SWA vs Airtran vs US Air Suggestions Needed!

[pipervali]

Hi all

So I've been experiencing some of the most stressful vacation planning ever these last few weeks.

Anyway, we have three people in our party, flying out of Philly middle of November. I've been keeping an eye on the fares for the last two weeks or so, and now I don't know what to do. Our last trip to Disney we flew Airtran. The flight home was just fine, but the flight down? Absolutely awful. I was sick to the stomach for two days after and my mother literally wanted to DRIVE home instead of fly, she was that upset by it. When looking to book this trip, she asked me to look up the flight routes and we've found out that Airtran flies outwards over the Atlantic on their MCO route. US Air and SWA don't from what I can see. So now she's convinced that's why the flight down last time was so bad.

Airtran is the cheapest fare I can find, both down and back. She's agreeable to flying them back, but really is looking for another choice down. I've never flown SWA, their fares are.....reasonable, especially with no baggage fee, but the not being able to select seats worries me, since there are three of us. I've flown US Air before, but not in the last ten years or so. They're a big Philly carrier, and their fare is comparable to the Airtran one. But add in baggage fees, and it's closer to SWA. And I can't remember at all what their seating policy is.

Any suggestions or advice on what I should do in this situation? I don't see a lot of talk about US Air on here, it seems to mostly be Airtran and SWA, so I thought I'd ask and see if anyone had any imput.

Thanks in advance!

 

[packofjedis]

I've only flown Airtran and SWA before. My experieneces with Airtran were fine, but they change their flight times a lot. Sometimes you'll get a notification and other times I discovered on my own. I've been changed from a non-stop flight mid-morning, to a flight getting in at midnight or leaving at 6 a.m. They will always change you to which flight you want, if it's available, but you need to keep an eye on them.

SWA doesn't change their flights, or not that I've experienced. If you check in at the 24 hour mark, you'll be able to get 3 seats together. It might be towards the back of the plane, but you'll sit together. Same thing coming back. You just need to check in right at the 24 hour mark to get good numbers to stand in line with. I've traveled SWA with 2 children and never have we had to split up.

For US Air, I found on their website that you can purchase aisle or window seats for $5 per flight.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I have flown Airtran and Southwest.

Southwest allows 2 free checked bags per passenger, can change flights for free.. So if you see your flight price has gone down you can do a change to your ticket without changing you flight time and get a refund in the form of a travel credit to use on a future flight.

So if you need to check bags even one per person flying on SW you will save about $40 - $50 in luggage fees alone.

 

[NancyIL]

I wouldn't base my airline decision on the route the plane flies, because that can change from one trip to another. AirTran might've flown that particular route to avoid bad weather elsewhere.

 

[H.E. Pennypacker]

FWIW, I've flown US Air between Philly and Chicago for business several times and never had a flight that didn't have some kind of issue. So if it were me, I'd avoid US Air like the plague, but that's just me. I realize Philly International and O'Hare were probably more to blame than US Air, but nonetheless...

Never flown SW, but have taken Airtran between Milwaukee and Orlando the last 4 trips and have not had a single issue. We're flying Airtran again for our October trip. Airtran only changed flight times significantly on us once, and a quick call to customer service straightened things out and actually got us on better flights anyway - for the same fare. In my experience, AirTran's customer service is one of the best. Your mileage may vary, but we've been very pleased with AirTran so far.

 

[DebbieB]

I doubt that caused the problem. Anytime I've flown to FL from Pittsburgh on any airline they cut out over the ocean off the coast of South Carolina, then cut back in around Daytona. I think this is to avoid traffic going towards Atlanta. They can only go a small distance from the shore unless they are equipped for over water travel, which I doubt Air Tran would be. I flew all the way over to Germany and didn't hit any bumps. It was just probably the winds the day you traveled. Air Traffic Control frequently controls the route, not the airline.

 

[pipervali]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the imput. I was kind of veering away from US Air, just because I've heard of numerous problems with them, so I think I'm checking that one off the list now.