Airtran in General?

[foltzy]

We flew with them in October. They gave each of my kids wings. They were super friendly. We did call to get assigned seats because we wanted to make sure our first trip went smoothly. They changed our flight times by a few minutes each way but nothing more than like 10 minutes. We only one have 1 flight a day coming and going from our local airport and it's the only direct flight to Florida. We will fly with them again.

 

[Lily & Giny's Mom]

Make sure you call ahead and pay extra to choose your seats or you will most likely not be placed next to your children. There was a schedule change but only a half hour or so and we knew ahead of time. No wing pins for my children. This is a synopsis of our last 3 visits. They are the cheapest from where we live and we would do so again the next time we fly.

 

[Colinsmom]

They'd have to be the cheapest by a mile for us to fly with them again. We PAID for our seat assignments well ahead of time, had boarding passes in hand with those seat assignments, and the FAs gave away our seats to other passengers who boarded before us. That's right, we had to fight to get the seats that we PAID for AND had boarding passes for!! We were two adults traveling with a 5yo and a 2yo, had booked two sets of 2 seats together, and they had given away one of each set to 2 single people traveling alone, leaving the four of us scattered across the plane. They said that they didn't know if we were coming (all this happened when boarding about 20 minutes before the departure time), nevermind that we had checked in 2 hours early at the airport and checked bags. We did finally get our seats but were treated as if it was our fault - all we wanted was what we paid for, and what was on our boarding passes.

 

[maxiesmom]

They'd have to be the cheapest by a mile for us to fly with them again. We PAID for our seat assignments well ahead of time, and they gave them away to other passengers who boarded before us. That's right, we had to fight to get the seats that we PAID for!! We were two adults traveling with a 5yo and a 2yo, had booked two sets of 2 seats together, and they had given away one of each set to 2 single people traveling alone, leaving the four of us scattered across the plane. They said that they didn't know if we were coming (all this happened about 20 minutes before the departure time), nevermind that we had checked in at the airport and checked bags. We did finally get our seats but were treated as if it was our fault - all we wanted was what we paid for, and what was on our boarding passes.

If you check in too close to departure time, your seat assignments are given away. But that is typical of most airlines. Again, not
something just Air Tran does, and they don't do it to be mean. They do it to keep the plane full. If they didn't know you were coming, then you checked in very late, and they wanted people in your seats.

 

[Mkrop]

We only flew Airtran once. Flight down was ok. Flight home from Orlando was delayed, not due to weather but they never told us why. It was not delayed until we arrived at the airport. When asked politely why we were delayed, and if they knew of a possible departure time, I encountered one of the rudest airline employees ever. Now maybe he was having a bad day, but he was so rude, it gives us pause when considering booking them again.

 

[Nath&Bellasparents]

From the sounds of things I'm gonna do my check in 24 hrs prior to our flight to WDW next month. I've already dropped the extra $ for the seats. How horrible they give them away sometimes!

 

[RMulieri]

If you check in too close to departure time, your seat assignments are given away. But that is typical of most airlines. Again, not
something just Air Tran does, and they don't do it to be mean. They do it to keep the plane full. If they didn't know you were coming, then you checked in very late, and they wanted people in your seats.

2nd this..ALL airlines do this..20 mins is cutting it close.I have seen Airtran do this, Delta, Continental and United

 

[iheartdisney]

From the sounds of things I'm gonna do my check in 24 hrs prior to our flight to WDW next month. I've already dropped the extra $ for the seats. How horrible they give them away sometimes!

Yep- the flight I was on, they actually had double booked two seats on the plane. It wasa pretty entertaining watching the flight crew come up with two extra seats on a full flight! (they ended up seating the pasengers in the jump seats. Don't ask me where the stewardesses sat!)

The flight that my husband took, they overbooked the flight by 10 people. He said by the time they boarded, they were offering 4 round trip tickets to anyone willing to give up their seat. He said it was a nice offer, but he wouldn't even fly Airtran for free again!

I've flown Jet Blue and Southwest, and have always had awesome flights.

 

[Colinsmom]

If you check in too close to departure time, your seat assignments are given away. But that is typical of most airlines. Again, not
something just Air Tran does, and they don't do it to be mean. They do it to keep the plane full. If they didn't know you were coming, then you checked in very late, and they wanted people in your seats.

We checked in online the day before, and at the airport about two or so hours early with our checked bags. They knew we were coming. Our seat assignments weren't actually given away - we had boarding passes with the seat assignments that I paid for. When we boarded, we found that the FAs had moved people with different seat assignments into our assigned seats, and we had to fight to get them back.

I'm a frequent flyer - I know how to play the game. That's why we paid for seat assignments ahead of time and checked in early.

 

[Colinsmom]

2nd this..ALL airlines do this..20 mins is cutting it close.I have seen Airtran do this, Delta, Continental and United

We checked in online the day before, and were at the airport, checking bags about two hours before the flight time. We boarded the plane about 20 minutes before departure with boarding passes with our paid-for seat assignments. I'm a frequent flyer and don't consider boarding 20 minutes before departure to be cutting it close - most airlines don't begin boarding until 30 minutes before departure.

Sorry if my original post wasn't clear.

 

[amylynne01]

I will not fly Air Tran again either. One flight I took with them was changed from early AM to late PM which really screwed up my plans at my destination. Customer service was incredibly rude. I've flown them for 3 round trips, and EVERY flight was delayed by at least 45 minutes.

 

[FamilyShortyAJP]

We just flew with them and didn't have any issues. We checked in 24 hours in advance online and were able to pick our seats. Had two big suitcases that we made sure were under 50 lbs and they were $15 each (1 per passenger at $15 each to check) which I was fine paying since we got such low fares with them. Able to gate check our stroller for free. Had no issues with our flights. All on time. We were not offered wings for our DD and didn't know to ask about them.

 

[Ryansdad0727]

Never had any problems with them but you will have to call and tell them you want seats together. And of course it will cost you. We did not know on our to fight and did not sit together but i think it was 12 bucks to reserve your seat.