Airtran prices?

[IamErica]

Anyone have experience with Airtran? I am looking to fly our of MSP (Minneapolis, MN) to FLL (Fort Lauderdale) in late Feb. The prices have fluctuated a bit and I am waiting to see if they drop even further. How close to my flight would the prices be at their lowest? I do know that these things change constantly and nothing is guaranteed. Just wondering if there is a pattern of price drops/increase. If the price drops AFTER I book do they credit me?

 

[vacationclub]

Anyone have experience with Airtran? I am looking to fly our of MSP (Minneapolis, MN) to FLL (Fort Lauderdale) in late Feb. The prices have fluctuated a bit and I am waiting to see if they drop even further. How close to my flight would the prices be at their lowest? I do know that these things change constantly and nothing is guaranteed. Just wondering if there is a pattern of price drops/increase. If the price drops AFTER I book do they credit me?

If the price drops after you book they only credit your A+ rewards account for future bookings (within one year). However, these situations rarely occur.

The prices are usually at their lowest at the moment you are looking at them, and the longer you wait the higher they get. All airlines do this, which is why business fliers pay more since they usually book last minute. Only once have I ever booked a flight and then the price went down...and that's when I had to pay a high price during a price war that failed....in other words, the airlines were pushing their prices but others didn't match it so the airlines that raised prices were forced to go back down again. If you happen to book during that time, then notice the change, you can get a credit like I did....twice for the same flight actually.

 

[canopynut66]

Anyone have experience with Airtran? I am looking to fly our of MSP (Minneapolis, MN) to FLL (Fort Lauderdale) in late Feb. The prices have fluctuated a bit and I am waiting to see if they drop even further. How close to my flight would the prices be at their lowest? I do know that these things change constantly and nothing is guaranteed. Just wondering if there is a pattern of price drops/increase. If the price drops AFTER I book do they credit me?

Usually book three months out and then watch to see if go down but out of Indy have not had that happen. but fares pretty good to begin with.

 

[IamErica]

so I could wait another month and hope that is the lowest.... I check daily I do know that I have seen prices lower than 100.. so I am hoping for that!
Thanks for the info!

 

[vacationclub]

so I could wait another month and hope that is the lowest.... I check daily I do know that I have seen prices lower than 100.. so I am hoping for that!
Thanks for the info!

Don't wait. If you know what you want, book now. The chances that they will go down are slim to none, but very high that they will go up. The basic law of airline tickets.

 

[Inkmahm]

If the price drops after you book they only credit your A+ rewards account for future bookings (within one year). However, these situations rarely occur.

The prices are usually at their lowest at the moment you are looking at them, and the longer you wait the higher they get. All airlines do this, which is why business fliers pay more since they usually book last minute. Only once have I ever booked a flight and then the price went down...and that's when I had to pay a high price during a price war that failed....in other words, the airlines were pushing their prices but others didn't match it so the airlines that raised prices were forced to go back down again. If you happen to book during that time, then notice the change, you can get a credit like I did....twice for the same flight actually.

I fly Airtran to MCO usually at least 3 and as many as 5 times each year. My prices change probably 90% of the time from when I book and I always get the difference returned to me in my A+ rewards account.

Airtran doesn't follow the pattern of the lowest prices available when they are first released. There are sales quite often. AND the flight prices vary wildly. My flight to MCO next week has ranged from $89 to about $350, up and down and up and down... No rhyme or reason to it that I can see.

From MSP, flights in March opened at $129 and went to $144 in a couple days. For my sister coming with us next March, she is currently at the $129 rate and waiting for a sale to hopefully get the seats cheaper.

 

[lmbcdb]

We are going next week, and bought our Airtran flights in August. All during August, the flights were $77, which is what we bought them for.

I knew they wouldn't go down, but I kept checking because I had heard of Airtran changing flight times and not telling people until the last minute.

Anywho, my flight went up and down in price weekly after that. It would go up to $180, down to $100, back up again. Last week, two weeks out, it actually went down to $77 again. (for like one day...)

 

[vacationclub]

I fly Airtran to MCO usually at least 3 and as many as 5 times each year. My prices change probably 90% of the time from when I book and I always get the difference returned to me in my A+ rewards account.

Airtran doesn't follow the pattern of the lowest prices available when they are first released. There are sales quite often. AND the flight prices vary wildly. My flight to MCO next week has ranged from $89 to about $350, up and down and up and down... No rhyme or reason to it that I can see.

