AirTran gamble worked out!

popriv

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
201
Not really a gamble but it's great anyway!
The cheapest nonstop home left at 8:25am so it looked like it was going to be an early morning leaving to MCO. That means an early last night at WDW. I just noticed they changed the departure time from 8:25 to 8:05. Not that big a change but still means we have to catch DME at around 5:00am. I also noticed a 3:45 pm flight that said it had two seats left but they cost $60 more total for the 2of us. Heck we have been going over plans thinking about HoopDeeDoo dinner for $120. I'm thinking $60 more to be able to get up at a decent hour and leave WDW at noon is a no brainer. But what about the $75 per ticket AirTran charges for making changes? That could total $210. That would be to much. Where they changed the flight time I thought they would wave the $150 change fee? Well I called Airtran and talked to Varny, she was great. Changed my flight to the 3:45 flight for no charge at all. Not even the extra cost that the flight showed online! She also said there were plenty of seats available, just didn't show online. Cost of flying has gone up in a couple of years. I split the flights into two one ways on different airlines for a better price. Jet blue going down and AirTran home. I had been cursing myself for already booking
the earlier flight home thinking I should have waited for a better time.
Hope this makes sense? Doing the happy dance!

Pop
 
Just noticed Duddspizza post below about Airtran changes. Looks like there may be more coming. Could they change it to a stop over flight? I only want nonstop. at this time they only show the two non stops. I guess that's what we get for cheap flights?

Pop
 
Good for you pop... when we do fly down I always look to see how we can fly the cheapest way nonstop..we have also gone down on one airline and came back on aonther a few times....:thumbsup2
 
Good for you pop... when we do fly down I always look to see how we can fly the cheapest way nonstop..we have also gone down on one airline and came back on aonther a few times....:thumbsup2

In the past If I could get 2 RT tickets for around $500 I was doing good ( From Boston ) this trip is going to be around $580 with the luggage charges on AirTran. My $117 tickets are now selling for $189 online... Pays to lock in the cheaper tickets and hope for a change?

I called and upgraded seats to emergency row for an extra $28. Seated first and extra leg room.
They did say the flight could be changed to a stop over flight. Hope not.
We are flying on a Friday

Boy they make it tough...

Pop
 

In the past If I could get 2 RT tickets for around $500 I was doing good ( From Boston ) this trip is going to be around $580 with the luggage charges on AirTran. My $117 tickets are now selling for $189 online... Pays to lock in the cheaper tickets and hope for a change?

I called and upgraded seats to emergency row for an extra $28. Seated first and extra leg room.
They did say the flight could be changed to a stop over flight. Hope not.
We are flying on a Friday

Boy they make it tough...

Pop

We're flying Air Tran from Boston in March. I will be mortified :scared1: if they change our non stop to a stop over! I absolutely HATE flying and the only way I will is if it's non stop. Any idea why they would change it? Is it to fill up the plane more? Just curious because our plane is filling up nicely ;) There are 17 flights from BOS - MCO the day we fly..only 2 of which are non stop..I can't see why they would add another stop over flight :confused3 Oh dear, I have 42 days to go and now panic is started to set in, I can feel it! :eek:
 
We're flying Air Tran from Boston in March. I will be mortified :scared1: if they change our non stop to a stop over! I absolutely HATE flying and the only way I will is if it's non stop. Any idea why they would change it? Is it to fill up the plane more? Just curious because our plane is filling up nicely ;) There are 17 flights from BOS - MCO the day we fly..only 2 of which are non stop..I can't see why they would add another stop over flight :confused3 Oh dear, I have 42 days to go and now panic is started to set in, I can feel it! :eek:

I heard they could do that so I asked when I called to change my seating. They said something about the routes changing but didnt go into details.
I figure we just have to keep checking. I dont like that. how are you supposed to make plans when they can keep changing things?
I've never had SW or JetBlue change one of my flights.
good luck..

pop
 
Just noticed Duddspizza post below about Airtran changes. Looks like there may be more coming. Could they change it to a stop over flight? I only want nonstop. at this time they only show the two non stops. I guess that's what we get for cheap flights?

Pop

They can most definitely change that nonstop to one with a layover. It happened to me Dec 4th.:mad: My flight was supposed to leave DFW at 7:00am and land in MCO at 9:20am. I made late lunch reservations for that day and then about a month before my flight, checked my flights one day just to discover that my nonstop flight had disappeared, there were no others, and I had been placed on a flight with a 4 1/2 layover in Atlanta. There was a flight that left Dallas an hour before mine and had only a 45 minute layover in Atlanta, so I called to switch to that one, just to be told that there were no seats available on that flight. I was not happy as I lost most of the first day of my trip.:mad: Currently Air Tran has only one nonstop flight/day to and from Dallas and Orlando. If those flights happen to get canceled, anyone on them will be moved to one with a layover in Atlanta.:headache:
 
Is this just an issue with Airtran? I've never experienced it with SW or jet blue. I wonder how often it happens? Only our return flight is with Airtran so it's not to big a deal if it goes to a stop over, just inconvenient. We leave on a Friday and have all weekend to make it home. Departure time is more of an issue on the return flight and we have improved that from 8:05am to 3:45pm. But I'll be watching the flight schedule.

Pop
 
Is this just an issue with Airtran? I've never experienced it with SW or jet blue. I wonder how often it happens? Only our return flight is with Airtran so it's not to big a deal if it goes to a stop over, just inconvenient. We leave on a Friday and have all weekend to make it home. Departure time is more of an issue on the return flight and we have improved that from 8:05am to 3:45pm. But I'll be watching the flight schedule.

Pop

JetBlue has stopped all direct flights out of Rochester to Orlando. Not because they weren't flying full...but because it's more profitable for them to fly everything through JFK. Well that's just peachy. Means I'm flying AirTran more because I still can get a direct flight. JetBlue is currently on my you know what list...

I've never had a problem with AirTran. Yeah they've changed flights a few times, but for me it's never been more than a half hour. To be honest, that doesn't bother me.

EDIT: For the record...I had a direct flight with JetBlue booked in December that they changed me to a stop-over that didn't get me in until almost midnight as opposed to my wonderful 8 o'clock direct flight!
 
Is this just an issue with Airtran? I've never experienced it with SW or jet blue. I wonder how often it happens? Only our return flight is with Airtran so it's not to big a deal if it goes to a stop over, just inconvenient. We leave on a Friday and have all weekend to make it home. Departure time is more of an issue on the return flight and we have improved that from 8:05am to 3:45pm. But I'll be watching the flight schedule.

Pop

You should watch your flight no matter what airline you are on. I have had multiple flight changes. Not just Airtran does it.
 
I wonder if it has something to do with their merger? Perhaps some reshuffling is going on? We are flying non stop on Airtran from PHL in April and the times are great and the price was great. So far we've had a couple of minor time adjustments, but I too would be unhappy if it switched to not direct or significantly earlier.

I'm also wondering if their luggage charges are going away since they are merging w/SW??
 
The merger website says that all flights will follow the Southwest policy with regards to fees so bags should be free.
 














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