Air Tran Questions?

[mom2prettyprincess]

Our September trip will be our 1st time flying with Air Tran & I have a few questions...

1. With the 24hr online check-in how does that work...Do you print your boarding passes off on your home computer?

2. Can you still check in online if you have baggage/carseat you are going to check?

3. How likely is it that if I don't buy seat assignments myself & my 4yr old will not get seated togther?

4. If you do the 24 check in do you just check you luggage with the sky cap @ the terminal drop off?

Thanks for answering, I am trying to get a few things worked out b4 we go!

 

[Inkmahm]

Our September trip will be our 1st time flying with Air Tran & I have a few questions...

1. With the 24hr online check-in how does that work...Do you print your boarding passes off on your home computer?

2. Can you still check in online if you have baggage/carseat you are going to check?

3. How likely is it that if I don't buy seat assignments myself & my 4yr old will not get seated togther?

4. If you do the 24 check in do you just check you luggage with the sky cap @ the terminal drop off?

Thanks for answering, I am trying to get a few things worked out b4 we go!

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Do you want to risk having your 4 year old sit alone? Buy the seat assignment.
4. Yes, if that service is available.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

As far as the seat assignment. Don't waste the money to buy a seat.
You can ask the gate agent to seat you next to your child. I flew home with a terrible migraine this past Feb and my husband ask the gate agent if we could sit together and they said sure.
Besides I can't see a total stranger wanting to fly home next to your child so I am sure someone would be willing to change seats with you.
Don't waste the money use it for Disney!

 

[mitsybella]

If you did not use the $25 coupon get some and use it for the seat assignment, if you have not booked yet use kayak.com and get free seat assignments, I have a 3 and 5 yr old and would not want to risk not sitting with them, even if I had to pay the $6 it would be worth it to make sure I was next to them

 

[uva185]

As far as the seat assignment. Don't waste the money to buy a seat.
You can ask the gate agent to seat you next to your child. I flew home with a terrible migraine this past Feb and my husband ask the gate agent if we could sit together and they said sure.
Besides I can't see a total stranger wanting to fly home next to your child so I am sure someone would be willing to change seats with you.
Don't waste the money use it for Disney!

Oh yeah, I'm sure the man that paid for his seat assignments weeks ago would be happy to switch to acomodate you and your family.

OP, don't risk it! There are plenty of people that have gotten seats together at online check-in but there are plenty who haven't. Would you really want to rely on a total stranger to switch seats?? (Especially if all the remaining seats at the 24 hour mark are middle seats) I'll tell you right now I would not switch from an aisle to a middle seat.

Buy the seat assignment, the price you pay will be worth the peace of mind you will have between now and your flight.

 

[kevgraub]

Here is my thought on the seating assignments.

Since there are only two of you, you probably will be able to get seats together if you check in 24 hours ahead of time. No guarantees, but it will probably happen.

On the other hand, if you sit down and look at what it will cost you to fly down and pay for a vacation at Disney World, is another $24 really worth the stress wondering if it will work out?

I know for us, the total cost of our trip is about $3,000. It was well worth it to us to pay $3,048 to be assured of sitting together toward the front of the plane. To me, not having to make sure I'm on the computer exactly 24 hours ahead of time and the fact of knowing that we are already assigned seats together are worth the extra money. (Actually, we only had to pay for seat assignments on the way home as I learned of kayak.com before I booked our trip down to WDW and got them for free on that leg of the trip.)

If the money is really tight, and you don't want to try and squeeze the $24 for seat guarantees out of of the budget, then you will probably be fine. But understand that there is no guarantee you will sit together.

 

[mrscoobs]

When you do check in online in order and select the amount of bags your checking remember that if you are going to check the carseat that it is a service item so that you do not get charged to check it.

 

[Inkmahm]

I'll tell you right now I would not switch from an aisle to a middle seat.

Buy the seat assignment, the price you pay will be worth the peace of mind you will have between now and your flight.

I wouldn't switch, either. Not a chance.

 

[scootch]

Before you had to buy the seat assignments, I flew airtran. I was put in with three seats together... did not get them. Noone would change with us.... and thus, we had to sit in the very last row, only thing left. It was awful!! People were down right rude, they were in their seat, comfortable and that was it. Spend the $12 and get your seats!

 

[Mouseaholic!!!]

I wouldn't switch, either. Not a chance.

DH and I will be booking a one-way Air Tran flight - BWI - LAX today (coming back on a Southwest reward ticket.)

Anyway, we (hopefully they will not change it) will be on a non-stop --- long flight. The coach configuration is 3 and 2 --- we will book seats together on the "two" side...and yes, we are investing a whopping $12 to sit together.