From MSP, flights in March opened at $129 and went to $144 in a couple days. For my sister coming with us next March, she is currently at the $129 rate and waiting for a sale to hopefully get the seats cheaper.

Your experience is completely different from mine. It may actually depend on where you're flying out of. Anytime I fly airtran it's always got lower rates as I look early (several months out). Then I'll come back later and it sneaks up, then up again later. If you buy high, there may be a chance of it going back to a the lower price for a short time due to a sale or price war, but usually I've found that the cheapest option is at the earliest time and will never be lower than that. It may go up, then back down close that price for a short time, but the best price is almost always at the earliest point.

As a general rule, I wouldn't advise people to look at flight costs, then say "oh, that's too high, I'll wait another month", especially if you're only a few months away. Rarely will anyone book a popular route a couple weeks out and get a better rate than someone who booked 5-6 months ago.

 

[RoyalBlunders]

We fly Airtran out MSP to MCO every year. This year we are going in Dec. and I have seen the trip bounce around quite a bit. We always do non-stop since we have little ones. Airtran has been anywhere from $114 to $164. They have had constant sales and I don't mind waiting it out for a little while. They don't follow the "typical airline prices" of cheaper on Tuesdays. It's more like a sale every other week from what I can tell. The biggest concern I have is I need 6 tickets so I have to watch that they don't sell out. I've just learned that I can't second guess myself, once I book, I don't check the prices. Now I am on the A+ rewards so it will be interesting to see how that works. Either way, good luck fellow midwestern Disney Lover! I hope you find an amazing deal!!!

 

[vacationclub]

We fly Airtran out MSP to MCO every year. This year we are going in Dec. and I have seen the trip bounce around quite a bit. We always do non-stop since we have little ones. Airtran has been anywhere from $114 to $164. They have had constant sales and I don't mind waiting it out for a little while. They don't follow the "typical airline prices" of cheaper on Tuesdays. It's more like a sale every other week from what I can tell. The biggest concern I have is I need 6 tickets so I have to watch that they don't sell out. I've just learned that I can't second guess myself, once I book, I don't check the prices. Now I am on the A+ rewards so it will be interesting to see how that works. Either way, good luck fellow midwestern Disney Lover! I hope you find an amazing deal!!!

Can you talk about the "cheaper on Tuesdays" thing? What's that about?

 

[mom2_3girls]

I keep looking at Airtran for our flight from MSP to MCO in March and it is not budging. I'm stuck at $209.00 for our flight down and 144.00 for our return.

 

[Inkmahm]

I keep looking at Airtran for our flight from MSP to MCO in March and it is not budging. I'm stuck at $209.00 for our flight down and 144.00 for our return.

March flights haven't been included in any of the sales yet. Hang in there.

 

[lylone]

Our last three vacations we have always booked flights in advance and the prices have always gone down and we have received a credit. I don't think that prices going down are rare unless you book like a month in advance. We usually book anywhere from 4-6 months out and the prices end up going down. This last time we ended up with over $200 worth of credit with AirTran.

 

[mommyof3princess27]

I booked with Airtran a couple months ago and have had 2 price drops since then and a total of $86 in credits for next time

 

[pArKsFaN]

I booked with Airtran a couple months ago and have had 2 price drops since then and a total of $86 in credits for next time

Same here - 2 price drops within 10 days of my booking = $300 in credits for next time we fly. Prices appeared to be going up and I was afraid if I didn't book it would get too expensive, so I booked after reading they'll credit for price drops. If you don't mind getting credit for future use instead of an actual refund I would book now and check every day for price drops.

 

[Inkmahm]

Check your prices again, folks! My Dec flights dropped again, now from $109down to $95. January flights were "on sale" for $118 last week. Then were $116 after the "sale" ended. Tonight they were $95 so I've booked our late January "get out of the WI winter" trip, too. Unfortunately, no sales for March yet. My March flights are stubbornly stuck at $134.

I am REALLY going to hate when Southwest finally screws this all up for us.

 

[mommyjam]

We were very happy when we flew Airtran last December, our flight did drop from when we bought them, and I was happy with the price I originally purchased, and they gave me a credit and let me use it to pay for my baggage fees.

 

[lylone]

Yes, they just dropped flights in December again... woohoo $35 one way from ATL to MCO!

 

[ccgirl]

Don't forget, AirTran was purchased by Southwest. I have found their fares are right in line with SW now.