30-minute layover on last return flight

[rontu78]

Thanks to whoever said AirTran sometimes changes flight times with no notice to the customer. I checked, and ours was.

The departing flight for my DH and me is unaffected, but we have a layover on the return flights that will be.

AirTran Flight 109 May 11 from MCO was supposed to have departed at 8:50 p.m. and arrive in Atlanta at 10:15 p.m. It now leaves and arrives five minutes later.

Problem is that the second half of that day's trip, the flight from Atlanta to Midway in Chicago (Airtran Flight 30) has been moved from 11:05 p.m. up to 10:50 p.m.

So ... instead of a layover between 10:15 p.m. and 11:05 p.m., our layover in Atlanta is now 10:20 to 10:50. This is also the last flight of the night, so I'm a bit worried.

Since we don't have plans for the next day, it would not really be an inconvenience if we were to get stuck in Atlanta overnight and have to take a flight out the next day at any time, but I've never had this happen to me before. If we are unable to make our connecting flight, does the airline rebook us for free on the next flight home or do we have to make arrangements and pay for them? Do they take care of hotel, transportation to and from the hotel to airport, or provide vouchers for meals? We're flying using points collected from the Wendy's Airtran promotion. Does that mean we're less likely to find a flight back the next day that we can get on? What else might we need to know?

 

[kkmauch]

This happened to me once in Detroit. Not fun.
Here is how NWA handled it...I was caught in Detroit because of NWA, so they offered me a free round trip ticket within the lower 48. They also gave me a voicher for $50 toward a nearby hotel and some vouchers for food in the airport. I took the food vouchers, but just stayed at the airport. My next flight was only about 6 hours away, so I just slept on the chairs in the airport.

 

[safetymom]

I would contact AirTran and see if that is a "legal" connection. If there is any sort of a delay you have missed your flight. A half hour may be too short and you might have to take another flight.

 

[tkldisney]

30 min. is the legal connection time. You should be able to make your flight if all is ontime. If you miss you connection flight because of late arrival then yes they will re-book you on another flight at no charge.
If it happens that the flight they re-book you on is the next day, well it depends on the reason for being late as to whether they pay for hotel room. If being late as anything to do with mother nature then your own your own for hotel, if it's mechanical then they should put you up.

 

[safetymom]

I would still call and see if there is another flight you could be put on. Not much has to happen to miss that flight. They usually close the door 10 mins before departure so you only have 20 mins.

 

[philaround]

I know from experience that all AirTrans gates in Atlanta are very close to each other. Even if the flight you arrive on and the flight you need to depart on are at opposite ends of the AirTrans area you should be able to get from the arrival gate to the departure gate in less then 10 minutes. When we transferred there last May we walked off one plane and got on the connecting flight at the very next gate. We were in the terminal for less then 5 minutes.

 

[safetymom]

Yes they are very close but it does get very crowded so it may take more than 10 mins.

 

[Servants of Evan]

Though it's unlikely to help, you can mention to the flight attendant that your flights were moved and you've got a tight connection. Before they pull up to the jetway the attendant will often request that people whose final destination is Atlanta remain in their seats. Granted, this seems to fall on deaf ears but it might work to get you off the plane a bit faster. Additionally if the pilot knows he or she's got a number of people connecting, they can often radio staff opps and get the connecting gate assignments. The only times I've had this happen though are when that flight is behind schedule and the pilot has been informed that he has a high number of connecting passengers onboard (so don't count on it).

I've never had a problem in Atlanta that late at night. 4-7pm sure, but not after 9pm...

 

[rontu78]

Thanks for all your thoughts on this, everybody. I did call AirTran today to see about being moved to the 7 p.m. flight, but I found out it would have cost me a $50 per person rebooking fee to do so, so I decided not to. DH and I are just going to hope everything runs on time. The AirTran rep did say that all AirTran flights are on the same concourse, but I'm glad to see that thought repeated here. DH says that with all the money we've saved by listening to people on Disboards and going after those discounts (flight was $19 for the two of us thanks to that Wendy's AirTran promotion late last year and we should have two free tickets coming since we signed up for Chase Disney credit cards during that promotion) that if he has to he will gladly pay for us to spend a night in an Atlanta hotel and an extra meal or two. This will be our first real vacation since our honeymoon, and we can't wait!

 

[loveFL]

I'm not sure if they've changed it, but we once had to switch terminals in Atlanta with AirTran (I think it was C to D but its been a while so I'm not sure).

 

[DebbieB]

This happened to me once in Detroit. Not fun.
Here is how NWA handled it...I was caught in Detroit because of NWA, so they offered me a free round trip ticket within the lower 48. They also gave me a voicher for $50 toward a nearby hotel and some vouchers for food in the airport. I took the food vouchers, but just stayed at the airport. My next flight was only about 6 hours away, so I just slept on the chairs in the airport.

You got a free ticket for a missed connection? Or were you bumped (or took a voluntary bump)?

I'm not sure if they've changed it, but we once had to switch terminals in Atlanta with AirTran (I think it was C to D but its been a while so I'm not sure).

I was going to say the same thing, Air Tran has gates on both C & D in Atlanta.