New to airtran- need help!

[disneymagicgirl]

DH, myself, DD12, DS3, DS1 (lap baby) are all traveling to MCO next week. We have never flown Airtran and did not pay for seats. What happens with the 3 yr old? Will they put him with an adult at the gate? Of course, maybe I want someone else to sit with him so I can have a break for 90 mins

 

[danielle.st]

My advice is that you log in on your reservation and pay the $6 a person to select your seats in order to ensure that you are not separated from your child. Without that, there is no guarantee that you will sit with the child. We just booked out next flight and like the previous 2, we paid $6 a person each way to make sure we are sitting with our kids.
I am not afraid to sit next to someone else's crying child, I am a preschool teacher and great with kids. I would just spend 2.5 hours telling the child about all the the many things to ask mommy and daddy to buy at Disney.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

My advice is that you log in on your reservation and pay the $6 a person to select your seats in order to ensure that you are not separated from your child. Without that, there is no guarantee that you will sit with the child. We just booked out next flight and like the previous 2, we paid $6 a person each way to make sure we are sitting with our kids.
I am not afraid to sit next to someone else's crying child, I am a preschool teacher and great with kids. I would just spend 2.5 hours telling the child about all the the many things to ask mommy and daddy to buy at Disney.

There are $6 seats left, so I may do that. I also read under their policies that people with lap infants get priority boarding. So do I even need to? Does the whole family board priority or the passenger specifically holding the child?

 

[danielle.st]

There are $6 seats left, so I may do that. I also read under their policies that people with lap infants get priority boarding. So do I even need to? Does the whole family board priority or the passenger specifically holding the child?

A lap child is a baby who does not have his or her own seat, you would not be considered priority. On the flights I have been on, they have not called them first anyway maybe because mostl everyone flying to Orlando is part of a family. I think whether they call them or not is up to the discretion of the employees. Plus, you have assigned seats on Airtran, everyone does, so when you get on board doesn't really matter because you can't just sit in someone else's seat. Some people pay extra to choose their seats early, some people take a chance and wait to be assigned a seat by the computer (which does not take into account ages of the people in the party and will split up groups if necessary) at the 24 hour mark.
In my opinion, it's just not worth taking the chance of being split up just to save $12 or so bucks (if everyone else doesn't care who they sit next to, you can just pay for one adult and the child to sit together while everyone else takes their chances). Some people have luck in getting others to move but when others are paying for their seats, those people are less likely to switch.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

A lap child is a baby who does not have his or her own seat, you would not be considered priority. On the flights I have been on, they have not called them first anyway maybe because mostl everyone flying to Orlando is part of a family. I think whether they call them or not is up to the discretion of the employees. Plus, you have assigned seats on Airtran, everyone does, so when you get on board doesn't really matter because you can't just sit in someone else's seat. Some people pay extra to choose their seats early, some people take a chance and wait to be assigned a seat by the computer (which does not take into account ages of the people in the party and will split up groups if necessary) at the 24 hour mark.
In my opinion, it's just not worth taking the chance of being split up just to save $12 or so bucks (if everyone else doesn't care who they sit next to, you can just pay for one adult and the child to sit together while everyone else takes their chances). Some people have luck in getting others to move but when others are paying for their seats, those people are less likely to switch.

We do have a lap baby, in addition to the 3 yr old. That is a good idea to just buy seats for one adult and the 3 yr old, although I will prob go ahead and prepay them all. Thanks for the help! I would have never know about any of this and been in shock at the terminal if it weren't for the DIS. They really should publish it in bold print when you book your flights.

 

[pArKsFaN]

Did you book online? If so, you can check in online 24 hrs in advance and choose your seats at that time:
https://ebyepass.airtran.com/CheckIn.aspx

We've never paid extra for seats and have always managed to get 2 rows of seats for our family to be able to sit together. Of course this is not a guarantee, just sharing my experience. If you can do it right at the 24 hr mark I'd think you should have a good chance of getting a decent seating arrangement.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Did you book online? If so, you can check in online 24 hrs in advance and choose your seats at that time:
https://ebyepass.airtran.com/CheckIn.aspx

We've never paid extra for seats and have always managed to get 2 rows of seats for our family to be able to sit together. Of course this is not a guarantee, just sharing my experience. If you can do it right at the 24 hr mark I'd think you should have a good chance of getting a decent seating arrangement.

