimma here in CT. We are flying out of White Plains NY and our trip is scheduled 4/10-4/17. I flew Air Tran once before but typically fly Jet Blue. Well for this trip JetBlue's prices were 3x Air Tran prices when I booked last month. It was really a no brainer. I love JetBlue but I would not pay $3,200 for roundtrip airfare for the 4 of us.

 

[Anglefan]

I just flew AirTran a few weeks ago. What difference does it make which airline you fly? None of them crash. You just sit there in a seat waiting. It's all the same. So just so for the cheapest one, right?

 

[OhMari]

We use Airtran to fly out of Milwaukee.
I usually check in at the 24 hour mark, and good seats are usually open in the front of the plane. Seats start at row 10. If you want to upgrade to Business Class, do it at check-in counter, it is a lot cheaper.

 

[twinklebug]

I've never flown JetBlue (usually SW) but can tell you the crews are wonderful and our flights with them have been excellent (well maintained aircraft, professional and lighthearted crew, great pilot). Do note however, the seat width and legroom will be different than on JB - be sure to check out www.searguru.com to make sure you're aware of the differences.

I doubt you'll miss the video screens if you bring something for the kids to do. It's nice to get the kids away from the video sitters anyway

Now, after two flights with them, would I fly with Airtrain again? Yes, if it meant a ton of money being saved. BUT - I had a seat both times that had a metal box bolted on the floor smack where my feet usually go and with long legs I had less wiggle room to reach down to my bag, infact the kid in front of me decided his seat was a pony and started rocking it back into my knees on one trip (Ow.) I was counting the seconds until we landed (both times)

 

[Alexander]

I just flew AirTran a few weeks ago. What difference does it make which airline you fly? None of them crash. You just sit there in a seat waiting. It's all the same. So just so for the cheapest one, right?

Difference between AirTran and JetBlue in my opinion is huge. AirTran has absolutely no leg room. The seat in front of you is practically in your lap (you oughta try this with a lap infant). There is no form of entertainment and they have the regular cloth seats (yuck). JetBlue has plenty of leg room and you can pay for more if you want it. There is DirectTV in every leather seat. So, yes, there is a huge difference in these two airlines. I have flown both and would fly JetBlue over any of the other carriers. With that being said, we do fly AirTran because they offer the direct flights we want and usually at a cheaper price than JetBlue. But it is certainly not "all the same".

 

[maman_et_fille]

we usually do JB as well, but flew AT last month. I appreciated the free and unlimited snacks/drinks, which I wasn't expecting. Found the legroom to be slightly less, but was not too bad for the 2.5 hr flight.
The negatives were
1. they changed our flight times which was really inconvenient. I assume that could happen w/ any airline, but it has never happened to us before.
2. Many people are unwilling to pay the checked baggage fee and carry on their wheeled suitcases, which means it takes much longer to load and unload the plane, esp. as the overhead bins fill up.
3. no pre-boarding for passengers with children
4. hard to check-in for the return flight right at the 24 hour mark b/c of our plans that day and we were lucky to get the last three seats together in the plane - in the very back row

I found the staff to be very friendly and didn't miss the TVs too much, as I usually can't listen anyway b/c I'm dealing with DD3. It actually worked out better to use the DVD player since it was a much longer show, no commercials, etc. Watched one movie and played and ate the rest of the time.

So if the price is right . . .

 

[Anglefan]

Well, AirTran has wireless and you could just pull up Hulu on your laptop and watch whatever you want the whole flight. They also have free XM radio. As far as the leg room, I have very long legs (I'm a male) and didn't have any problems.

 

[twinklebug]

<snip>

The negatives were
1. they changed our flight times which was really inconvenient. I assume that could happen w/ any airline, but it has never happened to us before.

Excellent point - Airtran is notorious for changing flight times and even switching flights on folk. I found it very unsettling to have to be concerned about the changes they might make (luckily our flight was only moved by less than an hour both times)

OK, looking at this some more has me saying, "No, I think I'd rather drive." I'm just kidding ... but not really.

 

[Hoopfamily]

We love JB, but flew Airtran because of price out of Logan last year. We liked them well enough. We would do JB again though as long as the price is right.
I found Airtran to be very customer service oriented.

