Traveling with youngsters on Air Tean

[kristinesgeorge]

Hope someone can share insights on this. My husband and I are traveling with DS, age 7 and DS, age 4. We are booking through Southwest but one leg is through Air Tran. I'm really worried that we can't select our seats. They will make sure one of us is seated with our little ones, right? Thanks in advance for insights!

 

[lauti]

Once you book, can you not go to the Air Tran site and pick seats? If I'm not mistaken, advance seating costs $$ though.

 

[mdb07]

We have flown many times with our children on AirTran and have never had a problem. You have two main options:
1. Pay the $6 fee up front to guarantee that you can select your seats and be sitting together.
2. Check-in as soon as possible at the 24-hour mark before your flight where your seat selection can then be done for free (you are probably already prepared to do this if you fly Southwest anyway).

If those options fail, I have found that most people on a plane are sympathetic to people wanting to sit with their children and will gladly re-arrange their seats in whatever way works best to ensure that you can be with your children. Just calmly explain your situation to the flight attendants or other passengers and don't be greedy about it and try to pry people from good seats or seats they may have paid extra for - that's not fair to them.

Good luck!

 

[Gracie09]

Hope someone can share insights on this. My husband and I are traveling with DS, age 7 and DS, age 4. We are booking through Southwest but one leg is through Air Tran. I'm really worried that we can't select our seats. They will make sure one of us is seated with our little ones, right? Thanks in advance for insights!

They will not ensure that you are are seated with your children. At 24 hours you are assigned seats. They may be next to each other they may be scattered. The gate agent may be able to rearrange things, they may not. It depends on how full the flight is, how many other people want to be reseated etc. I would either do all sw or all air tran. There is a very long thread about air tran via sw on here.

 

[DebbieB]

Once you book, can you not go to the Air Tran site and pick seats? If I'm not mistaken, advance seating costs $$ though.

Not if you book through SW. If you book through SW, seats are automatically assigned at the 24 hour check-in.

 

[Gracie09]

We have flown many times with our children on AirTran and have never had a problem. You have two main options:
1. Pay the $6 fee up front to guarantee that you can select your seats and be sitting together.
2. Check-in as soon as possible at the 24-hour mark before your flight where your seat selection can then be done for free (you are probably already prepared to do this if you fly Southwest anyway).

If those options fail, I have found that most people on a plane are sympathetic to people wanting to sit with their children and will gladly re-arrange their seats in whatever way works best to ensure that you can be with your children. Just calmly explain your situation to the flight attendants or other passengers and don't be greedy about it and try to pry people from good seats or seats they may have paid extra for - that's not fair to them.

Good luck!

The first two don't apply for air tran booked through sw.
As for the third ymmv but on a flight to mco that is full of families I wouldn't count on anyone rearranging themselves away from their families so you can sit with yours

 

[kristinesgeorge]

I wasn't assuming someone else should rearrange their seats so I can sit with mine but was concerned about a 4 year old sitting by himself. He was very wiggly during our trip last year and I expect the same for this trip. I guess I had heard that a child under a certain age MUST be sitting with his parent and was wondering what others have experienced. Our Air Tran leg is actually the way to Orlando not from.

 

[crashbb]

I wasn't assuming someone else should rearrange their seats so I can sit with mine but was concerned about a 4 year old sitting by himself. He was very wiggly during our trip last year and I expect the same for this trip. I guess I had heard that a child under a certain age MUST be sitting with his parent and was wondering what others have experienced. Our Air Tran leg is actually the way to Orlando not from.

The only time it is a MUST is if the child is in a car seat. Otherwise, most airlines will try to make it happen, but no promises.

 

[minnierocks]

This is why we booked through AirTran instead of Southwest...I will gladly pay for my luggage and buy my seats so that I can ensure that I travel with my family. There are a lot of threads that are discussing this topic. The bottom line is that if you are booked through Southwest, then your seat will be assigned by the airline and if there are not seats available together because AirTran customers have purchased their seat, then you will not be seated together. Those people who have paid for their seat are not likely to switch seats with you. With flights being full and overbooked regularly, this is going to be an ongoing issue.

 

[kristenrice]

Use the SWA site to book your SWA leg. This will give you free luggage but non-assigned seating. Then go to the AT site to book your AT leg. Yes, you will have to pay for luggage and yes, you will have to pay for assigned seats, but you will have the peace of mind knowing that you will be seated with your family.

I'm flying SW for the first time this November. I've always flown AT and purchased seats for our family. This trip will be just DH and I and, while we would love to sit together, I am not going to pay for EBCI and just press our luck by checking in at 24 hours out. If we get two seats together, great. If not, oh well. I'll probably be sleeping or reading the whole way anyways.