For us, it's worth the $12 to sit together and I doubt we will be switching for someone who was not willing to put up the extra $6. The other reason....I'm always sound asleep immediately after we sit down....I'll probably be dreaming about my DL holiday while they are asking someone to switch.

They way I look at it......

If sitting together is important, pay the $6 p/seat. If you are willing to wait until checking and HOPE you wll sit together.....face the music if you don't. Don't turn around and ask someone who DID make a decision to pay the extra fee...to forgo it because you were willing to take a chance.

 

[Alderbrook]

I am travelling in Sept on AirTran with my parents, husband & 3 yr old son. We paid for our seat assignments. I would not split up my family so you could sit with your son. I paid $6 a person so I could sit with my family, why should anyone else suffer because you refused to pay $24??

 

[mom2prettyprincess]

Thanks for all your responses.....although I didn't ask anyone if they would be willing to move if I didn't pay the $12 for the seat assignments. I can see how one poster said people were down right rude...that being said you must have been on a flight with some of the people that posted on this thread.

If you read my question it asked what the likelyhood that we wouldn't get seated togther...not would you move if I didn't get 2 seats togther.

But thanks to everyone who responded to the questions I did ask!!

 

[Inkmahm]

Thanks for all your responses.....although I didn't ask anyone if they would be willing to move if I didn't pay the $12 for the seat assignments. I can see how one poster said people were down right rude...that being said you must have been on a flight with some of the people that posted on this thread.

If you read my question it asked what the likelyhood that we wouldn't get seated togther...not would you move if I didn't get 2 seats togther.

But thanks to everyone who responded to the questions I did ask!!

So you think it is rude for people who paid for their seats not to move for those who didn't pay to be able to sit together? Really?

 

[crashbb]

So you think it is rude for people who paid for their seats not to move for those who didn't pay to be able to sit together? Really?

Frankly, I think expecting people to move (as the PP clearly did - otherwise she wouldn't be complaining about people not moving) is far ruder. Obviously, sitting together wasn't very important to her (not worth $18), so why should it be important to anyone else?

OP - Honestly, it is hard to give you an idea of how likely it would be to get two seats together without paying for them. It all depends on how full your flight is, how many people have paid for their seats, and how close to the 24 hour mark you check in. What you can do, is continue to monitor the flight and seats available for check-in. If there continues to be many seats available AND you can check in right at 24 hours, you stand a good chance of getting two seats together (though, there are no guarantees). If the number of available seats starts to dwindle, you may want to pay to pre-select your seats.

 

[snoopy5386]

I believe FAA rules require a child under 5 to be seated with a parent.

 

[dudspizza]

DW and I flew to LAS a month or so ago. I watched the flight closely and if it looked to be filling up, I was ready to purchase seats. It turned out that we were able to get seats at the 24 hr mark without paying for them, so all worked out...... that said, we were willing to take the chance of sitting apart... after all, it was just 2 adults. With 1 adult and 1 child there is no way I am taking the chance of being separated... I personally pay the fee and book my seats in advance... OP, you ask what are the chances... well, there is chance you could be seated together, there is a chance you could not.

I had some friends book via Disney World on Air Tran and could not get advanced seat assignments.. they could only get them at check in at the airport. I highly advised them to get to the airport early, but they only arrived 1.5 hours early to find there were no seats together. They had to plead with the other passengers to get them to move. This was before paying for seating, now that people have to pay, they are less willing to move.

My advice, pay the small fee and have peace of mind that you are seated together! It will be the best money you spend all trip. It isn't worth the stress!

Duds

 

[MariDisney]

I paid $36 round trip to sit with my family. I would not happily switch with you. We'd sit next to your 4 year old if need be, rather than switch.

 

[crashbb]

I believe FAA rules require a child under 5 to be seated with a parent.

Not true. In fact, the FAA doesn't have any rules about a child flying without their parents on the plane at all.

 

[toledo13]

Here's another AirTran seat assignment question...

I bought a seat assignment, but just got an email that our "FLIGHT SCHEDULE HAS CHANGED", so basically we're leaving 2 hours later now than originally planned. Can we....

1- get out of it? Can we get a refund because of this change?

2- keep our same seat assignments if we keep the new flight time???

I've never flown AirTran before!!

 

[KLL]

I had my return flight changed by AirTran about three weeks ago due to the nonstop flight being cancelled. They changed me to a one stop flight. I called and changed to an earlier nonstop flight. Since I had prepaid for our seats, I was able to select seats on the new flight. I actually got better seats than I had on the orginal flight. I had looked on their website as to what flights were available and also checked their seating chart for available seats on the flight I wanted.

So, when your flight changes you need to call AirTran if it is not to your satisfaction. Have the flight and seat information up on your computer so you are prepared to make a new flight and seat selections. Good luck!