Airtran experience since change??

[CarolA]

That's what I said. I didn't say that they don't exist, but my experiences have all been good.

When we flew back from Milwaukee, we were an hour late departing. But they did keep us informed. Didn't make us any happier, but it was outside the control of the gate agents, and they told us all that they knew. Turns out the plane was delayed due to a medical emergency ON the airplane at the gate in ATL before taking off for Milwaukee.

They very well could have ticked off everybody by not saying anything, but they told us what they knew. Too bad the gate agents for your flight didn't do the same.

I agree They were too busy gossiping with each other to do their job......
I did not consider it a reason not to fly AirTran. (The fact that I have NEVER had a flight CLOSE to on time is an issue,but I think that's just my bad luck with airtran. I have flown them about 8 times... CLOSEST to on time was only 30 minutes delayed

 

[tjosmith]

My daughters and I flew AirTran in June. We wanted to sit together and purchased the seats in advance. We were late boarding due to a connection, and when we boarded all four of our seats were already taken by other passengers. I told the flight attendant and showed our boarding passes that clearly had those seats on them, and was told too bad! She laughed and told me I was "nuts" to have paid for seats since it really didn't matter what seat you were assigned.
This same flight attendant after serving drinks sat in the last row...three seats to herself, and ate tuna salad that stunk up the back of the plane! Everyone seated anywhere near her were sick with the smell!
I have since flown with them several more times and have paid for seats each time and never had another problem!
My advice, get there early and you will not have a problem.

 

[CarolA]

My daughters and I flew AirTran in June. We wanted to sit together and purchased the seats in advance. We were late boarding due to a connection, and when we boarded all four of our seats were already taken by other passengers. I told the flight attendant and showed our boarding passes that clearly had those seats on them, and was told too bad! She laughed and told me I was "nuts" to have paid for seats since it really didn't matter what seat you were assigned.
This same flight attendant after serving drinks sat in the last row...three seats to herself, and ate tuna salad that stunk up the back of the plane! Everyone seated anywhere near her were sick with the smell!
I have since flown with them several more times and have paid for seats each time and never had another problem!
My advice, get there early and you will not have a problem.

I would be calling AirTran DAILY and asking for my $20 BACK!!! I am sorry if they are going to CHARGE for a seat then they better give it to me!!! I would NOT be a happy camper otherwise. If I pay the fee, the only move I am making is to the Business Class cabin LOL!

If this happens to anyone else get the NAME of the Flight Attendant. I somehow doubt AirTran is going to be happy that thier FA is telling customers they are "nuts" for paying them.... (I would be furious if I were an AirTran executive)

 

[JanB]

I would be calling AirTran DAILY and asking for my $20 BACK!!! I am sorry if they are going to CHARGE for a seat then they better give it to me!!! I would NOT be a happy camper otherwise. If I pay the fee, the only move I am making is to the Business Class cabin LOL!

If this happens to anyone else get the NAME of the Flight Attendant. I somehow doubt AirTran is going to be happy that thier FA is telling customers they are "nuts" for paying them.... (I would be furious if I were an AirTran executive)

I totally agree with CarolA. And, by the way, CarolA, I would also think that you might want Airtran to know about that lovely gate agent that your boyfriend encountered!

There's no way that they can do anything about such employees if they don't know about them!

I truly don't believe that most employees are like that. But it only takes one to make your trip "memorable"!

 

[CarolA]

I totally agree with CarolA. And, by the way, CarolA, I would also think that you might want Airtran to know about that lovely gate agent that your boyfriend encountered!

There's no way that they can do anything about such employees if they don't know about them!

I truly don't believe that most employees are like that. But it only takes one to make your trip "memorable"!

If I complained about every clueless or "partially rude" airline employee I ran across I would have to quit my day job... You have to REALLY cross a line for me to bother (taking MONEY crosses the line so I would complain and you need the FAs name to help you in the complaint!)

