ATA Dumped me to SWA..Help!

[BelleBeast]

So after several years of going to Orlando and being comfortable flying with the 3 kids ATA dumped our flight and we now belong to Southwest Airlines!!

Help..I'm frightened..I heard no seat assignments and I'm flying alone with my kids and 2 are afraid to fly - they are ok, if they hang on tightly with heads buried in my lap!

Anyone have any experieinces with them??

Thank you,

 

[STEPHILL]

We've flown Southwest before. There aren't assigned seats. They do ask for anyone with small children and those requiring assistance to please board first. Try to get in line as soon as you can, that is quite the task, though. My DD then 3 was not so patient. That's when it's time to break out some type of new activity/toy. Hope it all works out for you.

 

[Tinkim]

BelleBeast ~ I'm not sure if you can do this since the original flight was with ATA but Southwest allows you to go on-line after midnight the night before your flight and print boarding passes. That way you could get an "A" boarding pass for you and the kids which would allow you to be in the first group that gets on the plane and ensure seats together. If you can't do that for some reason get to the airport as early as possible and try to get the "A" boarding passes. I know they do allow people with small children to get the "A" passes but I'm not sure what the cut-off age for that is . . . 5 maybe?

 

[allforpooh]

Bellebeast,

When are you traveling, we are also being put on a SWA flight in March, but have not received any information yet.. Since we are traveling 4 hours to Midway with 12 people it is causing me grief not knowing times etc.

Denise

 

[DVCBob2]

We were also switched over to SW from ATA. We currenlty have two flights booked one from Chicago Midway to LAX in February and from Chicago Midway to Orlando MCO in March. On both flights we purchased non-stop tickets. The LAX flight is now leaving four hours earlier with a plane change in Las Vegas. The return flight is similar in time but has a stop in Kansas City before going to Chicago Midway. Our March trip to Orlando is now leaving four hours earlier with a stop in Jackson Mississippi and the return flight is a non-stop. Southwest would offer no alternative times and in so many words told us that we were lucky to be getting what we had. They indicated that it was ATA's decision where we were placed as far as flight times, while ATA claims it is Southwest. What is most frustrating is that Southwest is currently selling tickets that would mirror our original tickets with ATA. These flights are within minutes of our original tickets and are non stop flights. Very frustrating.

 

[BelleBeast]

Frustrated - I just talked to Southwest and they transferred me back to ATA saying its possible they can put you on another flight - So I was on hold for ATA for 45 minutes for the agent to tell me in 20 secs.-ATA is no longer flying to Orlando effective Feb. 4, 2005 and its not ATA's problem - HOW RUDE!!

We are scheduled to leave march 23rd - from Chicago Midway - What I'm wondering is which of Southwests flights are least crowded and if they will let us select or are we stuck?? One flight is non-stop the other stops in Tennessee..

Southwest tells me I have 36 hours to make a decision!!

 

[DVCBob2]

We are also leaving Midway on 3/23. As much as we tried to get Southwest to switch us to non-stop flights, with similar times that we booked through ATA, they would not let us switch. In a prior conversation with ATA they indicated that the reservations Southwest was holding for ATA customers were not the same as reservations that are available to purchase through Southwest directly. This kind of scares us because based on our "class" of ticket we are afraid that we will be first to be bumped if anyone needs to be bumped.

 

[BelleBeast]

Bob,

Do you think our ATA flights will be less crowded possibly?? But they are for sale on the SW site so probably not--I'm so confused!!

BelleBeast

 

[4formickey]

We are leaving on the 12 of feb going to mco for a dcl cruise.On feb 3 we receive a email stating that our flights was now being held by swa. We are booked on a nonstop to mco but ata are supposed to mail us vouchers to give to swa so that they can give us paper tickets. We plan to get there very early so that we can make sure that we will have a seat. Most of you have been giving more than 21 days , so you can rebook on another airline. I was told that we can get the group letter boarding passes,so this may help someone. We only have a few days to try to work our flight out but I'm keeping most of this to myself so that my wife will not know the whole story about this trip. So how many airlines do we have to pick from that fly nonstop to mco from chica go?It looks like our choices are getting smaller by the day.

 

[allforpooh]

I was leaving March 4th from MDW, but I had not received any emails yet from ATA, I called yesterday and was able to change to another ATA flight that is on the new schedule with no price difference. She said I could either get a refund, wait for the email or change to a new flight - when I called back after making sure everyone in our party was ok. I just told the new person what was said about making the change and gave her the flight numbers I wanted. It didn't matter what they were selling for. So now we are flying out of Flint getting in about the same time, but leaving a couple of hours earlier. I picked my flights from the ATA site.

Hope everything works out,
Denise

 

[4formickey]

i called ata back last night and they told me that I was sentthe email by mistake. we are still booked on ata and we have a confirmation # on swa. We are staying on ata and avoid the cattle call for seats. the ata flight is a lay over and we will get to mco 2 hours later but i think it is worth the peace of mind.

 

[Kaybee]

I was told by my TA that ATA was going into bankruptcy by March 1st. She would not sell me any tickets to that airline as it was going under. She also told me that there are several other airlines pending to go into bankruptcy also. She said United, Delta, US air are all having problems right now...Check with the airline or find out online about the airline. My sister was going to fly United when we checked on line they got an extension on their bankruptcy until April 30th which would be bad for us as we are leaving in May!!