AirTran and Southwest Merging

[larryz]

What will this do to YOUR plans to fly to WDW? Since these are the two deepest discounters to Orlando, how will YOUR travel plans fare?

I foresee two effects -- NO BAGGAGE FEES on AirTran (Yay!)
and no more Boeing 717's in the fleet (boo!).

What effects do YOU see?

Apologies for the duplicate thread, but I started this one on the Theme Parks Planning board to see what people expect over there...

 

[Suellen]

I see a cheap option flying out of Portland Maine. Hoping that we see more SW policy than Airtran policy since I refuse to fly Airtran.

Come on SW!

 

[hollylu1016]

DFi just said that SW was the one who bought out Airtran...so they SHOULD be sticking with the no baggage fees!! hooray!

 

[Robo]

Hoping that we see more SW policy than Airtran policy...

Since SWA is the entity making the acquisition, that would makes sense.

 

[Tinkh]

I hate Airtran, so I am glad to see that they will be absorbed by SW.

 

[Hoosier37]

We are scheduled to fly out of Indianapolis on AirTran next March for WDW, tickets already paid for...so what is going to happen if the merger has taken place by then???

NM - a little more Google research showed that they don't plan on this merger taking effect until 2012, if approved, and until then both airlines will operate as normal.

 

[Taja]

An article on MSNBC.com said that when operations are fully blended in 2012 SWA will discontinue the AirTran baggage fees.

It really won't affect me, for the most part. I'm not sure if AirTran even serves the western US! *LOL*

Edited to add:

According to the same article, the merger probably won't be approved until some time in the first half of 2011.

 

[mom2rtk]

I hope that with SW's big low fare competitor GONE from Orlando, it doesn't mean the fares will edge up. But that does often happen in the absence of competition.

 

[Brae's Mom]

I see a cheap option flying out of Portland Maine. Hoping that we see more SW policy than Airtran policy since I refuse to fly Airtran.

Come on SW!

That would be great as that is where we fly from.

 

[bytheblood]

I hope this makes the competition stop charging so much for baggage. This is why we always fly SW.

 

[Suellen]

I hope that with SW's big low fare competitor GONE from Orlando, it doesn't mean the fares will edge up. But that does often happen in the absence of competition.

Funny I don't see Airtran as competition for SW at all.

Not in our market anyway.

A. We have to drive to Manchester for SWA
B. Airtran charges for bags AND to sit next to your family members (even if they are really little)
C. Airtran flights are expensive for nonstop flights and 90% of the time miraculously become NOT nonstop and then you paid primo for a flight that now has a stop anyway.

So I can drive 12 miles to fly Airtran or 90 miles to fly SW and I would make the drive every time.

So for the same dates I can fly SWA for 257.00 nonstop both ways
Airtran ~ 240.00 with 1 stop each way.

If I want to sit next to my 3 and 5 year old I have to pay an extra $6 each way for the 4 of us to pick seats. Airtran is now 264.00 and I get no bags.

Really there is no competition there in my book. But as I said that may just be my market.

If I am flying a low cost airline I want low cost. Flew the whole family (4 of us) round trip non stop on Spirit for $222.00 brought one checked bag and total the flight cost us $252.00 so basically 63/pp round trip. Now THAT is competition for SW.

 

[Retro_Epcot]

I am a big SWA fan, and flew AirTran only one because it was a last-minute trip and the fare was ridiculously cheap ($129 roundtrip the day before a weekend getaway...impossible!).

I think that SWA will definitely improve AirTran's customer service (horrid); however, both airlines are major budget players in my market (Buffalo-Niagara); and I foresee less options for cheap fares, so I'm kind of mixed on the whole thing.

 

[jdb1232]

We live in South Jersey, we fly out of AC. Spirit is the big carrier, Airtran has only a little piece of the pie. The thought of Soutwest being in Atlantic City is awesome; since Spirit charges you for everything imaginable. It will be nice to give Spirt some competition.

 

[Suellen]

Spirit charges you for everything imaginable.

True story! $2.50 for a can of coke? Oh well. Our flight was so cheap I didn't care and DH and I laughed about it.

My row mate and I laughed about why they didn't charge you for the piped in oxygen. LOL!

 

[Colleen27]

I hope that this will mean non-stop SWA flights from Detroit/Flint. Right now AirTran is the best of three bad options (Spirit and Northwest/Delta being the other two). I'd rather fly Southwest but they don't go non-stop from here and I don't want to hassle with layovers/plane changes with 3 kids.

 

[kathy884]

Southwest is the biggest carrier at our airport, and I fly them all the time (really like the airline too). I only flew airtran once and had problems with them billing me too much, that I was only able to resolve after 45 minutes of phone calls with supervisory personel. I havn't flown them since -- they don't have too many flights from our airport and after my bad experience (they are my last choice - unless the fare is just too cheap to pass up). I'm thinking with SW taking them over, they will probably have improved customer service, so I'm thinking it's a good thing.

 

[LilRonGal]

I can't see this as being anything but good. I will fly Southwest anytime I can. Most of the time, the price for Southwest is the best. The seats are more comfortable (I flew Airtran in Feb. and felt crunched up... I'm short and thin! I can't imagine how a regular sized person must feel on those planes!), you don't have to deal with being nickel-and-dimed for every little thing that used to be "free" (i.e. included in the cost of the fare). Flying is a pain, with all that crap you have to go through with security and everything. Southwest makes it a little less annoying.

I've had bad experiences with Airtran (seriously, their customer service does suck), and mostly everyone I know has had bad experiences with them. Southwest can only improve it!

 

[bytheblood]

This is great news for DFW.

 

[Rhode Island Quahog]

No its not, Southwest will still have their headquarters in Dallas, but will cease operation at DFW with the merger. See the article below.



http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/09/27/2498968/airtran-and-its-low-fares-to-florida.html

 

[ambertides]

I refuse to fly SW - loved AirTran. Guess we will be flying even less than we already do.

I wish Virgin America would fly out of Tampa or Orlando. Ft. Lauderdale is just too far to go to catch a flight.