Thanks for sharing. I did set an alarm on my phone to remind me of check-in. As long as we can get 2 seats together so an adult can sit with the 3 yr old then I will be happy. We don't have to all sit together.
Looks like you are going the same time we are...Wednesday for you too?

 

[Que_Sarah_Sarah]

Airtran is REALLY GREAT with moving people around if there is an issue of parent separated from child. Just be patient and get to the gate EARLY and check in as early as you can.

 

[pArKsFaN]

Thanks for sharing. I did set an alarm on my phone to remind me of check-in. As long as we can get 2 seats together so an adult can sit with the 3 yr old then I will be happy. We don't have to all sit together.
Looks like you are going the same time we are...Wednesday for you too?

Good luck, hope you get the seats without trouble. I can't imagine them expecting a 3 yr old to sit alone anyway, I'm sure they'd work it out with you if it happened. And yes - Wednesday's the day for us too!

 

[jessica29]

Did you book online? If so, you can check in online 24 hrs in advance and choose your seats at that time:
https://ebyepass.airtran.com/CheckIn.aspx

We've never paid extra for seats and have always managed to get 2 rows of seats for our family to be able to sit together. Of course this is not a guarantee, just sharing my experience. If you can do it right at the 24 hr mark I'd think you should have a good chance of getting a decent seating arrangement.

I too always check in at the 24 hour mark no problems, and on the way back we advise them at the airport and they make it happen, I wouldn't worry but understand why people do it for peace of mind.

 

[Ed J]

 

[Disneylvr]

Airtran is REALLY GREAT with moving people around if there is an issue of parent separated from child. Just be patient and get to the gate EARLY and check in as early as you can.

Please tell me they won't ask passengers who paid for assigned seats to move for those that didn't. I don't mean to sound selfish but I paid $15 per person for assigned seats in row 12 so our family could sit together near the front of the plane.

 

[andymattmom]

Do what is best for your family.....BUT is it worth the risk of your 3 year old not sitting by anyone in your family or the rest of your kids either.

You are going to MCO---most people on that flight will be families.
Some people pay ahead so their families sit together....
Some people have luck checking in at the 24 hour mark and getting seats together---some don't.
Some people have luck getting to the airport and having a kind gate agent find open seats for them...some don't.

Is it worth the risk to try and check in at the 24 hour mark (like lots of other families) to try and get seats together---what happens if you don't or someone else selects the same seats as you and hits enter first......then you are out of luck.

What happens if you arrive early and there are no open seats....you are out of luck.

Airlines have cut down on preboards and some don't even have----can't tell you the last time we flew and there was a preboard for families. Even then they will probably limit to one adult and the baby.

It is not a law that the airlines have to seat families together...there are threads here where people have witnessed families being separated. If someone pays for their family or even them and their spouse to sit together they don't HAVE to move for anyone.....they can't be forced to move either. I can honestly say I pay ahead for my seats...with teenagers and I wouldn't move ---sorry but I planned ahead.

Assuming there are 4 of you needing seat assignments--$24 each way for total or $48 for RT. For piece of mind I'd do it. Just because someone else has had luck getting seats together at 24 hour mark that doesn't mean you will. The airlines won't force people to move, it is not open seating like SW so preboard wouldn't help.

 

[vacationclub]

Please tell me they won't ask passengers who paid for assigned seats to move for those that didn't. I don't mean to sound selfish but I paid $15 per person for assigned seats in row 12 so our family could sit together near the front of the plane.

Don't worry, they won't do that. They may, however, move you from one set of seats you paid for (a pair together) to another pair at a better spot, like the front, if it will help to accomodate another family trying to be close together. This happened to me once. I paid $12 for two seats assignments near the center, and they called me up to the podium to say they were moving me up. Turned out it was actually a better seat with more legroom so it worked out.

