Booking seat assignments, using a TA?

[Minniekins]

I was wondering if their are any drawbacks to sitting in the first row behind the first class / business sections, where you just have a wall in front of you? Any reasons not to choose these seats if available? Do you have anywhere to put your carry on luggage as you usually can under the seat in front of you? With no seats there, what do you do? I'd rather not go farther down the aisle than necessary, and also don't like to be over the wing if I don't have to (for one thing I like to see out, lol!).

Also, are there any benefits or drawbacks to using a travel site such as Kayak, Cheapoair, Expedia, Orbitz, etc? I know that kayak doesn't charge the $6 fee for seat assignments on Airtran so that would be good. Learning that in another thread made me wonder if there are other benefits or possibly drawbacks to booking through that type of site as opposed to just going directly through Airtran or another airline.

Thanks!

 

[MAH4546]

The seats are slighlty narrower because the tray tables are in the arm-rest, and, as a consequence, the arm rests do not raise. In most planes, there is more leg room, but that varies by aircraft type and airline. You cannot have anything in front of you during take-off/landing, it must go in the overhead.

99% of the time, you cannot reserve these seats unless you are an elite flyer with the airline and have status. They are held for elite flyers and those with special needs, and then only open for booking by everybody at the airport, assuming elite flyers/special needs travelers have not taken them. Some airlines will allow you to reserve them well in advance, like Virgin America, but charge a high fee to do so.

There are nearly zero benefits to using sites like Orbitz for buying only airfare, especially if you need to make changes to your reservation and it becomes a huge hassle.

Kayak is not an agent, it is only a search engine, so use it to search, click and you'll purchase directly from the airline.

 

[Minniekins]

Wow, thanks, you have lots of info for me! That's good to know about the narrower seats. I hate the seats anyway, they always make me feel a bit claustrophobic, so I wouldn't like those seats even more! I didn't think those seats were available usually, but when checking seats while looking at tickets through kayak, it had those seats listed as available according to those little seat icons that show the ones you can choose.

I was thinking about Kayak specifically as other posters on this board noted that using Airtran through them, there was not the $6 seat assignment charge. Then, when I was checking it out, like you said, it took me directly to airtran's site so I couldn't figure out how I wouldn't be charged the $6 fee? I wouldn't normally think about using a TA for airline booking for the reasons you stated, except for this extra fee charged that I'd like to try to avoid if possible while still getting assigned seats. Do you know if that is fact that through kayak, using Airtran, there is no seating fee? And, then, if any problems I can go directly through AT?

Thanks again!