Need AirTran info & Kayak info

[Dizzyworld]

I need to make return reservations in Oct. Beloved Southwest is at least twice as expensive as AirTran. This is a short trip for us, so I'm really concerned about AirTran changing our return flight time which we want in the evening. Do we trust them?

Also for those of you that have used Kayak.com, what do you do if AirTran changes/cancels your flight?

Thanks a bunch.

 

[griergirl2]

Makes no difference if you go through Kayak in terms of Airtran changing the flight...you make the reservation with Airtran itself once you click through Kayak and then you are just dealing with Kayak. Airtran does have a terrible habit of changing times, but if they do it by enough that it doesn't work for you you can get a full refund of the purchase. Hope that helps!!

 

[jen42002]

Airtran does seem to mess with the flight times a bit. We have ressies with them in Oct. from Milwaukee. They changed our return flight time by over an hour. I called and they changed me to a different flight with no charge. A week later the time changed again and I complained - got the flight changed again with no charge. Our departure flight was changed more than 2 hours but the return flight was more important so we left it alone. The agent I spoke with mentioned something about gate changes causing the time adjustments but I don't buy it. Long story short, if you book AirTran, be prepared for changes.

 

[Dizzyworld]

Makes no difference if you go through Kayak in terms of Airtran changing the flight...you make the reservation with Airtran itself once you click through Kayak and then you are just dealing with Kayak. Airtran does have a terrible habit of changing times, but if they do it by enough that it doesn't work for you you can get a full refund of the purchase. Hope that helps!!

If they make times/flight changes that are not good for us, who do we deal with.............kayak?
Get a refund from whom?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Inkmahm]

If they make times/flight changes that are not good for us, who do we deal with.............kayak?
Get a refund from whom?

Thanks for your help.

You only use Kayak.com to get t the airtran site. Your reservation is with Airtran and looks like any other reservation made with Airtran. You deal with Airtran for everything.

 

[Dizzyworld]

You only use Kayak.com to get t the airtran site. Your reservation is with Airtran and looks like any other reservation made with Airtran. You deal with Airtran for everything.

I am so new to Kayak...........but doesn't the reservation go through Expedia, Travelocity, and Princeline. They seem to get the best prices. Kayak gave me a price when I went to book it, the price jumped from $59 to $122.

Thanks for your help as I learn something new.

 

[Missytara]

The advantage of going through Kayak.com is to save the seat fee. You are still dealing directly with Airtran. If you see the fare go up, it is going up on the Airtran site.

For instance, I booked my flight at 6:15 am and the airfare was $102.00 going down and $59.00 going back. I am leaving Thanksgiving weekend, so it is a bit higher due to the holiday.

By the time, I called my two friends at lunchtime, gave them my seat location and they got online, through Kayak.com and then Airtran, the fare had jumped up to $122.00 going down. The $59.00 fare coming back was still the same. They went online at 6:30 am the next morning and it had dropped back down again.

 

[ringaswan]

Kayak is nothing more than a search engine ... the actual booking of travel is done on other sites linked from Kayak.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Kayak is a travel search engine, not a travel agency. They don't sell anything to the user, they simply provide the information; they get paid by the service provider selected by the user.

If kayak.com brings you to Expedia (for example) to make the actual purchase, that's because that's the option YOU chose. If Expedia is the only available link for a given price, they're the only ones offering that item at that price.

There could be several explanations for why a fare jumps from what's displayed on kayak.com to a higher one. First is, it's possible Expedia hasn't updated its pricing as read by travel search engines. More likely, it's possible that there are fewer $59 tickets available than the customer needs - yes, even if the search engine showed that price for that many tickets. We all need to remember we're not the only ones purchasing tickets at any time .

disclaimer: "you" refers to anyone, not the specific poster asking the question/s.

 

[Dizzyworld]

Thanks everyone.

 

[kevgraub]

The best way to think of kayak is that it is nothing more than a specialized google. You punch in the info you are looking for, and it provides you with links of places to get it.

