I usually take up for Air Tran when anyone disses them, but at the moment I'm not particularly happy with them. I just got back from WDW late Sunday night. When I booked the flights, you could still get seat selections for free through kayak. Shortly afterwards that stopped. I went online to make sure I still had my seat selection and noticed it let me move up to seat 12D which used to be blocked until 24 hours out, but is now a priority seat. When you click on it, a little box comes up saying it is $15.00 but is now zone 1 with first boarding. I moved to it and found it didn't charge me the extra fee. I then called Air Tran to make sure and was told they were aware of the glitch for people who booked through kayak and that yes they would honor that seat and I would be boarding in zone 1. For the flight down there on May 1st I decided to use A+ rewards and upgrade to first class, but kept my 12D seat for my flight home. On my last day, I checked in at the resort and found my boarding pass had me in seat 12D, but in boarding zone 7.
I asked about it and was told to ask about it at the airport, which I did. I was very polite, but the gate agent very rudely called me a liar and said that seat 12D was never in zone 1, as they boarded from back to front. I told him I did not want to be in zone 7, as all the overhead space was usually gone by the time that zone boarded. Besides I knew that on their web site seat 12D definitely said it was in boarding zone 1. That's the only reason why I moved to that seat. He again insisted that it was not and never had been. I finally asked about using A+ points to upgrade to first class again then. Again he was very short and rude and told me I'd have to call as he couldn't do it. I did so and asked about having my $15.00 luggage fee refunded, since first class gets two checked bags free. The lady told me I'd have to have the gate agent refund it, but it wouldn't be a problem. The gate agent was again very rude and told me to go to customer service. The woman at customer service was very nice, but told me a supervisor would have to handle any refunds. The supervisor told me that since I had paid my baggage fee at the resort, that Disney handles things differently and pays the luggage fees in bulk, so there was no way to get my luggage fee refunded as it wouldn't show up in their system (even though I had my receipt showing I had paid it at the resort). In order to make sure I had space in the overhead, I had to waste four of my A+ reward credits to upgrade to first class, then was still out $15.00 in luggage fees, even though first class is supposed to get two checked bags free.
When I got back home, I went online and acted like I was going to book another flight. Sure enough seat 12D still shows up as being in 'zone 1' and says 'first boarding'.
I couldn't believe the amount of stuff people was carrying on though, so am glad I did. No way would my bag have fit in the overhead bins, if I had stayed in the zone 7 group. People were carrying on huge WDW bags in addition to their legal carryon and a personal item. One lady had a huge back pack, a carry on, and three large WDW bags and one guy had six large WDW bags, plus a backpack. Both got on with everthing. Several other people had their carryon, a couple of personal sized items, and 1-3 WDW bags.
I asked about it and was told to ask about it at the airport, which I did. I was very polite, but the gate agent very rudely called me a liar and said that seat 12D was never in zone 1, as they boarded from back to front. I told him I did not want to be in zone 7, as all the overhead space was usually gone by the time that zone boarded. Besides I knew that on their web site seat 12D definitely said it was in boarding zone 1. That's the only reason why I moved to that seat. He again insisted that it was not and never had been. I finally asked about using A+ points to upgrade to first class again then. Again he was very short and rude and told me I'd have to call as he couldn't do it. I did so and asked about having my $15.00 luggage fee refunded, since first class gets two checked bags free. The lady told me I'd have to have the gate agent refund it, but it wouldn't be a problem. The gate agent was again very rude and told me to go to customer service. The woman at customer service was very nice, but told me a supervisor would have to handle any refunds. The supervisor told me that since I had paid my baggage fee at the resort, that Disney handles things differently and pays the luggage fees in bulk, so there was no way to get my luggage fee refunded as it wouldn't show up in their system (even though I had my receipt showing I had paid it at the resort). In order to make sure I had space in the overhead, I had to waste four of my A+ reward credits to upgrade to first class, then was still out $15.00 in luggage fees, even though first class is supposed to get two checked bags free. When I got back home, I went online and acted like I was going to book another flight. Sure enough seat 12D still shows up as being in 'zone 1' and says 'first boarding'. I couldn't believe the amount of stuff people was carrying on though, so am glad I did. No way would my bag have fit in the overhead bins, if I had stayed in the zone 7 group. People were carrying on huge WDW bags in addition to their legal carryon and a personal item. One lady had a huge back pack, a carry on, and three large WDW bags and one guy had six large WDW bags, plus a backpack. Both got on with everthing. Several other people had their carryon, a couple of personal sized items, and 1-3 WDW bags.
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There is absolutely no need to pay for business class upgrade to check a carryon if you're worried your bags won't have a place to rest.