I complained when an AA agent tore up my paper ticket and threw it in the trash and then tryed to convince her supervisor I somehow crawled over the counter (this was a the front counter check in) and put it in the trash....

Generally I try to remember that these folks have had a rough few years and that there are a large number of people out there who lose ALL common sense when they hit the airport gate.

Examples include SCREAMING at a gate agent does NOT clear up a thunderstorm. Unless she was recently appointed "God" I don't think she can change the weather.... Arriving at an airport the size of ATL 30 minutes before your flight so you missed it does not give you the right to curse out the gate agent. He's not the idiot YOU are!!! YELLING at the gate agent will not cause the overhead bin to magically expand to allow you to carry on the steamer trunk that the security guys let you somehow bring by. The Flight Attendant did not make the decison not to serve meals on the flight from DFW so quit complaining that you are going to die of starvation. (Man making this claim was in First Class and it's a good thing, he was HUGE. I had to bite my lip to keep from saying "don't worry, you have fuel stored" )..And so on ..... So I don't complain, I know that if I had thier job at least some of the idiots would be decked so since I have never seen them deck anyone.....I just keep quite and deal with it. (And you know smiling and being nice right after a jerk has berated them gets you stuff. I got a First Class upgrade when I smiled at the agent and asked her if the jerk ahead of me thought she could control the weather!)

 

[JanB]

If I complained about every clueless or "partially rude" airline employee I ran across I would have to quit my day job... You have to REALLY cross a line for me to bother (taking MONEY crosses the line so I would complain and you need the FAs name to help you in the complaint!)

I complained when an AA agent tore up my paper ticket and threw it in the trash and then tryed to convince her supervisor I somehow crawled over the counter (this was a the front counter check in) and put it in the trash....

Generally I try to remember that these folks have had a rough few years and that there are a large number of people out there who lose ALL common sense when they hit the airport gate.

Examples include SCREAMING at a gate agent does NOT clear up a thunderstorm. Unless she was recently appointed "God" I don't think she can change the weather.... Arriving at an airport the size of ATL 30 minutes before your flight so you missed it does not give you the right to curse out the gate agent. He's not the idiot YOU are!!! YELLING at the gate agent will not cause the overhead bin to magically expand to allow you to carry on the steamer trunk that the security guys let you somehow bring by. The Flight Attendant did not make the decison not to serve meals on the flight from DFW so quit complaining that you are going to die of starvation. (Man making this claim was in First Class and it's a good thing, he was HUGE. I had to bite my lip to keep from saying "don't worry, you have fuel stored" )..And so on ..... So I don't complain, I know that if I had thier job at least some of the idiots would be decked so since I have never seen them deck anyone.....I just keep quite and deal with it. (And you know smiling and being nice right after a jerk has berated them gets you stuff. I got a First Class upgrade when I smiled at the agent and asked her if the jerk ahead of me thought she could control the weather!)

CarolA, you're making me laugh -- and you sound like my kind of traveler! I appreciate the fact that you pick your battles. Sometimes, if you have a good attitude, you can actually be entertained by what you hear.

 

[marciemi]

Sorry to pull this thread up again - I've been out of town. But, does anyone know if they actually "assign" you a seat when you make your reservation, but don't actually "tell" you the assignment until 24 hours out? I know a lot of folks (at least before the $5 change) all said their family ended up together.

The reason I ask, is when I called and paid for the seat assignment for our family of 5 earlier this week, the agent seemed to try to discourage me from doing so. My concern was that other than the exit rows, there was only one full row and about 2 other seats still showing as available, and I figured that although there would be room for us on the flight, if I didn't book that row NOW, we'd just get what was left over when some people from around the plane moved into the exit row the day prior to or of the flight. So we booked row 15 completely.

Well, when I looked at the seating later in the day, it now showed row 15 as reserved, but I noticed that the entire row in row 19 (again 5 seats) now showed as available! So I'm wondering if we were "slotted" in there and that's where we would have been and I paid $25 to move up 4 rows!

