Airtran's Summer 2010 Schedule

[Aristocath]

Does anyone know when Airtran releases the schedule for next summer? I couldn't find it on their website.

 

[supersuperwendy]

Typically 6 months in advance. So the rest of the summer should open up pretty soon.

 

[Aristocath]

Thanks!

 

[ancestry]

My personal experience with AirTran is they often change their flight times around up until about 90-120 days out. Last year I book in January for a June flight and it changed drastically several times until we were about 3-4 months out. I have had this happened multiple times when I have booked far out and now only book on Airtran if I am within a 90-120 day window.

 

[happymommy]

Yikes! I am thinking about booking airtran for our spring break - they have a total of $477 including taxes for nonstop flights from Washington DC to Orlando for my kids' spring break week - that is for 3 tickets. That was about half of Southwest. I prefer Southwest, but this is crazy cheap! I'm hesitant to use airtran, as it sounds like they change times a lot? We only bring carry-ons, so I am not worried about the fee for checking a bag.

Are they a good airline? I don't know about their boarding (I think Southwest does a great job and it's so efficient).

 

[Aristocath]

Yikes! I am thinking about booking airtran for our spring break - they have a total of $477 including taxes for nonstop flights from Washington DC to Orlando for my kids' spring break week - that is for 3 tickets. That was about half of Southwest. I prefer Southwest, but this is crazy cheap! I'm hesitant to use airtran, as it sounds like they change times a lot? We only bring carry-ons, so I am not worried about the fee for checking a bag.

Are they a good airline? I don't know about their boarding (I think Southwest does a great job and it's so efficient).

Last time we flew Airtran it was from DFW to Washington Reagan and we booked our flight about 4 months out. They changed our flight times three times during that four months BUT it only altered our plans by thirty minutes. So it was no big deal. I did hate to pay extra to choose our seats but it is important to me for my family to sit together.

We did find the people who work for Airtran to be very friendly and happy and that makes for an enjoyable flight experience, IMO. We normally fly American since it is based here and we have lots of flight choices but they have gotten very surly! And Airtran has some great prices...my family of five flew for under $1000 to DC!

 

[DVCBELLE]

Airtran will happily change your flights if they make changes after you book. If the flights come out and you are happy with the price - go ahead and book.

 

[supersuperwendy]

Yikes! I am thinking about booking airtran for our spring break - they have a total of $477 including taxes for nonstop flights from Washington DC to Orlando for my kids' spring break week - that is for 3 tickets. That was about half of Southwest. I prefer Southwest, but this is crazy cheap! I'm hesitant to use airtran, as it sounds like they change times a lot? We only bring carry-ons, so I am not worried about the fee for checking a bag.

Are they a good airline? I don't know about their boarding (I think Southwest does a great job and it's so efficient).

We always fly Airtran either out of DC, BWI or PHL..whichever has the best price. We know that they sometimes change flight times sometimes and it's never been an issue at all! Our last flights were changed by only 5 minutes. I just make it a habit to pull my flights up online every so often to make sure they haven't changed. We signed our whole family up for their rewards program and it's so easy to earn rewards! After our next trip we are all eligible for business class upgrades! Since we have a large family I always pre purchase our seats so I can assign them myself. I like the peace of mind knowing we will all sit together. I think it's well worth the $12 roundtrip per seat. They also offer free satelitte radio on board and usually have free headphones, but bring your own just in case they are out of them. We've been using Airtran for every flight since 2007 and we will continue to do so!

 

[Anal Annie]

We also live in Maryland & often use Air Tran out of BWI. I usually book as early as possible and yes, they DO change their schedules often so you have to watch your flight. I have found if I book in January for a July flight for example it will likely change 5 or 6 times so I can't go getting my panties in a wad over it each time...esp. when it will probably change again before we fly. But we have flown them several times for only about $129 pp round trip which I think is awesome.

HINT - book your Air Tran flights thru the kayak.com website & when you make your seat selections you won't actually ever pay the $6 per person per flight seat fee! It SAYS it's including the fee but then it never hits your charge! Saves you $12 per person per round trip but it only works when you book using the kayak.com booking engine.

We're in Montgomery Co. & our spring break is the week before Easter this year - we decided we wanted to go down & get back before the crowds are the worst so I booked Air Tran HOME on Thurs, April 1 for $59 pp but their flights going DOWN the weekend before were 4x that for the times that I wanted (Fri. evening or Sat. morning)!! So I waited for SW to release their schedules and booked us going down for about $167 pp on Fri. nite 3/26. I agree about the Air Tran A+ Rewards program being great and had HOPED to book us round trip on them for this trip as that would make us eligible to upgrade next summer. We were able to upgrade on one of our flights last summer after only 2 round trips!! But sometimes you have mix up your carriers to get the best deal. Booking SW going down saved us $70something each so I also suggest pricing your flights as one-ways to be sure you've got the best deals. Personally, I prefer Air Tran to SW simply because of the ability to actually choose a seat rather than this crap they call Early Bird Check-in for $10 which only hopefully gets you a better boarding number.