Overall, Airtran is great about trying to get people together, and as PP said, you can just wait until 24hours at check in to see where they put you, which if in a party of two will be two seats together, etc. The larger your party, the higher chance they have to break you up to seats you have no control of. The $6 option is simply for people who want total control ahead of time and don't want the slight risk of seperation. Even if that happens by computer, unlike SW, they have humans that will try to help you sit where you need to in proximity to your family. It's a shame that SW bought Airtran and will detroy this pleasant system of seating.

 

[Disneylvr]

Don't worry, they won't do that. They may, however, move you from one set of seats you paid for (a pair together) to another pair at a better spot, like the front, if it will help to accomodate another family trying to be close together. This happened to me once. I paid $12 for two seats assignments near the center, and they called me up to the podium to say they were moving me up. Turned out it was actually a better seat with more legroom so it worked out.

If they move us any closer to the front it would be first class and then I would gladly move. We are in row 12 with only row, row 11, in front of us on all segments of our flights.

 

[bear_mom]

Airtran is REALLY GREAT with moving people around if there is an issue of parent separated from child. Just be patient and get to the gate EARLY and check in as early as you can.

Not in my experience. We were flying home from MCO and there was a mom throwing a fit because one of her dds (who looked 5/6) wasn't sitting by her and her two other children (one was a lap baby). The gate people couldn't/wouldn't do anything for her and told her to ask the flight attendants on board.

There was no pre-boarding for lap children. We were already seated behind a family of four with the dad sitting across the isle from the rest of his family. A flight attendant approached the dad and asked if he was sitting with his family, he said yes. She then asked if they had paid for their seats and he said yes. She then looked at the mom and said there was nothing she could do, the family had prepaid for the seats and they couldn't make them move.

Emily

 

[Disneylvr]

Really, I do understand about wanted to save money on tickets and not paying for assigned seats BUT if you really need to sit together (in our case we have a special needs child) then I would seriously consider paying the extra fee. We paid and if someone (even AirTran flight attendants) asked us to move to accommodate a family I would have to say "no." That is why I am happy to find out they can't/won't force us to move. Be proactive and avoid an uncomfortable situation later.

 

[Inkmahm]

We just flew Airtran from MKE to MCO and back in the last 10 days. This is the first time I saw Airtran employees at the gate trying to move things around so families could sit together. There was one family on the way to MCO though that had no seats and they were told to board last and fill in any available spot. On the way home from MCO, there were a couple people upgraded to Business class for free so that their seats in coach could be used to seat families together. Not a bad deal, I'd say.

I pay for exit row seats in advance and then upgrade to business class as soon as I can just before the flight. That works 90% of the time and when I can't get an upgrade, at least we are in an exit row with more leg room. I am so going to miss business class when Southwest finally takes over the Airtran flights.

 

[vacationclub]

Not in my experience. We were flying home from MCO and there was a mom throwing a fit because one of her dds (who looked 5/6) wasn't sitting by her and her two other children (one was a lap baby). The gate people couldn't/wouldn't do anything for her and told her to ask the flight attendants on board.

There was no pre-boarding for lap children. We were already seated behind a family of four with the dad sitting across the isle from the rest of his family. A flight attendant approached the dad and asked if he was sitting with his family, he said yes. She then asked if they had paid for their seats and he said yes. She then looked at the mom and said there was nothing she could do, the family had prepaid for the seats and they couldn't make them move.

Emily

Actually, in this case AT did try everything they could for this family, but wasn't about to dis-regard a paid seat passenger for one that chose not to pay. That mother may have checked in at the last minute, leaving very few options for AT to help her with. She chose her destiny.

 

[Hoosier37]

When we were at MCO returning from WDW, I noticed that the employees at the terminal were working very hard to move people around so a child and her mother were not seated apart - they could not get the entire family together, but did find people to agree to move seats so that the child had her mother next to her.

That said, we paid the $6 per person each way so that we had our seats together.