I apologize for going completely OT with this, but everyone here is so friendly and I'm in the midst of panicking/irritation and was hoping someone would have some advice. I just found out our AirTran flight has been changed and we'll now be leaving 1 1/2 hours later than originally scheduled. I have the option of either accepting this change or receiving a refund. So, I looked into a Southwest flight and found something almost identical to our original AirTran flight for $100 less (for the three of us). But ... DH is completely against the idea of possibly not sitting together. He'd rather pay $100 more and leave later. I realize 1 1/2 hours isn't a huge deal, but that means we now arrive in the afternoon instead of the morning. To me, the Disney freak, it's like losing an entire day!
So, what can you tell me about SW? Will the $10 extra I can pay for each person each way "guarantee" we'll be able to sit together? Someone else told me they won't separate families. Is that true? I should probably mention DD is 16 so it's not like she's a toddler. Anything else you can tell me about SW?
Hi eeyoreland!
Funny you should mention this, because this is very similar to our experience with Airtran. Now, Robyn warned us all against Airtran on this thread last summer, and Teena has expressed frustration with them too, so I should know better. But Airtran had a deal for our February trip that was just too good to pass up. So we took it, and of course, Airtran changed our flight times - and always to reduce our time at WDW, not increase it! So we dropped the Airtran flight and booked Southwest. We did not pay for the seat assignments for our family of 5. Here's why:
In the past, we have flown Southwest from Orlando to home, and we have not paid for seat assignments. We call the BC front desk the morning
before departure and ask them to check us in on Southwest. They do, and because they check us in at or about the 24-hour mark, we are in the "A" boarding group. As a result, it's easy to get seats all together.
Of course, this is not a guarantee, and if you want to be sure you should buy the seat assignments. But we're comfortable enough with the process and the outstanding service from BC that we didn't feel the need. But unlike your family, we do have a child "4 or under" so the worst that could happen is that we board between the A and B groups, so that may make a difference.
I entirely understand your concern about 1.5 hours - this drives me nuts when Airtran makes those changes. It really does impact our schedule for arrival or departure day and our ADRs. The good news is that I haven't had difficulty dropping flights and going to SW when necessary. Just be sure Airtran doesn't charge the change fee - I had to watch my receipts because they have charged change fees when they told me I could change or cancel with no fee. I just call back to fix it, but it's important to double check.
Hope that helps a little!
