So confused with Airtran to SW conversion

[shannon006]

I am so confused with the conversion from Airtran to SW. The flight I am looking at on Airtran requires 32 credits for 4 people to fly one way coach.

On the SW website, the exact flight, run by Airtran is 8400 points per ticket. After confirming with SW that the conversion is 1 Airtran credit = 1200 SW points, I would need 7 Airtran credits per ticket.

So how is it that we can fly a booked SW flight, operated by Airtran for 28 Airtran credits? The same flight if I book with Airtran, which has blocked out this flight for rewards, will cost me 4 additional credits. Not to mention I get baggage at no charge?

What am I missing or what is the catch

 

[Gracie09]

You don't get to choose seats if you fly AirTran through sw

 

[shannon006]

You don't get to choose seats if you fly AirTran through sw

How does the seating work? We will have our 2 dds, 6 & 13? So we would need 1 adult with 1 child.

 

[Gracie09]

There are several threads about it on here if you search. Essentially the people who book AirTran through sw are assigned seats that are left over after AirTran passengers choose their seats. There is no guarantee that you are seated with your party, even children. The gate agents may try and help you out but they may not be able to do anything

 

[shannon006]

There are several threads about it on here if you search. Essentially the people who book AirTran through sw are assigned seats that are left over after AirTran passengers choose their seats. There is no guarantee that you are seated with your party, even children. The gate agents may try and help you out but they may not be able to do anything

Wow that is crazy. I know every time we have flown Airtran from Orlando to Detroit it is a sold out flight. I can't imagine my 6 year old sitting by a stranger. That just doesn't seem right.

 

[shannon006]

It looks like I won't even be able to book with SW using my Airtran credits. I was just told you can only use those for round trip flights, and I was booking one way

 

[JandD Mom]

We have flown Airtran through Southwest and plan to avoid it at all costs. Both times my family was scattered around the back half of the plane as was every other family who had tickets on that flight. In MCO the gate agents were very nice and very good about moving people around so families could be re-joined. They paged people and asked to move them and got it done.

We recently flew from FLL and the gate agents were completely useless. They simply looked at the computer screen and said the flight was full and there was nothing they could do. We were able to move ourselves around once we got on the plane.

I have a flight to MCO on Airtran this week, booked through Airtran, and we have seat assignments in the front of the plane. I dread watching the chaos as they attempt to reunite families before the flights. At least I know mine won't be one of them since I paid for my seat assignments!

This whole concept was ill-conceived and I am very surprised at Southwest for this debacle.

 

[shannon006]

That sounds crazy. We will not have to worry about the seating now. It turns out that SW only will allow rewards to be used when booking a round trip flight. So we are going to fly Airtran, and choose our seats Unfortunately Airtran has only morning flights available So if we want to use our rewards we will have to be picked up at 8:15 am, instead of the flight we were hoping to be on, which would be a pick up at 4:40.

 

[JandD Mom]

That sounds crazy. We will not have to worry about the seating now. It turns out that SW only will allow rewards to be used when booking a round trip flight. So we are going to fly Airtran,

Who told you this? I booked a one way trip on AirTran using my SW points about a month ago.

 

[shannon006]

Who told you this? I booked a one way trip on AirTran using my SW points about a month ago.

Airtran and SW rewards customer service. Yes, you can book a one way flying on Airtran, it doesn't matter if you book through Airtran or SW. You cannot book a one way reward flight with SW at all

 

[sets14]

Airtran and SW rewards customer service. Yes, you can book a one way flying on Airtran, it doesn't matter if you book through Airtran or SW. You cannot book a one way reward flight with SW at all

This must be a new change because I have used reward points on numerous one way SW flights. I would double check this.

 

[JandD Mom]

I just went on to the Southwest website and could book a one-way ticket with points with no problem. So whoever gave you that information was incorrect

 

[shannon006]

I just went on to the Southwest website and could book a one-way ticket with points with no problem. So whoever gave you that information was incorrect

Hmm, that would be great if I could. But if I convert my AirTran credits to SW points and it doesn't work , I can't convert them back to AirTran at least that's what AirTran and SW told me.

 

[JandD Mom]

Hmm, that would be great if I could. But if I convert my AirTran credits to SW points and it doesn't work , I can't convert them back to AirTran at least that's what AirTran and SW told me.

OK, I think I get it. So you are trying to use your A+ Rewards instead of Southwest points? I understand now. That really stinks. Though I read on Flyertalk [I think] that the 2 rewards programs are set to be merged in 2014. Whatever that means.

Good luck!

 

[maciec]

Hmm, that would be great if I could. But if I convert my AirTran credits to SW points and it doesn't work , I can't convert them back to AirTran at least that's what AirTran and SW told me.

This information is not correct. I just did it prior to posting. I transferred some A+ over to RR a couple of months ago and today I just transferred them back to A+ from RR.

What I don't like is when the conversion program first began when you would transfer your A+ over they would convert to RR. Now they convert to credits with SW. It's all a PIA! They need to get done with this integration so both programs are the same.