Similarly on the return flight, she said she could put me in row 16, which on my chart showed as full. There didn't seem to be any changes after she reserved it, so maybe we were already there? Again, did we pay $25 for nothing in this case? I'm just wondering if they do "pencil" you in? I'm sure they wouldn't tell me if I asked because then no one would be stupid enough to pay the money!

 

[CarolA]

They don't slot you in...so I am not sure what is going on here....

 

[LeslieG]

Well, I'm not so sure about that. When I've gone in 24 hrs. prior to choose my seat assignment, you already do have a seat assigned, and it asks if you want to change it. I think there's probably a good chance if you're on a reservation together, you're all sitting together. You may just prefer a different area on the plane or different configuration.

 

[DBH]

We booked AirTran through Disney. Can I still call and request seats for a Sept flight?

Call Disney and get your 6 digit confirmation # and then call Airtran. We did this for our flight this weekend.

 

[CarolA]

Well, I'm not so sure about that. When I've gone in 24 hrs. prior to choose my seat assignment, you already do have a seat assigned, and it asks if you want to change it. I think there's probably a good chance if you're on a reservation together, you're all sitting together. You may just prefer a different area on the plane or different configuration.

I asked someone at my office who has done consulting for an airline. He thinks based on what he has heard that AirTran does start "slotting" but it's generally around a few days prior to the flight They start assigning the "unassigned" to seats, but it's not a "hard assignment" so a lot can change (like someone can show up with money) He also thought that if you called and asked they would NOT tell you what the computer had generated. (It's all done by computer as part of the flight operations. )

 

[rethciR]

Call Disney and get your 6 digit confirmation # and then call Airtran. We did this for our flight this weekend.

Great!! Thanks for the info!!

 

[slmcn66]

I spoke with a rep today. While many of their seats may look reserved they are actually held by the airline. They hold one or two blocks of seats to be booked by "walk-ons" or higher fare passengers. He said they oped them up as the travel date approaches.

 

[BuzzandAriel'smom]

Okay here's what I don't understand... I looked at the seat availability for the flight I have purchased and it is maybe half full. I did not pay for advanced seating. Wouldn't it seem that I have already been assigned a seat?

Let's say that you look at the flight you have already booked and there are 5 seats left and you didn't pay for advance seating, you already have a seat, correct?

So my question is... is it first come first serve? If I booked 4 seats at the same time back in April for my August trip aren't I already on that chart?

Anybody follow me?

 

[marciemi]

Read my reply above and it definitely seems that way to me - at least as you get closer. I checked it a couple weeks ago and the plane was half full. Now, 2 weeks out, suddenly it's nearly all full. I think they slotted everyone in. I guess though I'm still glad I bought the seats, though, because now I know we have assigned seats. Our flight is almost completely full. Even if we had been tentatively assigned a row, together, as someone above pointed out, if someone else was willing to pay money there was still a chance we'd be bumped and end up scattered throughout the plane. Went through that with Midwest, didn't want to again!

 

[CarolA]

The other thing you may notice on AirTran is that if you are booking a "full fare" ticket (the one where you don't pay to reserve a seat) More seats will suddenly "appear" open. Now was someone "slotted" in there? Who knows, but they will "open" them for money LOL!

 

[dis-happy]

Airtran also allows their FF to reserve a seat at time of booking (no extra charge). So I imagine they're holding some seats back for this.

 

[jobie61]

WHat I don't understand on the advance seat selection is this:

When looking at a flight with three seat on the right and three seats on the left. (6 across)

Why do they always block off the middle seat on the left side.

Any ideas

 

[CarolA]

Because there are REALLY only two seats there.... They just use a generic seat map which shows the three seats... They don't have the third seat.

 

[Mrs Grumpy]

WHat I don't understand on the advance seat selection is this:

When looking at a flight with three seat on the right and three seats on the left. (6 across)

Why do they always block off the middle seat on the left side.

Any ideas

I was just looking at that today and was wondering the same thing.

Thanks for the answer CarolA