 

[Darcy03231]

I just flew Airtran and my flight time down change three times, but only by 5-10 minutes. By the time they were done we left 15 min earlier than previously scheduled. The flight back changed by a lot. I just called them and they rebooked me on a flight that better fit our needs. They were very nice about it. It was the first time I used them and I wouldn't hesitate to fly them again.

 

[supersuperwendy]

HINT - book your Air Tran flights thru the kayak.com website & when you make your seat selections you won't actually ever pay the $6 per person per flight seat fee! It SAYS it's including the fee but then it never hits your charge! Saves you $12 per person per round trip but it only works when you book using the kayak.com booking engine.

Thanks for the tip!! I will def. book through kayak from now on!!!

 

[keishashadow]

Still nothing past July 21st

they're late, they're late; for a very important date

seriously, you'd think they'd want to roll out their schedule to coincide with other carriers to catch the early-bird bookers.

 

[Anal Annie]

Still nothing past July 21st

they're late, they're late; for a very important date

seriously, you'd think they'd want to roll out their schedule to coincide with other carriers to catch the early-bird bookers.

I distinctly remember last year that they released late summer (August) later in about mid-late January. I know this because we had a credit of about $112 which expired on like Jan. 9 or 10 or something and we were planning to go on vaca on Aug 16 & the schedules weren't out yet. SOOO I called Air Tran on like the day before the credit was expiring and got a 90 day extension on the credit because I told them exactly when I was waiting to fly. We got the credit extended and then within about 1-2 weeks they released their August schedules and I was able to get us booked on day 1 of their release. Two years ago I booked for the end of July on Air Tran the 2nd week of January & then SW released their schedule 2 days later & Air Tran dropped their prices. When they did that I called & got the credit that was expiring LAST January.

We have not finished deciding yet what we're doing this summer but we normally vaca in mid-August when the DVC points drop. Jet Blue has released into fall but SW doesn't extend past Aug. 13 yet so it's OK with me if Air Tran & SW both wait until we hit our 7 mo. booking window in a couple of weeks!!! I think the competition is good for them.

(PS) you just reminded me that I hadn't checked on our April 1 flight in a couple of weeks...sure enough they had changed us from a direct non-stop to a connecting flight in ATL!!! So I called & got us moved to a later non-stop that we've taken before. I think it is more likely to "stick" since we've done it 2x before. I should've known the one smack in the middle of the day would get cancelled.

 

[keishashadow]

AA - it's always an adventure w/AT i just won't use them if im fixed on arriving a certain time (i.e., the cruise im planning lol). Good luck hope this is the last & final change for you.

funny re the credit story, im waiting to convert my points until the last minute (beginning of March) hoping another couple accumulate w/my Xmas purchases & last trip. Perhaps u can set me straight,as i recall the vouchers would then be good for another year. Apparently, they changed the expiry date of the points & they're good to accumulate for 2 years now before converting to voucher?im out of the loop, most of our travels have been on SW lately.

 

[Anal Annie]

AA - it's always an adventure w/AT i just won't use them if im fixed on arriving a certain time (i.e., the cruise im planning lol). Good luck hope this is the last & final change for you.

funny re the credit story, im waiting to convert my points until the last minute (beginning of March) hoping another couple accumulate w/my Xmas purchases & last trip. Perhaps u can set me straight,as i recall the vouchers would then be good for another year. Apparently, they changed the expiry date of the points & they're good to accumulate for 2 years now before converting to voucher?im out of the loop, most of our travels have been on SW lately.

Credits...A+ Reward Points...Vouchers....it's all so confusing isn't it???

To the best of what I know (from my own experiences) this is how it works (I know NOTHING of a change to 2 years). If you have A+ Reward points that are about to expire you can go online & redeem them for vouchers right before they expire. When you redeem them you have to select what you are going to use them for (ie an upgrade to Business Class or a free Round Trip etc.). So then you now have a voucher specifically for this purpose which is good for 1 year from the date of the points redemption. So in our case...we had booked flights in January 2008 for July 2008. The price dropped & we called for a credit. The credit expired 1 year after the date that I orig. booked the flight (which made it exp. January 2009). We wanted to fly in Aug. 2009 but the sched. wasn't out yet. I called & got an extension until April then I used it by say Feb. when I booked for August. THEN we still had our A+ Rewards from that July 2008 flight and another flight in May 2009 - so we had 2 round trips or 4 credits but again, we weren't flying until August & the first set of points would expire. SOOOO in July 2009, right before the orig. credits were expiring, I went online into each of our accounts & redeemed the A+ credits for a free upgrade - also good for 1 year from the redemption date. I then used those vouchers to upgrade one of our August flights.

WHEW!!!!! Follow all that!?

Good luck finding your flights!!!!!!! Set up alerts thru kayak.com!! That way you can also book on Air Tran without paying for the seat assignments!!! For your cruise you should probably fly down the day before. Less worries that way regardless of who you fly with!!

