Airtran? - Philly to MCO

[PhillyPooh]

Hi. I am driving myself nuts trying to decide what to do about flights for our cruise next May. I have given up on US Air, they either loose our luggage or destroy it. I've been checking flight schedules for Southwest which I have never flown and they seen to have pretty good non-stop flights. Today they released more dates but only through May 10th. I checked their flights for April and the limited dates in May and a lot of the flights are saying "unavailable". I'm afraid if I wait for Southwest to release the dates I need they might also come up "unavailable". I checked Airtran and they have a late afternoon non-stop flight on May 19th which would be perfect and a non-stop return flight on May 27th, early afternoon which would also be perfect. My question is, how often does Airtran cancel flights after you book them. The flight down on May 19th is the only non-stop afternoon flight. I'm afraid if I book it and they cancel it, I will be stuck. I have done a little history on their non-stop Saturday flights from Philly to MCO and they don't usually have an afternoon non-stop flight. Any suggestions? I usually have my flights booked by now and I guess I'm just getting a little anxious. Thanks. Wanda

 

[fa mulan]

Hi! We're from Media, PA too! I just booked our tix for 3/28 to 4/6 RT on SW, about 2 hours after they became available. We got the super cheap $59 'interet' fare on 3/28, but by the time I booked I think I they were already sold out of the cheap seats for 4/6 (at a desirable time), so the best I could get was the $133 'fun fare.' (SW still cost less than Airtran for the same dates, and WAY less than USAir). I suspected the schedule would be expanded today, b/c their last sale, w/ dates thru 3/9 was "buy by 11/16". I looked at 7 a.m. this morning and the schedule had not changed. Ran an errand, did some housestuff, and luckily checked again at noon - when the new schedule had already been up for 2 hours. When I just checked again, both my flight times were 'unavailable' (ie. sold out).

I have never flown Airtran, and don't know their reputation for cancelling flights, but their tix looked a little more expensive than SW from PHL to MCO, so I waited for SW. Our familiy has flown SW 2 or 3 times in the past w/o any problems at all. The most important thing to remember is to get your boarding pass online (maybe up to 24 hours b/4 departure). If you have the time to wait and keep checking for SW to expand their schedule again (using the above strategy), I'm sure you'll get a great rate! One thing in your favor is that you're not going during spring break! Good luck.

 

[SUSANMELODY]

I've flown both AirTran and SW out of Philly, and I have never had a bad experience with either. My only bad experiences have been with USAir. I have sometimes flown down on SW and returned on AirTran, both are easily booked one way without penalty. I have never had an AirTran flight cancelled, and I find SW to be less expensive in my experience.

 

[MariDisney]

We have had great experiences flying Air Train PHL to MCO. (hi from Warrington, about 45 min. from Media)

 

[dis-happy]

My dh flies Air Tran every single week and has been for 10 months (same itinerary each week). The only changes they've made to his flights is to shift the time back a little (45 mins) on his weekly return.

 

[marcyinPA]

Hi! We're in the Allentown area, but we fly from Philly (much cheapter than ABE!). We are going to WDW from May 12-19, and I got tired of waiting for SW to release their dates. I booked with Airtran about a week ago. They had $99 one way fares, so I still feel like I got a deal over USair! I've never flown Airtran, but I've heard good things from friends who have. Plus, they had the times we wanted (early flight down, evening flight home). Now that I have it booked, I just feel so much better!

Marcy

 

[Debi]

I flew Airtran from PHL to MCO last December. The return flight did change by about 30 minutes, but nothing major. Overall, no complaints about Airtran - smooth flight, friendly crew, etc.

 

[CleveRocks]

I just flew AirTran PHL-MCO last week. I booked the tickets back in May, just under 6 months in advance. My travel times didn't change by more than 30 minutes from the original times, although they did change two or three times, and my flight numbers changed, also.

I was wary of HUGE changes, from reading other posts on the DIS. But my experience was just great, both in lack of big time changes, and in the actual service on both flights. Our flight from PHL to MCO was booked solid, every seat was taken. They were so efficient with boarding us that we actually pushed back from the gate at 7:25 p.m. for a 7:38 p.m. flight, and we arrived at MCO about 25 minutes ahead of schedule.

 

[NJPluto]

Price-wise, you can't wrong either way if you book early enough. That being said, I've flown both Airtran and Southwest, both out of Philly. My experience with Southwest wasn't horrible but I can't rave about it either. My biggest beef is not having an assigned seat. I was worried that we wouldn't get the "A" boarding and then not be able to sit together.

Our experience with Airtran was absolutely wonderful! The crew was fantastic! They handed out the pilot's wings to the children and engaged the passengers in conversation. They were especially nice to my DD, commenting about how well-behaved and well-mannered she was. (Hey, I like anyone who sees how great my child is!) I was so impressed with that flight crew and had such pleasant experience that I sent a compliementary letter afterward.

We're taking Airtran for our up-coming trip in Dec. Sure, I paid a little bit more than SW but I didn't mind given our great our last exerpience was. Have fun on your trip!

 

[padisneyfan]

I like Air Tran, but would not buy tickets for a May flight now. I usually wait until about 3-4 months before I would be going as Air Trans rates do change alot. Sometimes even 2 or 3 times in one day. I would just keep checking their rates daily. They fly out of Philly for as low as $49. For our Oct trip, DS#1 and his GF purchases their tickets early for $84/each way and didn't 2 weeks later the rates go down to $59. All of their tickets are nonrefundable so didn't pay to switch. We use either SWA or AirTran based on the cheapest rates.

Nancy

 

[elsabear]

We are from NEPA and have flown on Airtran out of PHL several times to MCO - Never have had any problem at all with the flights or the service. We are flying down on Airtran 12/5/06 and they did change this flight to about 45 min earlier than originally scheduled (no real complaint) Coming home we are taking SW as they had more timeslots to choose from (non-stop) and I did find that they price came down and down - we are now paying $39 ow to return on 12/12 Gotta love the ding!

 

[mylittleprincess]

Hi,

We will be having our 1st experience flying out of Philly on Air Tran. Could NOT beat the deal. We booked about 3 months in advance and the total for our group of 10 was $1474. We thought that was great!