Airtran/SW should I switch?

[LovetheMouse12302]

I am a first time flyer and I'm very nervous about not sitting together as a family. There is DH, DS 6, DD 14 months, and myself traveling. We are booked an AirTran flight on the Southwest website. What's the best way to get us sitting together? Should we change our current flight to a Southwest flight?

 

[hooch11bear]

We typically fly Southwest also. We are going to be traveling in July and August this year. This is the first time we are flying since Southwest has acquired Airtran. I have been looking on their site and I see that you get assigned seats at the time you check-in and you cannot change your assigned seats until you arrive at the airport. I'm not sure if I like this. We like the freedom of picking your seats once you get on the plane. We have purchased early bird check-in through Southwest and have really liked it. You get to board the plane before everybody else. There is just a small fee.

I guess your best bet is to check in as soon as you are able to and hopefully you will get seats together. That's what I am going to try to do. If you don't get the seats you want, you just may have to arrive at the airport a little earlier to change your assigned seats. Hope everything works out for you!!

 

[LovetheMouse12302]

Since our flight is technically an AirTran flight, we just booked on the SW website, would we board on AirTran boarding policies? I don't think we were given the option to reserve our seats. Will passengers that booked through AirTran already have reserved seats and they'll place us wherever there's an open spot? I'm so nervous lol

 

[DebbieB]

If it's an AirTran flight, it will follow AirTran's boarding procedures. People who booked through AirTran will have the option to pay for advance seat assignments. If they don't pay, they will be assigned seats at check-in (24 hours). Since you booked through SW, you will also be assigned seats at check-in, just be sure to jump on at 24 hours.

 

[LovetheMouse12302]

Do we just go onto Southwest's website 24 hours before our plane is scheduled to depart?

 

[letsgoreds]

With young kids, just pay the small seat fee to book seats now (through whatever site you used to book originally). OR you can watch to see how full the flight is (how many seats available) and if it starts to fill up, choose to pay the seat fee then. If it is mostly open, then just get on the site 24 hours before your flight time to check in and select seats.

If you are nervous about it, the small $ is worth the peace of mind.

 

[hooch11bear]

Don't be nervous. From what I understand, you don't get your assigned seats until you check-in online. You can check-in online 24 hrs. before your flight on the Southwest website. You should do that as soon as you are allowed to. I was also looking on Southwest's website. Even though your flight will be operated by Airtran, you will be following some policies from each airline. For instance, you still do not have to pay for luggage since you are booking through Southwest. I looked on Airtran's website, and you are charged for baggage on there. The one thing they do follow is the seating policies from Airtran.

I think you should be ok if you check-in early enough. You can also do it from a mobile device too. That is when you will get your seats. I checking in online for my boss one time, and I actually had to pick his seat. It was through Airtran. He was flying solo, so it didn't matter to him where he sat. Hopefully that is what will happen when you check-in through Southwest too. Maybe somebody will help you out that has flown more recently.

When will you be flying?

 

[hooch11bear]

Since the flight is operated by Airtran, you don't have the option to pay the fee for early bird check-in. You will be assigned seats at check-in.

 

[LovetheMouse12302]

We are leaving 30 days from today we are excited! I just want everything to go smoothly.

 

[hooch11bear]

You will be fine. To this day my DH hates to fly. He won't talk to anybody the entire time we are in the air!! Just relax and enjoy your trip!!

 

[LovetheMouse12302]

You will be fine. To this day my DH hates to fly. He won't talk to anybody the entire time we are in the air!! Just relax and enjoy your trip!!

Thank you!

 

[pooh4evr]

When you check in at the 24 hr mark, do they put your group together as much as possible? If you are on the same reservation?

 

[hooch11bear]

I hope that's the case. If not, we'll be in trouble ourselves. I don't know why they wouldn't try to keep you together if you are all on the same reservation. If you wanted to, you could always call Southwest and ask some questions. I know that I will be checking in as close to the 24 hour mark as possible.

 

[DebbieB]

When you check in at the 24 hr mark, do they put your group together as much as possible? If you are on the same reservation?

I hope that's the case. If not, we'll be in trouble ourselves. I don't know why they wouldn't try to keep you together if you are all on the same reservation. If you wanted to, you could always call Southwest and ask some questions. I know that I will be checking in as close to the 24 hour mark as possible.

I haven't flown AirTran in a long time. When you check-in at 24 hours, do you look at the available seat chart and pick seats or do they assign you seats automatically? I assumed you pick from the available seats. The issue you could run into is if there are only scattered seats left.

http://www.airtran.com/help_flight_checkin.aspx?nav_id=170

Can I change my seat assignment?

Passengers using the online flight check-in program will be able to select their seat assignment during the online check-in process. To change an existing seat assignment, from the itinerary page of the program, click on the link for currently assigned seat number to get to the seat map and select another seat.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I haven't flown AirTran in a long time. When you check-in at 24 hours, do you look at the available seat chart and pick seats or do they assign you seats automatically? I assumed you pick from the available seats. The issue you could run into is if there are only scattered seats left.

http://www.airtran.com/help_flight_checkin.aspx?nav_id=170

You do not get to pick your seats otherwise why would people pay in advance to pick seats. Your seats are automatically assigned to you when you check in

 

[DebbieB]

You do not get to pick your seats otherwise why would people pay in advance to pick seats. Your seats are automatically assigned to you when you check in

People would pay in advance to get first choice. So then back to the above posters questions - do they attempt to keep everyone on the reservation together? Of course, it depends on what seats are left.

 

[delilah]

We fly on Airtran all the time, and I pay the fee to choose a seat in advance. It has been my experience over the years, on a variety of airlines, that the airline makes no effort at all to keep parties together, even if they are on the same reservation. In particular, I remember one specific flight with my infant son that they separated my family, and we had to swap around on the plane to get a parent sitting next to the baby. But that was ATA, and at the time, everybody was assigned a seat at the airport. No choosing ahead. I think it is done by computer. My most recent trip on airtran, as a matter of fact, I chose seats when I purchased tickets in December for a March flight. I checked my reservation in February, and found that somehow, the computer had assigned somebody else to the seats I had chosen, so, I had to chose different ones. Not sure how they do that. When I originally chose the seats, the plane was close to empty. But, I got the same seat positions in a different row, so, I was OK. But, Airtran, in particular, sometimes changes plane types from the 2-3 configuration to a 3-3 configuration, which means that if they did so, there would be a whole bunch of middle seats left over, after those who had thought they were sitting next to each other on the 2 seat side of the plane (this happened to my son and me when we flew from IN to MCO in Dec 2011).

 

[msjprincess]

You do not get to pick your seats otherwise why would people pay in advance to pick seats. Your seats are automatically assigned to you when you check in

Has it changed in the last couple of years? You used to be able to pick your seats when you checked in online at 24 hours if you didn't pay for advance seating. Like another poster said the advantage to paying is picking early and having more of a selection.




But reading the SWA website it sounds like if you book through SWA the seats are assigned.

 

[DisMom72]

Keep an eye on your flight times. When I booked our flights we ended up with an AirTran departing flight and a SW return flight (due to pricing). We always fly SW, so I was a little nervous with AirTran as well. I check the SW site daily to see if there are any changes and sure enough our AirTran flight had changed to a later time. We called SW to confirm the flight time change and told them that would not work (want to get there sooner not later ) and they allowed us to pick a diffrent flight due to the schedule change. We ended up booking an earlier SW flight for the same rate we had already paid. We now have both flight with SW . I'm sure AirTran is fine, just a comfort thing with us I guess