 

[DVCBELLE]

Airtran no longer lets you convert your points to vouchers to fly - only to upgrade.

I just called b/c I have 6 credits expiring on Friday - she said I can do the upgrade vouchers, pay to extend my miles (but this would cost more than the flight) or book a flight on the current schedule and then they give one courtesy change. I am worried about doing that b/c I have heard people say that they have had troubles doing that.

I think I will go ahead and get the upgrade vouchers. Then I don't have to worry about checked luggage and my kids will think that is a big treat! They each have 4 credits so we will have enough to upgrade all 4 of us - but 2 of us will upgrade on the way down and 2 on the way home.

 

[keishashadow]

Airtran no longer lets you convert your points to vouchers to fly - only to upgrade.

I just called b/c I have 6 credits expiring on Friday - she said I can do the upgrade vouchers, pay to extend my miles (but this would cost more than the flight) or book a flight on the current schedule and then they give one courtesy change. I am worried about doing that b/c I have heard people say that they have had troubles doing that.

I think I will go ahead and get the upgrade vouchers. Then I don't have to worry about checked luggage and my kids will think that is a big treat! They each have 4 credits so we will have enough to upgrade all 4 of us - but 2 of us will upgrade on the way down and 2 on the way home.

i surely hope u r mistaken, you are short 2 credits (need 8 points) to purchase a coach voucher, maybe that's what the rep meant? I was just able to log-in to my account & could've converted to a voucher for flights up to end of current schedule. fyi, you can also pay for a voucher with combo of points & cash.

only problem with upgrade vouchers is that you don't know until 24 hours prior if there any business class seats left to upgrade to, i've yet to be able to secure enough for my travel party...guess it depends on when you travel, etc. From the AT site: you can purchase A+ Rewards credits to top off your account! Each purchased A+ Rewards credit costs $39, plus a federal excise tax. You may purchase up to 20 A+ Rewards credits at a time

AA - thanks for lowdown! Jarred out of my laziness, I went to AT site after reading the above post, re the CC; their site indicates:

... All A+ Visa cardholders receive a 2-year expiration period for all A+ credits earned after opening an account.

fyi, the credit card from which i earned (most) of the miles gives 2 years 'life' on the points too (1 point per $1K run thru the card)...originally was Barclay, not sure which entity it segued to over the years, all i know is that it's a signature line of credit tied to a credit card. The credits that I earned from actual flights also reflect a 2 year life.

 

[DVCBELLE]

Nope - I have enough credits for a ticket in my account - but I can only use them to book the current schedule. Airtran did away with the vouchers in early 2009. The new rule is: "Reward travel must be booked immediately following the redemption of A+ credits.:"

 

[Anal Annie]

Nope - I have enough credits for a ticket in my account - but I can only use them to book the current schedule. Airtran did away with the vouchers in early 2009. The new rule is: "Reward travel must be booked immediately following the redemption of A+ credits.:"

You must be talking about a different kind of voucher maybe?! I just redeemed A+ points for vouchers in July & used them in August so it couldn't have been in early 2009. And it does take 8 A+ points for a free flight, not 6 A+ points. In your post before last you said you had 6 credits to use. That's not enough for a freebie, only an upgrade... I think we have a mix-up in communications somewhere maybe?!

 

[DVCBELLE]

You must be talking about a different kind of voucher maybe?! I just redeemed A+ points for vouchers in July & used them in August so it couldn't have been in early 2009. And it does take 8 A+ points for a free flight, not 6 A+ points. In your post before last you said you had 6 credits to use. That's not enough for a freebie, only an upgrade... I think we have a mix-up in communications somewhere maybe?!

I promise I am not making this all up and have a link to back up what I am saying.

I have 13 credits in my account. I called to see if the schedule would be extended to Sept. by Friday when 6 of my 13 credits would expire. She said no. So I asked what my options were. Here they are:

1. Pay to extend my vouchers. At $29 a credit that would be well over the price of what I would pay for a one way ticket.

2. Redeem credits for upgrade vouchers. These are redeemable for one year from the date that I cash in my credits for a voucher.

3. Book for a flight already open on the schedule and then when September opens call and ask them to change my flight. Problem here is that I have heard they quit doing this (on Flyertalk) and the website does say:

You may cancel your reservation for a $75 fee and the A+ credits used towards your reservation will be returned to your A+ Rewards account. Please keep in mind if an A+ credit has expired since you booked your reservation that A+ credit will have an expired status and will not be returned to your account.

When you say you redeemed for a voucher in July and used it in August - did you get a voucher and then book your ticket in August or did you use your miles in July to book a flight in August?

Here is a link to the Aitran page explaining all of this:

http://www.aplusrewards.com/a_plus_news.aspx

Effective February 1, 2009, for all A+ Rewards members
When redeeming A+ Rewards credits for travel, the member must complete a booking upon redemption. Vouchers will no longer be issued, unless the member is prepared to make a redemption booking.