 

[PSUGuy]

We,ve used AT three times, JB once. The 'extras' JB provide are nice, I agree with Alexander's critique, but I wouldn't pay a lot more to get them. What's 'a lot'? We flew direct, RT from PHL to MCO last month for $302.00 TOTAL, that's for both of us, on AT. I wouldn't pay more than another $25 each to get the JB goodies. BTW it was on our one JB flight that we saw from the window the Dolphin and Spaceship Earth as we arrived.

Bill From PA

 

[Alexander]

We,ve used AT three times, JB once. The 'extras' JB provide are nice, I agree with Alexander's critique, but I wouldn't pay a lot more to get them. What's 'a lot'? We flew direct, RT from PHL to MCO last month for $302.00 TOTAL, that's for both of us, on AT. I wouldn't pay more than another $25 each to get the JB goodies. BTW it was on our one JB flight that we saw from the window the Dolphin and Spaceship Earth as we arrived.

Bill From PA

My kids would have been thrilled! Every single time we fly into MCO (usually 3-4 times a year) they are breaking their necks trying to see WDW. I always tell them that we don't fly directly over it and they won't be able to see it from the plane. My oldest DS has even concluded that he should be able to see Everest because it is so much taller than most things in WDW! Nope--still couldn't see it!

 

[PSUGuy]

My kids would have been thrilled! Every single time we fly into MCO (usually 3-4 times a year) they are breaking their necks trying to see WDW. I always tell them that we don't fly directly over it and they won't be able to see it from the plane. My oldest DS has even concluded that he should be able to see Everest because it is so much taller than most things in WDW! Nope--still couldn't see it!

We were sitting on the left, it was a crystal clear morning around 9:30 am or so in early March 2008 and it was actually the tourquoise pyramid shape of Dolphin that caught my eye first, I found SE, if memory serves, to our right of Dolphin. It's the only time we ever saw anything clearly 'Disney' from a plane in 10 or 11 tries.

Bill From PA

 

[n2mm]

Difference between AirTran and JetBlue in my opinion is huge. AirTran has absolutely no leg room. The seat in front of you is practically in your lap (you oughta try this with a lap infant). There is no form of entertainment and they have the regular cloth seats (yuck). JetBlue has plenty of leg room and you can pay for more if you want it. There is DirectTV in every leather seat. So, yes, there is a huge difference in these two airlines. I have flown both and would fly JetBlue over any of the other carriers. With that being said, we do fly AirTran because they offer the direct flights we want and usually at a cheaper price than JetBlue. But it is certainly not "all the same".

Agree.

We have flown both, but prefer Jetblue hands down. Yes, we would pay extra, but not a ton more. $21 more on Jetblue makes it even with Airtran for the same price of the flights ($15 for your bag, and $6 to get assigned seating) per person. Keep that in mind what choosing. We like the extra leg room and direct TV of Jetblue. We also like having extra overhead space since the first bag is free. However, we did fly Airtran twice last year and had no real problem with them either. The seats are closer together than Jetblue, but not a deal breaker. The deal breaker now and the reason I don't fly Airtran anymore is the luggage fee, the seat assignment fee, and the constant changing of times and canceling flights and not notifiying you. I had to monitor my upcoming flights on Airtran and when the BOTH disappeared I finally called. Even after checking my account, it was showing both flights were still there. After calling I found out both had been cancelled and they said they would've contact me as my flight date got closer -- because I was so alert to the change, I did manage to get us on another flight down, but the flight home was a connecting flight, so I cancelled that one flight and the customer rep was very nice and refunded all of my money for our 7 tickets. Luckily for me I have 4 airlines that fly non-stop out of Dulles (SW/JB/AT/UAL) so I generally get decent prices and the carriers try to compete with one another, making us the flyers the real winners.

 

[gigicnm]

Thank you for all of your input. The price difference between AT and JB is more than $400, so it seems we'll go with AT. The flight times aren't as good, but the price makes up for that. I keep checking JB hoping they'll drop their prices.

 

[auntee]

We just flew Airtran in aug and Jetblue never came close to the price.Book with Airtran and have a great flight.