Air Tran vs Southwest

[npmommie]

Having never flown Air Tran I am wondering if there are any big complaints with them?
we usually use southwest, but air tran flights are so much cheaper, about a total savings of $250 vs south west.
but it mean flying out of Logan instead of tf green.
green is so easy, haven't been to logan in years.
and parking is a little more in boston too, I think about $30 more for the week.

 

[disfan07]

biggest issue ive had with them is the flight time changes.

Our flight changed 6 times in a 3 month period. We went from a direct flight getting us in at like 10AM to a lfight with a later takeoff and a 4 1/2 hour layover that ended up getting us in there at 4 PM.

Also, personally, i think that service overall is better on southwest. Ive never had bad flight attendants and in over 20 southwest flights, ive only run into 1 bad gate employee.

Unfortunately i cant say the same for airtran.....on almost every flight (id say about 12 flights) ive had at least one terrible flight attendant and pretty lousy gate agents. but thats just my experience.

if you dont mind the possiblity of major flight time changes than for that difference it might be worth it.

 

[freewill]

OP, thanks for asking this question as we are in the same quandary about taking SW from TF Green in Providence vs saving couple hundred bucks with Airtran out of Logan. We've never had any problems in our flights with SW out of Green and find the parking and airport just much easier to deal with. But I can handle a little more inconvenience at the airport if Airtran saves us over $200 (even after factoring in their baggage and seat reservation fees).

But I have seen so many posts about Airtran changing schedules that I'm feeling scared to book them. A change from a direct flight to a connecting flight with a long layover would just not be acceptable. Would really be interested to hear from people who have had Airtran flight schedule changes when flying out of Boston's Logan airport.

 

[wezee]

We flew Airtran last October, with no problems. Our flight only changed once...about a 10min. change for our direct flight. I would be flying them in March but the fares and flight times have not been great, plus I will only fly non-stop. Since Southhwest does not have any non-stop flights out of Detroit and their prices are high....we will be flying Spirit, in March for $77.00 each way. I'm always willing to try an airline once, especially for a substanial savings.

 

[Buzz's Buddy]

I've flown Air Tran numerous times and never had any problems.

I know they have issues with changing flight times, but I usually fly out of Philadelphia and have only had a flight change one time. It was only a minor change, but the good thing is they are very accomodating about switching you to another flight if necessary, even if that flight was more expensive than the one you booked.

The other nice thing about Air Tran is that if you are staying on property, you'll be able to check your luggage and get your boarding passes at the resort. It is so nice not to worry about your luggage when you get to the airport.

If you choose to book with AirTran, go to Kayak.com and link to Air Tran's site from there. When you book your flight, you'll be able to reserve your seats for free.

 

[Darcy03231]

I flew Airtran the beginning of the month and had no issues at all. Our return flight time changed to a time that wasn't convenient to us. I called and was changed to a different flight at a more convenient time (actually it was the flight I originally wanted but it was more money). I found their customer service agents to be very accomodating.

I will say that the flights were very full and if you need to sit together make sure you buy your seat assignments. There were some very unhappy families who were separated because they didn't pay for their seats.

 

[Missytara]

I also have exclusively flown Airtran to the World my last few trips and have never once had a flight change or a delayed flight, etc. The gate agents and the crews have always been great.

My flights this year were cheaper than Southwest, even with the baggage fee. And I like the fact that I can use RAC with Airtran at a Mod or Deluxe resort.

In addition, I like the fact that I can choose my seats and if you go through kayak.com, as a PP stated, they waive the seat fee.

 

[jobie61]

I'd pick Airtran over Southwest anyday, I can't stand the cattle call at the gate. Checking in at the 24 hr in order to get an A pass when you are in Disney, just plans stinks. I fly Airtran out of Philly and never had any issues. Great Flights, Great Trips.

 

[freewill]

How much less room do you have on AirTran than on SW? I'm seeing seat pitch of 30" on AirTran and 32-34" on SW -- but not sure exactly what those numbers mean in real life.

Thanks

 

[dburg30]

I like SW, I've really only flown SW since we started going places. I have no problems with them at all. Some people dont like their boarding, I dont mind it. Line up, go in order, find a seat, sit down.

I would consider AT, and really the only 'problems' I've read about is they sometimes change flight times, change non-stops to layovers in ATL etc. And I think that varies more depending on where the flight is starting at.

I would say you'd be fine on either carrier..

 

[poohbear8]

My experience with AT was last year in Oct. They changed my flight (from a nonstop to a layover in ATL) and did send an email to tell me. It completely messed up out vacation, since we had tickets to view a shuttle launch.

I called them and had to speak with a supervisor who finally moved me to a day earlier, non stop for the same price.

