Seat selection on AirTran through Kayak...

[SuzyQue]

I took the advice from my DISboard friends and booked our flight on AirTran through Kayak to save being charged for seat selection. I was just going over our flight info on the AirTran site, and when I click on choose/or change seats, instead of showing the seat numbers I selected when I made the reservation, it just shows ??? in each box after our names. Anybody else notice this?

 

[dioxide45]

When you select the option to change seats, it won't show a seat since you are supposed to select a new one (you are chaning seats?). What does it show on your actual reservatoin?

 

[SuzyQue]

When you select the option to change seats, it won't show a seat since you are supposed to select a new one (you are chaning seats?). What does it show on your actual reservatoin?

I checked the actual reservation and it doesn't show seat numbers. On Northwest, if you look at seat selection anytime after you make the reservation, it always shows which seats you have chosen first, and then gives you the opportunity to change them. I guess I can choose them again (don't remember exactly what I originally chose), just don't want to mess up the freebie seats since I went through Kayak.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I would strongly recommend that you CALL AIRTRAN and (simply) explain that you selected seats __, __, __, etc, during the online booking process, and that your seat selection isn't displayed anywhere, and can they help.

It's always possible the 'perq' is no longer available - that even clicking through from the Kayak site (that's what you did, right, you didn't see a price on kayak.com then open the AirTran website in a separate browser window to make the purchase) no longer allows the passenger to bypass the seat selection fee.

 

[dioxide45]

The link over to AirTran from Kayak seems different now. Before when it linked over it would actually take you to the page where it shows the specific flights you selected on Kayak. You then logged in at the bottom of that page. Now it takes you to a page showing all flights for the day and you have to pick the flights you want, then continue to the next page (which is the page Kayak used to take you to) and log in at the bottom.

I did a mock reservation and went to pick the seats and it still showed the cost as $0. It did show ??? for each flight until I selected a seat, once I picked the seat it filled it with the actual seat I selected. I didn't buy a ticket so I don't know what would have actually happened if I completed the reservation, but I don't see why it wouldn't hold those seats.

I wouldn't call AirTran, at least not yet, they may want to charge you for those seats. Try actually changing your seats on-line. Does it want to charge the $6? If so, try searching for a flight on Kayak and linking to AirTran, then logging in and looking up your reservation. Try to select seats then, does it want to charge? If not, all is good. If so you may end up having to pay for those seats if you call AirTran customer service. Customer Service won't know what Kayak is and they likely don't even know about the free seat selection by going through Kayak.

 

[SuzyQue]

Yes I did get to AirTran through Kayak, I didn't go to AirTran directly to book. And yes the ??? did show when I originally picked my seats, and then were replaced with my seat numbers when I chose them. When I try to choose seats now (to replace the ???) each time I pick a seat it still shows $0, but I haven't advanced to the next page so I don't know if it is waiting until I'm done to give me a total charge to replace the $0. Clear as mud??

 

[dioxide45]

Yes I did get to AirTran through Kayak, I didn't go to AirTran directly to book. And yes the ??? did show when I originally picked my seats, and then were replaced with my seat numbers when I chose them. When I try to choose seats now (to replace the ???) each time I pick a seat it still shows $0, but I haven't advanced to the next page so I don't know if it is waiting until I'm done to give me a total charge to replace the $0. Clear as mud??

If your option is to Change Seats, there likely won't be a charge. If it is Select Seats, then that would mean that your seats weren't selected. You should be able to change your seats and confirm for no charge if it shows $0.

 

[Funwith4kids]

We booked through the Kayak link and selected seats. A week later we tried to moving to different seats online, but after selecting the seats the ressie showed ??. The seats selected were not actually available since they were held for folks who did not reserve their seats. We moved to a different set of seats without issue or charges.

Go online and change your seats and you should not be charged (we weren't).

 

[SuzyQue]

Ok the option was "choose or change seat assingment here", and when I clicked on it, it showed the ??? instead of seat numbers. Since it also wasn't showing seats on my itinerary, I decided to go ahead and choose them again. I did, and it still showed $0 in the charges column. The reason I started all this is because when I originally booked, the first available open seats were way at the back of the plane, so I thought I would check and see if any opened up further up and they did. We're now in row 12 instead of 27. Thanks for helping me figure this out guys.~~