Flying on Air Tran with a wheelchair, got a check in question.

[BillSears]

I'll be flying on Air Tran for the first time this September. I've already called and had them note that I use a wheelchair, that I'll be gate checking my wheelchair and that I will need an aisle chair to reach my seat. When I check my reservation online it only says that the class of ticket has seats assigned at check in time.

My question is should I still do the online check in 24 hours in advance to get my seat assignments? Or have my seats actually already been assigned and I shouldn't worry about checking in till I reach the podium at the airport?

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Bill -- for this your should call the airline direct and ask for their Special Services Desk. They should be able to give you a definitive answer, and possibly even make an exception and book your seat ahead of time.

 

[SueM in MN]

Bill -- for this your should call the airline direct and ask for their Special Services Desk. They should be able to give you a definitive answer, and possibly even make an exception and book your seat ahead of time.

That's what we did.
Here's a link to the AirTran Special Needs webpage.
If you identify yourself as a person with a disability to the airline (any airline) you are allowed to get your seat assignment at the time that you make your reservation.
We did identify that DD was traveling with a wheelchair; they DID forget to put that onto the computer, so the note was not there when we checked in. Our seat assignments were in though, so it didn't really matter much.

 

[BillSears]

Thanks,

I did call the number on the Air Tran website a couple of weeks ago and they did take the information from me. But they didn't say that they had assigned me seats at the time I called. Instead they said something like "We'll take all of this information into consideration when we assign your seats.". So it sounded to me like my seats would not be assigned till I checked in.

So I guess my question is still the same. Should I check in only at the podium or should I check in online at the 24 hour point. Or maybe they've already messed it up and I should call again and make sure they assign the seats now? Or maybe the seats are assigned but they don't tell you ahead of time and the itinerary on the website never shows the seat assignments?

 

[SueM in MN]

Thanks,

I did call the number on the Air Tran website a couple of weeks ago and they did take the information from me. But they didn't say that they had assigned me seats at the time I called. Instead they said something like "We'll take all of this information into consideration when we assign your seats.". So it sounded to me like my seats would not be assigned till I checked in.

So I guess my question is still the same. Should I check in only at the podium or should I check in online at the 24 hour point. Or maybe they've already messed it up and I should call again and make sure they assign the seats now? Or maybe the seats are assigned but they don't tell you ahead of time and the itinerary on the website never shows the seat assignments?

I would call again and ask for seats to be assigned becuase of your disability. I can't go to the disability page here at work, but I believe there was an different phone number for Special Needs than their regular number. And you DO have the right to have seats assigned ahead of time if you identify yourself as a person with a disability (even if you have the type of ticket that is normally assigned a seat at the gate).

 

[BillSears]

I wanted to give you guys an update on this. Sorry it's taken so long but sometimes I get a mental block about talking on the phone, conflicts and "imposing on others". It's just one of those things I strss over, like showing up really early for flights/movies/theatre/dining etc.

So I called Air Train today and asked to have my seats assigned. The service rep was very nice about it all and told me that I was already assigned to bulk head seats. I guess the previous service rep did do the assigning when I originally called but didn't mention it for some reason. It looks like everything is ready for this trip!

 

[SueM in MN]

glad to hear your update.
We traveled on AirTran on our last trip and found everyone to be very helpful.