How is Airtran?

[BeckWhy]

For anyone who has flown with Airtran how is it? I'm not sure what I'm exactly looking for.. but just any experiences anyone had with them would be good.

 

[taekwondo mom]

We flew Air Tran in April no problems, Great staff.. Flights on time..

 

[dudspizza]

The only knock on them is that they tweak their schedules a bit, so expect a possible flight time change in the months leading up to your flight.

Do a search for Airtran, there has been a ton of discussion about them lately.

Duds

 

[Dopey & Grumpy]

We've used Airtran a number of times. Never had any problems. As was stated by dudspizza, they do tend to change the times or flight number but, then again, so do most of the other airlines. If you get a good deal, I would take it. No hesitation.

 

[safetymom]

I just flew them again on Friday with no problems.

 

[erikthewise]

It's a real airline! Perhaps the largest and most successful of the "minors", and dedicated to getting people to Florida and back. (In fact their official two-letter code is "FL".)

They have been a dream come true for us, offering daily nonstop service Dayton-Orlando with early morning departures and late night returns, reasonable fares, and cheap business-class upgrades.

 

[BeckWhy]

When you say they change flight times... how much does that vary? And how does it affect your ME and stuff?

Edit:

Do they serve meals? Are they covered in the airfare or is it meal for purchase?

PS: I'll be doing a search on Airtran later.

 

[Kaybee]

I just returned from disneyworld. We flew Airtran. I just love this airline as it is a direct flight for us. Going down we flew from Flint Mich. they actually boarded the plane early, and we left 10mins early as everyone was there and eager to go. We arrived in Orlando at 9:30am!! Coming home was just as easy no hassles at all. We got our tickets online. I went online 24hrs before we left and printed our boarding passes and made changes to our seat assignments so my sister and her family we be in the row ahead of us. Same with going home...printed our boarding passes at the Dolphin. We booked our flights about 3 months before we left. We always book the first flight out going and return we book the last flight out. Our times never did change in the 3 months since we bought them. For food they just give you snacks. In the morning flight you get a beverage--(coke products) and some gourmet graham crackers. Our night flight we got a bag of pretzels and a beverage of you choice. Hope this helps.

 

[BeckWhy]

I just returned from disneyworld. We flew Airtran. I just love this airline as it is a direct flight for us. Going down we flew from Flint Mich. they actually boarded the plane early, and we left 10mins early as everyone was there and eager to go. We arrived in Orlando at 9:30am!! Coming home was just as easy no hassles at all. We got our tickets online. I went online 24hrs before we left and printed our boarding passes and made changes to our seat assignments so my sister and her family we be in the row ahead of us. Same with going home...printed our boarding passes at the Dolphin. We booked our flights about 3 months before we left. We always book the first flight out going and return we book the last flight out. Our times never did change in the 3 months since we bought them. For food they just give you snacks. In the morning flight you get a beverage--(coke products) and some gourmet graham crackers. Our night flight we got a bag of pretzels and a beverage of you choice. Hope this helps.

It gives me a bit of insite. I asked about food because I thought our plane landed at 2:30 (direct flight) which would mean we'd have to eat a late lunch if they didn't serve. But it really lands at 1:30 so that's not as bad.

 

[Disneyhappy]

Airtran does tweak their flights quite a bit. Knowing that gives you an advantage. I check my flights about once a week or every other week to make sure the change is not too significant. (I do this with every airline.) If there is a change that does not work with my plans, I call them right away to change flights before the other existing flights book up. This works for me since there are several non stop flights betwen PHL and MCO. Other airports may not have as many flights available to change to. I always recommend frequent checking of your flights for possible changes. I was burned a long time ago with a flight change of several hours (not Air Tran) that I did not find out about until a couple of weeks before we departed and the other flights were sold out. Otherwise, Air Tran has been great when I fly them.

 

[RachelEllen]

For anyone who has flown with Airtran how is it? I'm not sure what I'm exactly looking for.. but just any experiences anyone had with them would be good.

Best answer to that is cheap....but risky.

Airtran has no reciprocal agreements with other airlines. What this means in practice is that if something goes wrong, they have a lot fewer options to help you out.

I flew them out of the northeast many years ago, and we were delayed due to weather. Our flight was delayed much later than several other airlines because they couldn't share deicing equipment.

Another time I was flying them from Boston to Atlanta on the Friday of a long weekend. Our flight was delayed until after 10pm. Not a problem for me. But a big problem for people who were connecting down to Florida. (Especially for cruises the next day) They made an announcement that anyone connecting in Atlanta would miss their flight. If anyone chose to fly to Atlanta, AirTran would not be giving them any lodging or meal vouchers. If you chose to fly to Atlanta, you would also not be able to fly out of Atlanta until Sunday afternoon. (again, other airlines may have had more options) The kicker was that if you chose not to fly to Atlanta, you would receive a credit. Not a refund.

THe night was made complete when our flight was delayed an additional half hour, when security had to be called to remove a drunken, irate passenger. But that wasn't AirTran's fault

 

[bookmama]

my son flew airtran this summer by himself. he was 8 they took really good care of him and even switched his flight to a later one so that he could be on a plane with families that were coming back from disney so he could be with children.

I like airtran. i hope we can use them next year when we go to disney world.