For those familiar with Airtran....

[3kidz4dis]

I posted earlier regarding Airtran vs Southwest and am nervous about the responses posted of the schedule changes but a number of people said that the schedule changes settled down closer to 3-4 months of the travel date...my question is when does the fare price settle down? Does it get higher closer to 3-4 months or lower? We are traveling in May and would save a lot by going with Airtran vs Southwest but the schedule changes concern me and thought I should wait but what do the fares do by waiting?Thanks!

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I've always been able to get even lower fares by waiting to book with Airtran until around 3 months out but I fly out of ATL and there are usually alot of choices for flights to MCO. SW doesn't fly out of ATL so it's not an option for me.

If you don't have too many flights out of where you are planning to fly, you might not want to wait too long to book.

If the schedule changes on you (I recommend checking once a week after you've booked) and you don't like the change, you can change to another flight at no charge.

 

[3kidz4dis]

I've always been able to get even lower fares by waiting to book with Airtran until around 3 months out but I fly out of ATL and there are usually alot of choices for flights to MCO. SW doesn't fly out of ATL so it's not an option for me.

If you don't have too many flights out of where you are planning to fly, you might not want to wait too long to book.

If the schedule changes on you (I recommend checking once a week after you've booked) and you don't like the change, you can change to another flight at no charge.

thanks! I will be flying out of BWI and there are a lot of choices but a lot are 1 stop which will throw that first day off if we get changed to that..there is only 1 non stop of the morning....playing chicken with the waiting game seems to backfire on me but I am unfamiliar with Airtran

 

[cyndixo]

I fly Air Tran from Philly to Orlando all the time I only fly different airlines if the Air Tran flights are high. I have no problems with Air Tran. I am an A+ Rewards member so I usually upgrade.

With Air Tran you have to watch the flights daily.....One day they may be $84 then all of a sudden $49 than back to 84.

I just got my flights for Jan. coming home last week. I was watching and watching and noticed same price the whole time BUT I did use the voucher for $20.00 off. You had to book by Jan. 1st.

Air Tran has some issues but overall I like them. I traveled Southwest and I dont like the seating and boarding policies so I stick with Air Tran.

Also Air Tran is real good about credit. If you flights go down in price and you call them they will credit your account minus I think $15.00 or maybe $5.00 cant remember. So if you book a higher priced flight just keeping checking it daily and when it goes down call and request credit for each flight booked then you can use it towards flights another time.

 

[MerissaAndMomLoveDis]

I posted earlier regarding Airtran vs Southwest and am nervous about the responses posted of the schedule changes but a number of people said that the schedule changes settled down closer to 3-4 months of the travel date...my question is when does the fare price settle down? Does it get higher closer to 3-4 months or lower? We are traveling in May and would save a lot by going with Airtran vs Southwest but the schedule changes concern me and thought I should wait but what do the fares do by waiting?Thanks!

We have flown Airtran the last three trips from Dallas to MCO. Airtran's price has beat American and Southwest here. My biggest issue with Airtran has been that there is only one non-stop flight to and from MCO, and I do not want to spend half of one of my precious vacation days in Atlanta changing planes. That flight tends to fill up much faster than the others. Therefore, as soon as I see a price that I am reasonably happy with, I grab it. I booked our Nov 2008 flight in March. I booked our Nov 2009 flight in July. Of course, we were flying the week of Thanksgiving, so I was less hopeful that a good rate would be available closer to vacation time. Hope that helps with your timing question.

Regarding the schedule changes, yes, the three times we have flown Airtran, I have received NUMEROUS emails from them saying your flight time has changed to ___. Some of the changes were 10-15 mins, some were an hour. It is irritating, but each time, when it finally was time to board the plane, the flight ended up being within 30 min to 1 hour from the original time. Just have to MAKE SURE you check online before you leave for the airport. If the new time does not work for your trip, Airtran gives you to option to call them to reschedule to another time or day or cancel.

Good luck!

 

[maciec]

We fly out of BWI to MCO. The best rate that I have gotten was $59 each way and that was for the past Octobers trip. I will look back and see when I booked the tickets. We flew down on a Saturday and back on Friday.

In all of the times that we have flown Airtran (either to Florida or Maine) they have not messed with our times except for once and it was a 5 minute change.

I am going to be looking to buy again soon for our August trip and we will be flying Airtran.

****Just checked and I bought our tickets in May for October. I remember that I kept checking for lower prices and their sale prices always stayed the same. The biggest difference that I saw was that the non-stop flights were sold out so you were getting a connecting flight for the price of a non-stop.

 

[Disneylvr]

I just booked Airtran for the first time yesterday. Their price beat AA and SWA for our dates in March. We had planned to drive but the fare went low enough that we decided to fly. Our flight to MCO is connecting in ATL but our flight home is nonstop.

 

[3kidz4dis]

Hi everyone! Thanks for the help! I just booked bwi to mco for 5 people for a total of $792.00....I booked through Kayak and it let me pick out my seats and did not increase the charge.... I do have one question since this is my first time with Airtran...Southwest usually gives seperate confirmations that I can print from home and then scan at check in....I did not receive that from Airtran, just one email confirmation...is that all I need? Thanks!

