Nervous flier (Air Tran)

[lwilliam]

We couldn't wait for the 'ding' fare for Southwest....so booked Air Tran
out of Philly....please give me some comfortable news about that airline...
never flew this airline before, PLUS never flew an airline that didn't
assign seats before the flight. Thanks. - Lucy

 

[Gary M]

DW and I flew AirTran last winter from IND to MCO. If I remember correctly you can get assigned seats 24 hours in advance of fight departure. We like the airline and had no problems.

 

[5wdwfans]

bump

 

[MinnieGirl33]

We fly AirTran all the time. Never a problem.

You CAN assign your seats when you do on-line check in 24 hrs before & print your boarding passes.

Southwest is the one that has no assigned seats at all, ever. Been there, done that, NOT going back unless the fare is ridiculously cheaper.

 

[disneyfan18_05]

Have flown Air Tran past two trips and it is great. Last trip took advantage of online check in and that was great considering we were up at 4 for our flight, w/o much sleep before.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

AirTran is the previous ValuJet. Their safety record has improved considerably since 1996:

http://www.cnn.com/US/valujet.592/

 

[justplaingoofy]

I've flown on AirTran in the past and was pleasantly surprised. As others commented you can check in and get your seating assignments 24hrs in advance. Plus you can upgrade your tickets to Business class for small $. I upgraded from Boston-Philly for $39.

**FYI** My husband is an air traffic controller and 5 of them are flying Air Tran for business. This is the airline they chose to fly on....
Hope this helps!

 

[DebbieB]

I've flown them several times. I always got seats with no problems 24 hours before. They fly a fleet of new jets, they got rid of the ValuJet planes.

 

[newchic99]

We flew Air Tran in May, Pittsburgh to Orlando. Never had a problem at all. I am a very nervous flyer.In fact I took 2 (yes,2) Ativan before the flight. We did upgrade to business class. It was so worth it.

 

[Rella Bella]

We have flown AirTran many times. You really should print out boarding passes before you go to the airport... that secures your seat (at peak times they have been known to overbook), but other than that (and it's an easy fix) it is a great airline. They have great prices and friendly skies!

 

[aubriee]

I've never flown an airline where I couldn't choose my seats when I booked, however due to planning a last minute trip to WDW last month I round up on Air Tran. I was really nervous about it, but was very pleasantly surprised. Due to a family emergency I couldn't check in exactly 24 hours prior (more like 10 hours prior). We were given a chance to change our seats, but were pleasantly surprised to be sitting together in row seven. On the flight back we had the resort check us in (about 10 hours before) and were again assigned seats together in row 11. Planes were very clean and new looking and Airtran employees very nice.