Southwest Airtran... what's going on?

[budafam]

My dates haven't been released yet but I was looking at October dates just for fun and all but 1 have "operated by AirTran" next to them. What does that mean? Would we be flying Southwest or AirTran? Do we still get the free bags? Can I use my Rapid Rewards? I'm so confused!

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Last month SWA started including the AirTran flights on their website. So you can now book AirTran on SWA and not pay the baggage fee. This is all part of the fact that SWA now owns AirTran merger

 

[kaytieeldr]

But you can't preselect your seats if you book an Airatran flight via the Southwest website. You get your seat assignments either at check-in up to 24 hours before departure, or at the airport. And there's no EBCI for these flights, either.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

If the flight is operated by AirTran, that means you will be on an AirTran flight. Go to Southwest's web site; how their integration with AirTran will be handled is explained there.

 

[budafam]

But you can't preselect your seats if you book an Airatran flight via the Southwest website. You get your seat assignments either at check-in up to 24 hours before departure, or at the airport. And there's no EBCI for these flights, either.

How does the assigning work? If tickets are bought together, are they seated together? I've only flown Southwest so I have no idea how the assigned seating works.

 

[DebbieB]

How does the assigning work? If tickets are bought together, are they seated together? I've only flown Southwest so I have no idea how the assigned seating works.

If you purchase through the AirTran site, you have the option to select seats for a fee. So it depends on the seats left at 24 hours, there maybe seats together, there may not.