Travel on AirTran

[Anonymous]

Anyone have any experiences with this carrier? How does it compare, for example, with Southwest? I am thinking of booking an hour long flight with my one year old and would appreciate any input.

[Anonymous]

I love Airtran...we fly it at least 4 times a year nonstop from National to Ft. Myers and back and have been doing so since about 2003. I literally have no complaints (except it leaves from the old terminal, terminal A). I don't think we've ever been more than 20 minutes late. I live in DC and don't make the trip to BWI, so I haven't taken SW to compare, sorry.

[maynie]

I've flown AirTran once and hated it. I think the problem was just with the counter at Dallas/Ft Worth. They were checking in so slowly almost everyone missed the flight. We all had to be re-booked on flights later in the day. It was awful. My experience probably isn't the norm though, so if I were you I would probably go ahead and book it.

[Anonymous]

I just recently flew with AirTran with my two kids. It was genuinely fine and no better or worse than any other airline I used. With AirTran, they did not board families with kids first but personally, I don't find that any great convenience or inconvenience.

[Anonymous]

We fly Air Tran 2-3 times a year, BWI to Boston, and never have any trouble. They've always let us board early with kids but I guess that might have changed since the fall when we last flew. They have a great website--book your tickets there to easily customize your flights. We love 'em!

[Anonymous]

We had a really bad experience with AirTran when we flew with our two children. I seriously doubt I will fly them again.

And it is obnoxious they won't let you pre-board when you have kids.

Isn't AirTran the one where the stewardess told the mother to give her kid benadryl so the kid would shut up?

[Anonymous]

AirTran's web site says the following: "AirTran Airways will board unaccompanied minors, passengers traveling with infant in arms and passengers requiring special assistance first provided they have identified themselves to an AirTran Airways gate agent prior the start of general boarding."

[Anonymous]

Book your seats online in advance instead of leaving it to chance (they board in "groups" and then it's a free for all- like SW and JetBlue)- it costs something like $5/seat in advance, but is completely worth it. Preboarding doesn't do much good, IMO, but knowing our seats are reserved mean A LOT - so spend the extra few bucks.

[Anonymous]

The WORST airlines to take a baby on! First off, they don't preboard. You have to specifically ask them when you check in. With other airlines, they see you with stroller and tell you to board. The boarding agent at Dulles yelled at me and told me that we should have told the ticketing agent and then said "Oh well, I'm not going to worry about it!" What???

Basically, they boarded everyone on our flight through a different door and I had no idea (our flight was late taking off and we were told to wait), when I finally questioned when we would board, she said "your group has already boarded," which is when I asked about the preboarding. We were the last to board on a full flight and it was a nightmare! Also, on the flight back, the seat next to us was empty but they wouldn't let me bring my daughter's car seat on board to sit there without me paying a full ticket price.

On Delta, US Airways and United, they will check to see if the seat is empty next to you when you check in (probably out of courtesy to other passenger too) and if so, they;ll let you bring your car seat on board. I will never fly this airlines again.

Oh and they left my daughters car seat and stroller out in the rain, so it was soaking wet when we got it back. We had to line it with paper towels and it still soaked through. They also broke our stroller handle.

[maynie]

Anonymous wrote:The WORST airlines to take a baby on! First off, they don't preboard. You have to specifically ask them when you check in. With other airlines, they see you with stroller and tell you to board. The boarding agent at Dulles yelled at me and told me that we should have told the ticketing agent and then said "Oh well, I'm not going to worry about it!" What???

Basically, they boarded everyone on our flight through a different door and I had no idea (our flight was late taking off and we were told to wait), when I finally questioned when we would board, she said "your group has already boarded," which is when I asked about the preboarding. We were the last to board on a full flight and it was a nightmare! Also, on the flight back, the seat next to us was empty but they wouldn't let me bring my daughter's car seat on board to sit there without me paying a full ticket price.

On Delta, US Airways and United, they will check to see if the seat is empty next to you when you check in (probably out of courtesy to other passenger too) and if so, they;ll let you bring your car seat on board. I will never fly this airlines again.

Oh and they left my daughters car seat and stroller out in the rain, so it was soaking wet when we got it back. We had to line it with paper towels and it still soaked through. They also broke our stroller handle.

I can't believe they wouldn't let you take your car seat. I've done that more than a few times. The airline employees are the ones that told me to. And they even moved us to the front row so we had the extra space and I didn't have to worry about disturbing as many people.

[Anonymous]

Thanks very much for the very useful information. 16:45- I can't believe they would not allow your daughter's car seat if the seat was empty. I was wondering about that very issue, but have never heard of an airline that wouldn't permit it.

[Anonymous]

I don't think there is one domestic airline on which I haven't had a bad experience. Outside of absurd delays, most of my issues have been because of the attitude/ineptitude of a specific airline employee. I think the chances of everything not going entirely smoothly are pretty high on any airline, so I've abandoned any airline loyalty and just go with the best fare or most convenient time, etc.

[Anonymous]

The airline is low-rent -- the seats and general condition is a bit worn. Agreed they do not do preboarding with infants, you just have to go up with the first group. Not my first choice when I fly.

[Anonymous]

I'm the poster from 14:40.

I'm not going to go into details but I find them to be very unfriendly to families.

I also think they are pretty rude. We had experienced some very long flight delays due to some bad weather and we had handled it as best as possible, but the real killer for me was when we boarded the plane and the pilot had a smarta**ed comment about the wait and the customers. It wasn't necessary.

We won't fly them again. As far as I'm concerned they even beat United on rudeness -- and I've experienced some pretty intense snarkiness from United.

[Anonymous]

I've had bad experiences with many different airlines over the years. We fly Airtran to Florida twice a year and they run on-time and are cheap. If my kids were very young, maybe another airline would be better, but I'm not convinced of that. I encountered rude flight attendants on American, United, and a horrible one on USAirways when travelling alone with my kids.

Now they are 4 and 7, so we don't need to lug car seats onto the plane. They can pull their own luggage. It's easy to fly Airtran as we don't need any special assistance. Also, I know they will be no time, which is very important to me when travelling with my kids.