Generally kayak will provide a direct link to the airline, as well as to places like expedia, travelocity, priceline, etc.

 

[maciec]

Also I notice that you are from Towson. I have flown Airtran out of BWI numerous times to various places (mainly Maine and Orlando) and I have never had them do a dramatic change in times for our flights. If they do it's an adjustment of a minute or 2. I think the most was 10 minutes.

 

[grammynelliebelle]

I have read on this board that if you book Air Tran through Kayak.com that you do not pay the fee for seat assignment. Does it matter which vendor you use when on Kayak, ie, Expedia etc? Its confusing to me. TIA Grammy

 

[kaytieeldr]

Probably the 'no charge seat selection' works only when tickets are purchased directly from the airline by clicking through on Kayak.

Respectfully, is there a reason you wouldn't buy the tickets this way, instead using an intermediary travel agency?

 

[kevgraub]

I have read on this board that if you book Air Tran through Kayak.com that you do not pay the fee for seat assignment. Does it matter which vendor you use when on Kayak, ie, Expedia etc? Its confusing to me. TIA Grammy

I think that you have to go directly through Airtran via kayak. When you search on kayak, one of the options it should pull up is Airtran's website. Go there, and then you deal directly with Airtran the rest of the way, no need to deal with a company like expedia or travelocity.

 

[sudwel]

The advantage of going through Kayak.com is to save the seat fee. You are still dealing directly with Airtran. If you see the fare go up, it is going up on the Airtran site.

For instance, I booked my flight at 6:15 am and the airfare was $102.00 going down and $59.00 going back. I am leaving Thanksgiving weekend, so it is a bit higher due to the holiday.

By the time, I called my two friends at lunchtime, gave them my seat location and they got online, through Kayak.com and then Airtran, the fare had jumped up to $122.00 going down. The $59.00 fare coming back was still the same. They went online at 6:30 am the next morning and it had dropped back down again.

Hi! I had a question about the "seat fee" - what the heck is that? We are heading to Orlando in October, flying out of Buffalo, and I've been looking for the cheapest flights - and the best I can find is directly through AirTran (missed the REALLY good price about a month ago $660 return for our family of 4 - now it's $980 return - and now I'm nervous about waiting any longer to book! I'll only fly nonstop as I'm not a good flyer!) - the only additional fees I see mentioned on the AirTran website is the $15 for the 1st piece of luggage per person, and then the $25 for every 2nd piece per person.

So - would you "experienced" folks kindly fill me in!! I'm hoping to book this week... or do you think I should wait some more??!!

Thanks!
Darlene

 

[DVCBELLE]

Darlene

Right now Airtran has a $25 voucher good for travel in and out of Florida. You can use one for each member of your travel party. So you would get $100 off. Book your trip on the way down using 4 vouchers (use the link below and email it to 8 different email addresses) The book your trip seperately on the way home using 4 more vouchers getting another $100 off.

When you link through Kayak you will book the tickets on Airtran but will not have to pay the $6 a person seat fee to choose your seats.

Here is another trick I have learned on Airtran. Let's say you check airfare for one person and it is $69 but then when you put in 4 people it tells you $97. That means there are not 4 $69 seats - but you know there is at least one. So then I check for 3 people and see if there are 3 - $69 seats if not then I check for 2 people. This way you are not paying for $97 seats for everyone when in fact there are actually 1, 2 or 3 cheaper seats. Then book for the number of chaeper seats there are and then book for the rest of your party. I hope that makes sense! If not, PM me your dates and I will check it for you.

http://airtran.com/sunshine/

ETA: looking at fares out of Buffalo it appears to be around $80 a person -

 

[dioxide45]

We booked our next flight through Kayak for the first time over the weekend. It was a very smooth process. Kayak links you to AirTran's website where you see the fare and can enter your A+ login information. Once the booking process is complete, the flight itinerary shows up in your My Bookings page in your online account. We will always be using Kayak from now on as long as they offer AirTran flights.