I love Airtran!

[Inkmahm]

*bump*

 

[keishashadow]

I don't get it. AirTran goes way, way, way beyond what any reasonable person would or should expect an airline to do to accommodate passengers who purchase NONrefundable tickets... yet, repeatedly, there are outraged threads from passengers who think AirTran is scum or is ripping them off or cheating them or out to get them or just entirely unreasonable . And I'm saying this as someone who has no intention of ever needing to fly AirTran!!!!!

i'll admit that AT does go the extra mile to resolve issues (although their incident rate is higher proportionally; based upon personal experience compared to other budget carriers we have flown last few years) & they freely bestow credits/vouchers to make nice when things do go south.

Currently, it appears those savvy enough to call & ask are receiving credits without paying the per ticket change fee, probably in response to SWAs policy & fact the economy is bad, travel is down, yadda-yadda

Last i looked, AT's offical, written policy is still so sad, too bad if the price drops & the $75 change fee is still in play per ticket. Until it's actually posted/revised on their site (and it may be, i just haven't bothered to read thru it lately) it's an accommodation not the published norm

Even SWA is tweaking their long standing policy of credit lineage in January, at least it was announced ahead of time to allow for some creative usage before the deadline.

fyi, I asked AT earlier this year for some 'luv' when our fares dropped substantially to FLL from PIT & my request was declined. I consider myself a semi-loyal customer, have their CC/rapid rewards, etc. Luckily, I was saved by fact that the flight time changed as date got closer & was able to cancel outright & rebook @ lower rate...phew.

PS OP woo-hoo for you! congrats im jealous lol

 

[Inkmahm]

fyi, I asked AT earlier this year for some 'luv' when our fares dropped substantially to FLL from PIT & my request was declined. I consider myself a semi-loyal customer, have their CC/rapid rewards, etc. Luckily, I was saved by fact that the flight time changed as date got closer & was able to cancel outright & rebook @ lower rate...phew.

PS OP woo-hoo for you! congrats im jealous lol

There WAS a period of time when Airtran stopped doing the refunds for price decreases in fares. Then they suddenly started them again. I don't remember when that was but I found out by reading the DIS transportation board both when the refund policy was discontinued and when it was put back in place.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Credits on lower fares are working well.........

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=38160703&postcount=24

 

[Inkmahm]

I still love Airtran, but I'm just a little less happy with them today. I want to book my March flights to Florida and I just paid my annual fee on the Airtran VISA. I called to find out when, exactly, I could expect my two $50 discount certificates from Airtran Visa. I was told they were a little behind in their processing and that it is taking 90 DAYS from when you pay your annual fee until you actually get the emailed certificates. There is no way to speed this up!

I guess I'll book March at full price and hope to have certificates to use by the time I need to book next October's flights.

 

[keishashadow]

I still love Airtran, but I'm just a little less happy with them today. I want to book my March flights to Florida and I just paid my annual fee on the Airtran VISA. I called to find out when, exactly, I could expect my two $50 discount certificates from Airtran Visa. I was told they were a little behind in their processing and that it is taking 90 DAYS from when you pay your annual fee until you actually get the emailed certificates. There is no way to speed this up!

I guess I'll book March at full price and hope to have certificates to use by the time I need to book next October's flights.

oh no, will be cutting it close for my usual summer trip

thanx for posting, at least im prepared...just odd as it used to take same 90 days to get points for CC usage transferred over to rewards acct...hope that doesn't revert, ive been credited last year or so when statement cuts off for the month.

 

[Inkmahm]

oh no, will be cutting it close for my usual summer trip

thanx for posting, at least im prepared...just odd as it used to take same 90 days to get points for CC usage transferred over to rewards acct...hope that doesn't revert, ive been credited last year or so when statement cuts off for the month.

Points seem to work well. I, too, get the credits in my A+ rewards account as soon as the statement cuts off. If they can do that so efficiently, you 'd think they'd be able to send out a few emails a bit quicker than 90 days.

