using Kayak.com for Airtran

[WINTER]

anyone know why you don't have to pay for seats when you go through Kayak.com?

 

[FINFAN]

no but I sure would like to since DD flies them about 6-8 times a year!

 

[dioxide45]

Is Kayak treated like a travel agent to AirTran? Apparently if you buy through a TA, you don't pay the seat assignment fee either. This may be the reason why?

 

[WINTER]

I got my airline tickets myself through Airtran but clicked on Airtran on the Kayak.com site. Just curious! Wish they took care of luggage costs as well!

 

[got2travel]

I'm not sure why it works. But kayak.com is not a travel agent or booking engine like travelocity or expedia. It's really jus a search engine that checks all other sources, the big travel sites plus the individual airline sites.

I booked on Orbitz, linked through from kayak for a United flight and was not charged for selecting my seats. So there must be something within the link that kayak provides???

 

[kevgraub]

I booked on Orbitz, linked through from kayak for a United flight and was not charged for selecting my seats. So there must be something within the link that kayak provides???

I'm not sure how Orbitz works, but I did read on here one time about someone who went through Travelocity to book tickets on Airtran, and thought they had reserved their seats for free, only to find out that it was only treated as a "request" of some sort and they really did not have the seats they thought they did. I can't remember all the details about it, but I'd be a little bit careful.

As for the kayak.com thing - I have no idea why it works. However, I did call Airtran about two weeks after booking to verify that my seats were in fact assigned, and the agent verified they were and read back my seat numbers for me.

 

[Missytara]

Whoever originally posted about this; thanks so much. I booked my round trip airfare for $218.20 and did not have to pay the seat fee for either flight!

 

[got2travel]

I'm not sure how Orbitz works, but I did read on here one time about someone who went through Travelocity to book tickets on Airtran, and thought they had reserved their seats for free, only to find out that it was only treated as a "request" of some sort and they really did not have the seats they thought they did. I can't remember all the details about it, but I'd be a little bit careful.

As for the kayak.com thing - I have no idea why it works. However, I did call Airtran about two weeks after booking to verify that my seats were in fact assigned, and the agent verified they were and read back my seat numbers for me.

I've already flown and the seats I picked were the seats I got when I did the online check in. This worked for 2 separate reservations.

 

[dioxide45]

I'm not sure why it works. But kayak.com is not a travel agent or booking engine like travelocity or expedia. It's really jus a search engine that checks all other sources, the big travel sites plus the individual airline sites.

I booked on Orbitz, linked through from kayak for a United flight and was not charged for selecting my seats. So there must be something within the link that kayak provides???

But how does Kayak make money? They make it from click throughs to the ads and return results that they provide. Perhaps some of the airlines consider them a TA and treat them like such.