Experience with Airtran?

[FirstTimertoDiz]

I am starting to look for cheap airfare out of either Pittsburgh or BWI- Southwest seems to be the cheapest, but Airtran is pretty close. The thing that concerns me about SW is the no seat assignment issue that I am reading about. Does Airtran have seat assignments, or is that how they keep the cost down?

Any experience, positive or negative with Airtran is appreciated....

Thanks!
Lisa

 

[Cratster]

the last time that i flew airtran which was March of 2004 they had seat assignments. Its hard for me to compare it to SW because i have never flown it before, i will be on sunday though. i didnt have any trouble however with Airtran. i would say that if you are worried about the no seat assignment and you can get airtran for close to the same price i would go with airtran. to me they arent any different than any of the other airlines.

 

[JerJan]

I (my family) fly AirTran ALL THE TIME, as many as 3 or 4 times a year to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando from Akron, Ohio. They are the BEST!

 

[deelam]

I recently flew Airtran out of Philly. You can go online 24 hours before and choose your seats, and print your boarding passes. This way you will have assigned seats. It's really easy to do.

Deneen

 

[DISNEYDREAMS]

Airtran is great... we are flying out of Pittsburgh the first week of August and I went through hotels.com for airfare and the prices were cheaper than on airtrans site so you might want to check there. There is a $30 booking fee, but it still came out less. Our airfare was $138 per person roundtrip. Hope this helps you.

 

[vcasey]

I've never flown SW myself but have friend who LOVE it despite the seat assignment issue.

As far as Air Tran is concerned, whether you get a seat assignment right away depends on what fare bracket you booked in. Most of their 'sale' fares won't assign seating until you check in but there is online check-in so you could have it a bit in advance. An exception to this is if you book through a travel agent they can ALWAYS get seat assignments no matter what booking class. I am an outside travel agent and I just double checked their site and this is how their official policy reads. As far as the airline itself, its just a basic plane ride, no frills but fine and cheap.

Hope I helped.