What on earth has Airtran done to their schedule?!

[cjnix29]

I have been monitoring flights out of Grand Rapids to Orlando for quite awhile. We have taken an non stop out several times before. But their schedules have gotten horrible! No non stops, no flights without long delays, and you either leave REALLY early in the morning, or you don't get their til really late at night! I haven't checked a ton of dates, but several days before and after we want to fly. Do you think SW has changed up their schedules?! And to find reward flights is even worse! We are driving to DTW to fly out for our cruise because we just can't get anything decent out of GRR! Thanks, had to vent!

 

[lnh'smom]

YES YES YES!! I noticed that too! We fly out of Indy and I have also noticed that their prices have increased dramatically. (Yes I understand that ticket prices have increased in general, but theirs seems to have increased more than others.) There's only one decent flight that we want to take out and it's more than double the cost of the other flights. We are gonna end up paying $2000 for flights that last time cost us $1000. Plus, like you said, there just aren't good flight times without lengthy layovers!

 

[maxiesmom]

I've noticed the same thing too, and it makes me very unhappy. I thought maybe it had something to do with the Southwest takeover, but that is just a guess.

I'm trying to plan a quick trip to WDW in December, so I've been waiting for what seems like forever for their schedule to come out. Delta has a ton of flights, but they are very expensive. I'm still hoping AirTran adds flights, or we may have to drive to Detroit or Flint.

 

[kristenrice]

We're driving to Detroit from Grand Rapids for the 4th time next month. I've flown AT out of GR once and it was great, but it was only cheaper because I was flying solo. I got a decent price for my ticket ($200 r/t) but it was only $175 from DTW.

We get a room at a Marriott (either the Fairfield Inn or the Springhill Suites) and use the park and fly rate. The room with up to 8 days of parking costs us about $100 so it's a pretty good deal.

In just over three weeks, 15 of us our driving to Detroit, staying in 4 rooms at the Springhill and then taking the 11am non-stop to Orlando the next day. Our total for the 4 rooms including parking was $425. Since we're going for 7 nights, our parking out of Grand Rapids would have cost us $225 and we would have been on a 7am flight for $150 more per person. It was a complete no-brainer to make the 2 hour drive.

 

[itrek]

There aren't any non-stops out of Flint on Airtran to MCO now either. I've taken the 7:00am flight to MCO on Friday or Saturday morning so many times over the past several years then back on an non-stop Sunday night flight around 7:30pm - 8:30pm. These flights were usually between $166 - $230 for round trip tickets for several years until now. Now it's over $300 to get to MCO from Flint and no non-stops. It's cheaper out of Detroit for at $262 on Delta non-stop and now Airtran doesn't even fly non-stop to MCO out of Detroit either.

I'm not sure why Southwest/Airtran would price their flights so high with a stop in Atlanta when they're up against Delta and Spirit flying non-stop for less. I used to pay about $30 extra for the ease of flying out of Flint. I love that airport and between it being half the distance as I have to drive to Detroit plus parking being almost half as much as Detroit, it was always worth it. Now it makes more sense to spend the extra 30 minutes in the car getting to the Detroit airport versus an extra 3 to 5 hours more in air travel plus higher fares out of Flint. I just don't see how that pricing model is going to work for Southwest/Airtran. I have noticed that the Airtran pricing is very similar to Southwest pricing though.

 

[TaraPA]

I don't want to jump to any conclusions - but this is exactly what happened to the flights in/out of ABE - the schedule changed, the flights decreased, then poof - we got the announcement that SW was pulling AT out completely. I hope this isn't the case for all of you, because I know I'm not the only one that misses AT!!! Hopefully it's just a work in progress during the SW/AT merger & they're working out the kinks.

 

[eeyoregon]

I've noticed the same thing too, and it makes me very unhappy. I thought maybe it had something to do with the Southwest takeover, but that is just a guess.

I completely agree! Call it coincidence but I think not. SWA is dragging their feet beyond belief regarding flights past November 1. HELLO!?!? November is a little over 5 months away and you can't book flights yet??!!

And for the flights that you can book. SWA is coming in hundreds higher than the other airlines even factoring in baggage fees.

Very disappointing to say the least.

 

[cjnix29]

I couldn't get a non stop out of DTW either, on SW, but atleast I found a decent time, and could get a decent price with SW points. I guess the difference in baggage fees will make up for the parking in DTW? I certainly hope AirTran doesn't pull out of GRR, because I keep hoping they will get reasonable again at some point. May have to look into the park and fly thing. Thanks for that tip!

 

[Brian Noble]

Airlines in general are reducing service out of smaller airports, partly because they are simply not as profitable. The few flights that remain end up being much more expensive, because the same number of flyers are chasing fewer seats.

 

[Inkmahm]

I completely agree! Call it coincidence but I think not. SWA is dragging their feet beyond belief regarding flights past November 1. HELLO!?!? November is a little over 5 months away and you can't book flights yet??!!

And for the flights that you can book. SWA is coming in hundreds higher than the other airlines even factoring in baggage fees.

Very disappointing to say the least.

Agree here for Milwaukee, too. My flights to MCO in October have changed twice already. I can live with the 8:45 am time now as that is better than the 7:35 am time it was switched to for our direct flight.

And I'm still waiting for November /December flights to open so I can book our trip then to MCO. It seems like it is really late compared to last year but I don't remember when I booked last year so maybe it is my imagination.

 

[cjnix29]

Airlines in general are reducing service out of smaller airports, partly because they are simply not as profitable. The few flights that remain end up being much more expensive, because the same number of flyers are chasing fewer seats.

The strange thing is...there are about 10 flights still a day. That hasnt' changed. Just lousy times now!