Airtran through Southwest seat assignment?

[snoopy5386]

A few months ago we flew on an Airtran flight purchased through Southwest and you were not able to choose your seats at that time, they were just assigned to you at the 24 hour mark. I was really worried about this as we have a 3 and 7 yo DDs and didn't want to be seated all over the plane. It ended up just fine and all four of our seats were assigned all together.

In 2 weeks we are again taking an Airtran flight booked through Southwest and now I see you can choose your seat assignments ahead of time for the price of $10 each. The plane is pretty open as of right now, lots of seats available. WWYD? Should we purchase the seat assignments or take our chances again? We'll be in the parks at the 24 hour mark so I'd be checking in via my phone. We've always taken our chances with Southwest and been fine, never purchased EBCI. Has anyone had recent experiences with Airtran flights through Southwest and getting seats assigned at the 24 hour mark?
Thanks

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

A few months ago we flew on an Airtran flight purchased through Southwest and you were not able to choose your seats at that time, they were just assigned to you at the 24 hour mark. I was really worried about this as we have a 3 and 7 yo DDs and didn't want to be seated all over the plane. It ended up just fine and all four of our seats were assigned all together.

In 2 weeks we are again taking an Airtran flight booked through Southwest and now I see you can choose your seat assignments ahead of time for the price of $10 each. The plane is pretty open as of right now, lots of seats available. WWYD? Should we purchase the seat assignments or take our chances again? We'll be in the parks at the 24 hour mark so I'd be checking in via my phone. We've always taken our chances with Southwest and been fine, never purchased EBCI. Has anyone had recent experiences with Airtran flights through Southwest and getting seats assigned at the 24 hour mark?
Thanks

If seating together is important I would do the $10 fee because there is no guarantee you'll get to sit together otherwise.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

The plane may look open now, but that doesn't mean those empty sears haven't been sold to others who don't want to pay for advanced seat assignments. If you need to sit together, pay for seat assignments in advance. I would if traveling with young children.

 

[hsmamato2]

how do you choose a seat this way?

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

how do you choose a seat this way?

Go to Southwest's or Airtran's websites; seat selection for AirTran is explained there.

 

[conniehar90]

I recently bought the seats. I was booked on a SW flight but found an Airtran flight that left 2 hours earlier that would save me $300(in points) for the 4 of us. I figured if I was saving the $300, I would splurge on the seats so that we could sit together. My kids are teens but sitting together on the plane is still part of the vacation to me!

Good luck with the decision!

 

[DemoBri1]

I wouldn't take a chance...we've always paid the extra $$ to get assigned seats. This way you know you're going to be sitting together.

 

[Figee17]

I paid the $10 fee to assign seats on AirTran, seeing as though I was traveling by myself with an almost 2 year old with a car seat. With a car seat, DS had to be in a window seat and I wanted to be as close to the front as possible.
Got there, checked in, got up to the agent to scan our boarding passes and she says "hmmm, there seems to be a problem" Someone had separated us and put us in vastly different rows in random seats...clearly not going to work. I am sure they were trying to accommodate another family and that's why we got split up, but I obviously was NOT happy. We ended up in the LAST row of the plane.
Not sure what the real moral of the story is, since I DID pay and still didn't get the seats I paid for, but at least I had some real complaint when I didn't get them and I did get my money back .