Flying standy on airtran and seats

[princesspiglet]

We are scheduled for a 5pm departure flight on airtran in November. We already booked and paid for our seats, $15 each. We are now thinking of flying standy on an earlier flight the same day. Will we still get assigned seats since we already paid for them for the later flight or will we be stuck sitting wherever there is space? And if the answere is we will be stuck sitting wherever is open, should I just go ahead now and cancel our seats so I can get that $45 credit? Can I cancel seat assignments??

 

[anonymousegirl]

I suspect you will lose the assigned seats and the money. Flying standby means taking whatever is left after all the other flyers with assigned seats are boarded (probably middle seats and not together).
You should call Air Tran or your travel agent to be sure.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

We are scheduled for a 5pm departure flight on airtran in November. We already booked and paid for our seats, $15 each. We are now thinking of flying standy on an earlier flight the same day. Will we still get assigned seats since we already paid for them for the later flight or will we be stuck sitting wherever there is space? And if the answere is we will be stuck sitting wherever is open, should I just go ahead now and cancel our seats so I can get that $45 credit? Can I cancel seat assignments??

No, if you are able to fly stand-by, you of course won't get the seats you paid for on your original flight. You'll get whatever seats are available at the last minute (be prepared to be split up in middle seats).

Why didn't you pick the earlier flight in the first place? If I were you, I'd stick with the original flight.

 

[princesspiglet]

We picked the later flight because I didn't want to take my daughter out of school early. Just found out the other day that she won't have school that day due to teacher inservice, so now we can take the earlier flight. I look everyday and there are still 56 open seats, so I am not worried about getting middle seats or sitting all together. We fly out of a small aiport and do not have alot of passenger activity.

I cancelled my seats on the later flight and got the $45 credit to go towards my return flight.

 

[crashbb]

We picked the later flight because I didn't want to take my daughter out of school early. Just found out the other day that she won't have school that day due to teacher inservice, so now we can take the earlier flight. I look everyday and there are still 56 open seats, so I am not worried about getting middle seats or sitting all together. We fly out of a small aiport and do not have alot of passenger activity.

I cancelled my seats on the later flight and got the $45 credit to go towards my return flight.

Except that the seating chart doesn't really mean anything. Many people choose not to pay for seating assignments and will get their seats at the 24 hour mark. You will only get your seats about 30 minutes before flight time (at the most), which is well after anyone with a confirmed ticket will habe been able to choose their seats. By the time that this is over, there may well be only middle seats and/or seats not together left for you. If you are okay with being separated from your daughter (not sure how old she is, but if she is school aged, she is fine sitting alone), that is fine, but just be prepared.

 

[Lewisc]

Except that the seating chart doesn't really mean anything. Many people choose not to pay for seating assignments and will get their seats at the 24 hour mark. You will only get your seats about 30 minutes before flight time (at the most), which is well after anyone with a confirmed ticket will habe been able to choose their seats. By the time that this is over, there may well be only middle seats and/or seats not together left for you. If you are okay with being separated from your daughter (not sure how old she is, but if she is school aged, she is fine sitting alone), that is fine, but just be prepared.

+1 Airtran passengers can make a same day flight change for $25. Those passengers will get assigned seats before standby passengers. Don't consider standby unless you're willing to accept middle seats, scattered throughout the plane.

56 open seats, months before the flight isn't that many. A lot of passengers don't pay for assigned seats. A lot of passengers book their flight a few weeks, or less, before their departure date.

Your flight is just before Thanksgiving? Standby passengers might not clear until 10 minutes before the flight. No show passengers, with reservations, get their reservations cancelled. Standby passenbers might be told to board and take any empty seat.

 

[azdizzymom]

If your daughter is young and you want to sit by her I wouldn't even risk taking the earlier flight and pay the money again and rebook the seats on your original flight. As others stated...56 seats means nothing (especially if you are going near Thanksgiving or a holiday). There are threads where people ask if they need to purchase seats on Airtran...there is one floating here in transportation where person asked if they'd separate them from their 8 and 12 year old (and everyone told them airlines don't and won't make people move). The 56 seats are those that will go to people who didn't pay for seats ahead and are in the mass trying to get seats at 24 hour mark. I haven't flown on any flight lately where there are empty seats (most flights are overbooked). Flights to MCO are going to be full. Do you want to risk even on your original flight not having seats together? You said it doesn't bother you...but how old is your daughter...does she care if she doesn't sit by you....one of you might be in front, one in middle and one in back----remember you won't really be able to climb all over people to go visit, etc.

The seat maps just show seats that others haven't taken and shouldn't be used to assume there are 56 tickets left. Did you ask Airtran how full that flight is? Are you able to fly standby anyway (I know when we did Delta in April someone was trying to switch to an earlier flight at the gate and they wouldn't let them---something about luggage and people having to be on the same plane---that is what they stated IDK what policy is for other airlines or if that is 'written in stone' for Delta).

Good luck...have a fun trip!

 

[ccgirl]

We picked the later flight because I didn't want to take my daughter out of school early. Just found out the other day that she won't have school that day due to teacher inservice, so now we can take the earlier flight. I look everyday and there are still 56 open seats, so I am not worried about getting middle seats or sitting all together. We fly out of a small aiport and do not have alot of passenger activity.

I cancelled my seats on the later flight and got the $45 credit to go towards my return flight.

How much is the earlier flight? Can you cancel your later flight and rebook on the earlier flight paying the price difference? That is what I would do, I wouldn't want to have to sit at the airport for hours with children in the hopes we would all be able to get in for standby.

Except that the seating chart doesn't really mean anything. Many people choose not to pay for seating assignments and will get their seats at the 24 hour mark. You will only get your seats about 30 minutes before flight time (at the most), which is well after anyone with a confirmed ticket will habe been able to choose their seats. By the time that this is over, there may well be only middle seats and/or seats not together left for you. If you are okay with being separated from your daughter (not sure how old she is, but if she is school aged, she is fine sitting alone), that is fine, but just be prepared.

Exactly. That seating chart does not mean the # of available tickets. With Airtran you can pick your seats at the 24 hour mark free of charge. Many people do that. So, you would need to accept any seats available for the day of departure.

If there was a flight I really wanted, I would just rebook. I wouldn't take the chance of stanby with children. Good luck.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I look everyday and there are still 56 open seats, so I am not worried about getting middle seats or sitting all together. We fly out of a small aiport and do not have alot of passenger activity.

I cancelled my seats on the later flight and got the $45 credit to go towards my return flight.

You're talking about a flight in November. I'm betting that there won't be 56 empty seats when your flight leaves. Things may work out, but be prepared not to have 3 standby seats available on the earlier flight, let alone 3 seats together. I would never try and do this when flying with a child. It could work out that you don't get standby and then get terrible seats on the original flight. I wouldn't take the risk.