 

[H.E. Pennypacker]

LOVE Airtran, too!!! We've flown AT from Milwaukee to Orlando twice a year for about the last 3 years. Never had an issue. Always on time, ticket agents always helpful, gate agents always helpful, flight attendants always friendly and helfpul. I've traveled a bit for work over the years and always took the big boys - United, American, etc. and it's hard to recall a flight on them, business or pleasure, that didn't have some problem - late arrivals, late departures, missed connections, surly flight attendants, missing baggage. Maybe we've been lucky so far, but we have literally not had a single problem with Airtran for about a dozen flights.

On one of our Airtran flights, a supervisor came onto the plane about 7 or 8 minutes before scheduled departure time to see why the door hadn't been secured yet. He made some somewhat firm comments to the flight attendants about what time it was and what time the departure was supposed to be and they really started moving, closing overhead bins, getting stuff stowed, etc. He got off the plane, they secured the door and we pushed back right on time. I guess Airtran takes their on-time percentage seriously! That's alright with me.

 

[Boston Dad]

I had a horrible experience with AirTran last year, which I posted a year ago. Won't fly with them again anywhere.

Here is my post from a year ago about the experience (I'm responding to a poster asking whether to be concerned with AirTran bad on previous bad reports):

"I would answer yes. Back in April we booked a late August trip from Boston with Disney Travel. At the time the lowest air fares were with AirTran via Disney Travel and were reasonable, so we booked the AirTran flights. When I rechecked on our flight reservations 36 hours before we were leaving Boston, the reservations were gone! I called AirTran, and the agent tried to blame Disney Travel, claiming Disney Travel had cancelled the reservations. The AirTran agent would do nothing to help me. I ended up calling Disney Travel. The agent there bent over backwards to help us, and after 20 minutes on the phone haggling with her AirTran contact, got us back (so she was told by AirTran) on the same flight down. The Disney Agent said AirTran could not explain how our reservation had been cancelled (no explanation in the cancellation record as the AirTran staff are supposed to enter).

"An hour after we were told we were all set with our original flight down, Disney Travel called us backed, saying AirTran now said our original flight was full, and we were bumped to a later flight. We ended up getting down to Disney in the evening, losing our first day of vacation.

"Very interesting customer experiences dealing with AirTran and Disney -- they were 180 degrees apart. The AirTran agent was decidedly unhelpful, while Disney Travel was great.

"I'd say avoid AirTran if it's at all practical!"

 

[Disneywedding2010]

Airtran has always charged for checked bags.

95 percent of the time we fly out of DFW on Airtran to Orlando. Its always a 7am flight but I want to get to Disney as early as possible . I also like that if they have empty first class open you can upgrade your ticket for $50 per person. A lot of times I take advantage of this.

We are flying Airtran again in December.

 

[SamSam]

i'll admit that AT does go the extra mile to resolve issues (although their incident rate is higher proportionally; based upon personal experience compared to other budget carriers we have flown last few years) & they freely bestow credits/vouchers to make nice when things do go south.

Currently, it appears those savvy enough to call & ask are receiving credits without paying the per ticket change fee, probably in response to SWAs policy & fact the economy is bad, travel is down, yadda-yadda

Last i looked, AT's offical, written policy is still so sad, too bad if the price drops & the $75 change fee is still in play per ticket. Until it's actually posted/revised on their site (and it may be, i just haven't bothered to read thru it lately) it's an accommodation not the published norm

Even SWA is tweaking their long standing policy of credit lineage in January, at least it was announced ahead of time to allow for some creative usage before the deadline.

fyi, I asked AT earlier this year for some 'luv' when our fares dropped substantially to FLL from PIT & my request was declined. I consider myself a semi-loyal customer, have their CC/rapid rewards, etc. Luckily, I was saved by fact that the flight time changed as date got closer & was able to cancel outright & rebook @ lower rate...phew.

PS OP woo-hoo for you! congrats im jealous lol

I'm liking what I'm reading here about Airtran...but are you able to rebook for a better price without a penalty?
Also,this is the first I've seen of SWA tweaking their credit lineage (we fly almost exclusively SW), what is changing?
Hoping for answers that don't make my blood pressure rise!

