Airtran ?

[mbethel]

It seems that I've read that not to buy Airtran based on schedule. I need to have the latest flight from MCO to BWI on Jan 2nd for my brother and sister in law (teachers that have to be at school the next morning). Southwest has a nonstop leaving at 7:50 for $192 and Airtran has a nonstop leaving at 8:50 for $172. It kind of seems like a no brainer except I have no experience at all with Airtran and I'm curious about the frequency of schedule changes. Any input?

 

[Kycha]

I had this happen to me twice on our last trip. They changed my flight down departure time from BWI from 8:50am to 7:15am. This wasn't a problem for us. Then about a month later they changed our flight coming home departure time from 11:20 am to 2:30 pm. Since we had a prior commitment, this later departure time would have created a major problem. So, we called Airtran and they happily changed our flight so we could have an earlier departure. We were not charged anything either for this change. Now, I must say that we are A+ Reward Members. So, that may have been why they were so accomodating. I don't know.

I also remember having a schedule change for our trip in Dec 2004. But it was minor and I don't remember the exact details.

I have never used Southwest so I can't comment on their scheduling changes.

Hope this helps you.

 

[helenk]

I've used Airtran before and they do make a lot of changes to their schedules but we have always been able to work around them.
Generally, once Southwest has their schedule posted, it does not change.