Question About AirTran Boarding Zones

HsvTeacher

DIS Veteran
Joined
May 1, 2008
Messages
2,322
We are flying to Orlando on AirTran at the end of this month. I haven't reserved seats, but it looks like I'm going to because the flight is almost full.

Can someone tell me how they board: Back to front, front to back, rotating, etc? I want to make sure I get a low zone number. Thanks!
 
They have priority boarding at the front.

Then they board front to back; with the aisle seats boarding with the next zone.

So like we were in the window, middle, and aisle seat of say, row 20. My companions were in zone 4 and I was in zone 5. We just all boarded together in zone 5.
 

I couldn't figure out the boarding zones. When we were coming back last week, there were 4 of us across row 19 (c,d,e,f) and we were in 3 boarding zones (3-5, we could all board at 3).
Going there, we were in row 14 (c,d,e,f) and split amongst 2 boarding zones.
 
You can get your AirTran seat assignment up to 24 hours before flight time when you check-in online. It's not like Southwest's pick-a-seat-as-you-enter-the-plane system - in case that was your concern.

The most efficient way to board the plane is from back to front, so you're not held up by people in the front of the plane as they stow their carry-ons. Other than first class and elite fliers, that's how American boards their planes.
 
As others have said, it's front-to-back with Zone 1 being those that have Priority Boarding. We paid for seat assignment with Priority Boarding because we had 3 carry-ons that we wanted to be sure there was room to stow above our seats.
 














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