 

[Anal Annie]

We have used Air Tran between BWI & MCO 3x now and are using them to come home again April 1 (but we're using SW down for once as they beat them by $70 heading in that direction). Anyway, they DO change schedules a lot and I am used to keeping watch on it. In fact, I booked our spring break trip in Oct. on day 1 of their schedule release and they had changed it once by just a few minutes but then this week I checked it and they had changed it to a xfer thru ATL but I had not received an email from them yet...so I suspect they're not done futzing with the schedule. Anyway, I went online & looked for any other direct non-stop flights & called them & they changed it to the 3:20 pm or whatever one it is so we could keep our seats. That is just a little later than what I wanted and there was a noonish one but I was afraid it might get cancelled too...and the next earlier one was a lot earlier in the am than I wanted... I have taken this 3:20 one before and it seems to "stick" on the schedule with only minor time changes so I figured it was a safer bet so I took that one... Going DOWN on Air Tran from BWI we usually take the 7:00 am or 7:10ish one and that has never been a problem. So if you booked that one you have pretty good odds. I haven't tried the 9:ish one 'cuz the earlier one is usually cheaper.

To answer your question about the confirmation number you only get one for the entire booking. Everyone is tied to that one number.

 

[DVCBELLE]

Hi everyone! Thanks for the help! I just booked bwi to mco for 5 people for a total of $792.00....I booked through Kayak and it let me pick out my seats and did not increase the charge.... I do have one question since this is my first time with Airtran...Southwest usually gives seperate confirmations that I can print from home and then scan at check in....I did not receive that from Airtran, just one email confirmation...is that all I need? Thanks!

You can check in at the 24 hour mark and then you can print seperate boarding passes.

 

[huntersmom]

If we already have our seat assignments with Airtran though, we DONT HAVE TO check in at the 24 hour mark like with Southwest, correct? We can check in at the airport if we want instead and it wont change anything, correct?

 

[DVCBELLE]

If we already have our seat assignments with Airtran though, we DONT HAVE TO check in at the 24 hour mark like with Southwest, correct? We can check in at the airport if we want instead and it wont change anything, correct?

Yes - that is correct!!!

 

[loveysbydesign]

Anyone flown AT out of LVIA???

 

[Missytara]

Hi everyone! Thanks for the help! I just booked bwi to mco for 5 people for a total of $792.00....I booked through Kayak and it let me pick out my seats and did not increase the charge.... I do have one question since this is my first time with Airtran...Southwest usually gives seperate confirmations that I can print from home and then scan at check in....I did not receive that from Airtran, just one email confirmation...is that all I need? Thanks!

All you need is the confirmation number. They will give you boarding passes when you check your luggage.

On the way home, RAC will give you the boarding passes that morning, when they ship your luggage to the airport before you leave on ME.

 

[Missytara]

You can check in at the 24 hour mark and then you can print seperate boarding passes.

That is incorrect; with Airtran, you do not have to check in at the 24 hour mark.

If you use ME, RAC will give you the boarding passes. If you go back to MCO on your own, you only need your confirmation number and they will give the boarding passes at the Airtran desk when you check your baggage.

 

[DVCBELLE]

That is incorrect; with Airtran, you do not have to check in at the 24 hour mark.

If you use ME, RAC will give you the boarding passes. If you go back to MCO on your own, you only need your confirmation number and they will give the boarding passes at the Airtran desk when you check your baggage.

I didn't say you had to...

she asked if she would get seperate boarding passes and I was letting her know how to do it...

if she does not have seat assignments she would want to check in at the 24 hour mark to increase her chances of getting seats together.

 

[Missytara]

I didn't say you had to...

she asked if she would get seperate boarding passes and I was letting her know how to do it...

if she does not have seat assignments she would want to check in at the 24 hour mark to increase her chances of getting seats together.

However, she did already have her seating assignments.

The problem with checking in at the 24 hour mark, with Airtran, is that essentially you have checked-in. When you go to the RAC desk, you will have been bumped out of the system, and they cannot check your baggage to take to the airport.

A few people reported on the boards, not long after my trip that they did go online, checked in at the 24 hour mark, and when they got to the RAC desk, they were essenstially locked out.

If she already has her seat assignments and she wants to use RAC, then checking in 24 hours ahead is not a good idea.

 

[DVCBELLE]

However, she did already have her seating assignments.

The problem with checking in at the 24 hour mark, with Airtran, is that essentially you have checked-in. When you go to the RAC desk, you will have been bumped out of the system, and they cannot check your baggage to take to the airport.

A few people reported on the boards, not long after my trip that they did go online, checked in at the 24 hour mark, and when they got to the RAC desk, they were essenstially locked out.

If she already has her seat assignments and she wants to use RAC, then checking in 24 hours ahead is not a good idea.

That doesn't make my information incorrect. In fact, in follow up posts I clarified for another poster that you don't have to do that only if you want to.

From home - I always check in ahead of time - that way I have no wait at the airport and can straight to the gate or get in a shorter line for guests who are only checking bags.

In addition - At MCO - I was not using RAC and there is a shorter line for people who had checked in and printed their boarding passes ahead of time. So really - depending on your situation - sometimes it is better to print your boarding passes ahead of time.

 

[maciec]

I have learned that whenever I fly out of BWI I never check in ahead of time because for some reason that line is always longer when I get to the airport. I always pay ahead for my seats when I fly Airtran out of BWI because my flights are always full no matter where I go.

 

[cbrfan]

I have learned that whenever I fly out of BWI I never check in ahead of time because for some reason that line is always longer when I get to the airport. I always pay ahead for my seats when I fly Airtran out of BWI because my flights are always full no matter where I go.

Just repeating information that's already been stated - if you book through Kayak, you don't have to pay for the seat fees. It's not an agency. You will still book through AirTran's site. You just take the link there from Kayak to avoid paying the fee.