If it's a great deal and when I arrived didn't matter, I would consider flying with them again. If my time is tight, then I wouldn't want to risk it

 

[DisneyFanSince71]

I'd pick Airtran over Southwest anyday, I can't stand the cattle call at the gate. Checking in at the 24 hr in order to get an A pass when you are in Disney, just plans stinks. I fly Airtran out of Philly and never had any issues. Great Flights, Great Trips.

If you can't stand the "cattle call" how do you handle the lines once you get to Disney?

 

[npmommie]

I don't know what we are going to do yet.
dh wants to just fly SW out of Green, its simple and easy. park walk into the terminal. easy to get around.
Air Tran is so much cheaper though, but it also means a nonstop on the way down, but one stop on the flight home changing planes in baltimore.

but the savings is enough to make that worth it to me, but to him that coupled with dealing with logan and the parking he wants to pay the higher price for SW.
he is also afraid of flight changes,
he said someone he works with got stuck with a change with Air Tran and a layover.

 

[Sammy]

I don't know what we are going to do yet.
dh wants to just fly SW out of Green, its simple and easy. park walk into the terminal. easy to get around.
Air Tran is so much cheaper though, but it also means a nonstop on the way down, but one stop on the flight home changing planes in baltimore.

but the savings is enough to make that worth it to me, but to him that coupled with dealing with logan and the parking he wants to pay the higher price for SW.
he is also afraid of flight changes,
he said someone he works with got stuck with a change with Air Tran and a layover.

LOL...we must be married to the same guy. I can fly AirTran out of Logan for much less than SWA out of Manchester, NH. But, DH HATES going to Logan and would much rather pay the extra $$ from MHT. Unfortunately, the price difference is over $500 for 6 of us, so he's going to have to suck it up this time!

 

[pbmouseman]

I can't speak for the benefits of tf green vs. Logan. For me the difference is Midway for Southwest vs. Milwaukee for Airtran (although Frontier is a partner of Airtran and it flies out of MDW).

I'll usually pay extra to avoid SW. I don't care for the cattle call and when I travel with kids that are too old for the early boarding, but too young for me to want them sitting next to a stranger, I don't like the risk of getting into the C boarding group just because I didn't do my online check in soon enough.

I've had flight changes with Airtran, but nothing that put me in more than one hour later than my originally planned arrival, so that's not a problem. The service has always been fine, and I like the benefit of having XM Radio to listen to on the plane (it's a small thing, but it makes the flight go faster when I can listen to CNN or Fox News, and my kids like to listen to Radio Disney).

Oh, and if you are staying at a Disney Resort and using DME, you are limited in your ability to do Resort Airline Checkin with SWA (at least for now).

That's my $.02.

 

[Inkmahm]

I have not flown SW yet but I fly Airtran quite often out of Milwaukee. You can use the frequent flight time changes to your advantage. Book a flight that you can live with at a cheaper price and wait for them to change it. Then you can request to be moved to the flight you REALLY wanted and the change will be made for free. Just be sure you can live with the original flight if by some wild chance they don't actually change the flight time for you.

My only other concern with Airtran is that when they change planes, the seat assignments tend to get all messed up. Just had to fix another one last night for a flight in March. I booked us in exit row seats paying $20 each to get them. The plan changed and our row was no longer the exit row. I had to manually change our seats to the new exit row. There was no charge, of course, since I'd already paid the $40 for the two of us. BUT, with the plane change, we weren't notified and we had NO assigned seats until I happened to notice that our seats were missing from the reservation.

I try to check our Airtran reservations at least a couple times each week to make sure they haven't changed without notification.

 

[npmommie]

LOL...we must be married to the same guy. I can fly AirTran out of Logan for much less than SWA out of Manchester, NH. But, DH HATES going to Logan and would much rather pay the extra $$ from MHT. Unfortunately, the price difference is over $500 for 6 of us, so he's going to have to suck it up this time!

I think mine is going to have to deal with it too, the cost difference is just too much!! I think with the discount coupons it will end up being close to $450 for us saved.

thanks for all the info. I have never had any problems with SW but it always stresses me to make sure I get that A boarding pass!

 

[sters]

How do the cancellation policies at SW v AT stack up? My mom flies SW all the time and swears they have the most generous cancellation policy of any airline.

Does Air Tran charge for checked bags?

 

[3kidz4dis]

I think mine is going to have to deal with it too, the cost difference is just too much!! I think with the discount coupons it will end up being close to $450 for us saved.

I was just curious on where you get coupons for Air Tran?

 

[tjmw2727]

I am going back and forth this time on AT vs SWA as well. For Easter week on paper Air Tran looks much cheaper but when you add in the seat selection fee and the bag fee x3 people it gets much closer.

I like the cancellation/change policy with SWA and don't mind open seating - (I actually like it).

Would love to hear more comments on the seat changes, time changes and cancellations that I have been reading about from the AT folks, myth or truth?