 

[Inkmahm]

I'm liking what I'm reading here about Airtran...but are you able to rebook for a better price without a penalty?
Also,this is the first I've seen of SWA tweaking their credit lineage (we fly almost exclusively SW), what is changing?
Hoping for answers that don't make my blood pressure rise!

Yes, you can get the better price later. I got $30 in fare reduction yesterday and $10 in fare reduciton today from Airtran.

 

[Dan Murphy]

I too had a reduction and credit earlier in the month and then another yesterday.

 

[SamSam]

That's great to know, thank you.

 

[NancyIL]

My April 24-May 2 dates are available on AirTran's web site, but no prices are loaded. However, I can see the prices by going to Kayak.

**Looks like May 3 is far as you can book.

 

[Inkmahm]

We booked a short trip to Boston (for the seafood, of course) in early November when Airtran had $100 round trip tickets available for just one day. Sunday wasn't an option for flying so we were returning 11/6, on Saturday. Today, our return flight time changed from 5:10 pm to 5 pm. I called Airtran and was able to move our flight to the 5 pm flight on SUNDAY 11/7 instead. Now we can do the duck tour on Saturday and have another seafood dinner in Boston!

No hassle or charge for the flight change, either. In fact, the Airtran person I spoke to is originally from Boston. I ended up giving her tour advice for her trip home next month when she is taking a friend from Georgia with her. She didn't kow about the Segway tours offered near the Aquarium and she was looking for touristy kinds of things to do.

 

[dudspizza]

So, my flight down in March has changed from 641 to 644 pm. The thing is... the original arrival was 647 and is now 643... so they changed my departure to 3 minutes later, but we arrive 4 minutes earlier...... I would so love to change to the first flight of the day, but it just doesn't feel right to call and ask for a change... I think I'll sit tight and hope for a bigger change....

 

[NancyIL]

So, my flight down in March has changed from 641 to 644 pm. The thing is... the original arrival was 647 and is now 643... so they changed my departure to 3 minutes later, but we arrive 4 minutes earlier...... I would so love to change to the first flight of the day, but it just doesn't feel right to call and ask for a change... I think I'll sit tight and hope for a bigger change....

My flight in December now leaves 6 minutes earlier, and I would like to change to the same flight the next day. However, I agree that it doesn't feel right for such a small change. Those are the kinds of "loopholes" that end up getting plugged due to abuse.

 

[Inkmahm]

"Abuse"? To each their own. I prefer to look at it as great customer service by Airtran. They've ensured my business is 100% with them when they fly to the location I am traveling to by virture of their great service and flexibility.

 

[NancyIL]

"Abuse"? To each their own. I prefer to look at it as great customer service by Airtran. They've ensured my business is 100% with them when they fly to the location I am traveling to by virture of their great service and flexibility.

Perhaps "over use" is a better choice of words than "abuse." I agree that what AirTran did was great customer service, but how long will they make those changes at no charge for slight schedule changes? I think there's a difference between moving the passenger to a more convenient flight when AirTran cancels a non-stop or makes a substantial schedule change, and moving the passenger to another flight when the schedule changes by mere minutes. I have asked AirTran to move me to a flight on a different day when they cancelled my non-stop. (A few days later they reinstated the non-stop flight, so I moved back to my original departure date.) However, I would be embarrassed to ask them to move my December flight to the next day because the flight time changed by 6 minutes.

I recently bought one-way tickets on Delta for March and May. The flight times weren't ideal, but the fare was really good, and I was confident that Delta would change the schedules in the next 6+ months! Within a few weeks of buying the March ticket, Delta changed the flight time of my connecting flight so that it departed before the first flight landed! Delta had to change something, so I requested a fight leaving Orlando a few hours later, which was my preference. The May reservation changed within a few days of buying the ticket from 3 flights to 2 - and the only thing I had to call Delta about was my seat assignment.