AirTran Airways A+ Rewards - AirTran unassigned seating. Am I asking for trouble?

My husband & I are planning a little trip to New Orleans, flying FNT to MSY, depart 12/26, return 12/30. AirTran has the best deal, but those fares are unassigned seating. I've never dealt with this situation before, so obviously I'm afraid of the flight being way overbooked, getting bumped, getting trampled at the gate, not being able to sit together (although that is the least of my worries). Am I being paranoid? :eek: Can someone here put my fears to rest? Thanks!

All of your worries can happen on an airline that has assigned seats. Maybe less likely, but that can, and do, happen.

Just for clarification. You will have an assigned seat prior to boarding. Airtran does not do open seating, so the fear of being trampled at the gate is unlikely. Unless you have Cinnabun and didn't bring enough for everyone.

Airtran offers you the ability to pay a fee and have an advance assigned seat. If you really want to sit together then pay the extra $12 a person (round-trip) to pick seats out in advance to sit together. If you want to save the money, then check in the earliest possible. May not guarantee seats together but you will get seats.

LOL! Fortunately they do not have a Cinnabons at Flint Bishop Airport, so I will dodge a potential hazard there.

Thanks so much for your thoughts & advice. I was thinking that getting to the airport as early as possible may be a good thing, but I did not know the fee for getting an assigned seat. That's cheap enough that I'll pop for it, as even with the fee, the fare is still better than anyone else. ;) (and before anyone asks, yes, DTW is a bit cheaper, but the drive to the airport combined with the parking fees, and oh, the possibility of airport congestion because of planned personnel layoffs... ugh. Flint is much more pleasant!)

I was thinking that getting to the airport as early as possible may be a good thing, but I did not know the fee for getting an assigned seat. That's cheap enough that I'll pop for it, as even with the fee, the fare is still better than anyone else.

You can check in on-line 24 hours before scheduled departure and select a seat then. There is no fee for this.

You can check in on-line 24 hours before scheduled departure and select a seat then. There is no fee for this.

I think the fee applies only to the el cheapo seats that I'm looking at. They do have fares that have no fee to get an assigned seat (but they are starting at $70 more each way!)

For added discussion, please follow as the thread moves to our AirTran airline forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

To summarize what is above, with a few more thoughts:
1. You can go on-line and pick out seats for $6 anytime you want on any fare.
2. You can go on-line and pick out seats for free 24 hours ahead of departure on any fare.
3. Many pax do neither of these and seat selection is ample at the counter.
4. I wouldn't worry about overbooking nearly as much as with other airlines, as AirTran fares are totally forfeited by no shows (except Business Class and A2B customers). For this reason, almost everyone does in fact show up and they overbook far less than other carriers as a result, usually because of irregular operations.

Thanks again everyone, for all of the info on how this airline works. I did just book my flight, and my type-A personality forced me to select my seats. As was said before, that ended up adding $12 per R/T ticket, so not a huge deal (the fare still beats the competition). For anyone reading this in the future, when you are choosing your seats, the site does imply that you will be charged $6 per seat per leg (thus doubling that $12 to $24 per ticket), but that is not the case.

Gosh, if that is all they are charging, you'd think that they could just pad that charge into the fare & get rid of the reputation that this can give them (ie, having someone like me think twice before booking with them).

Its only a few bucks more for the exit row - $20 per direction

No one should ever pay the $6 for an assigned seat on AirTran. You can get an assigned seat free if you link to AirTran's website via Kayak. Your flight is still booked directly at AirTran's website, you just don't pay the fee. There should never be a reason to not have an assigned seat ahead of time. The exit rows are not free though.

Thanks again everyone, for all of the info on how this airline works. I did just book my flight, and my type-A personality forced me to select my seats. As was said before, that ended up adding $12 per R/T ticket, so not a huge deal (the fare still beats the competition). For anyone reading this in the future, when you are choosing your seats, the site does imply that you will be charged $6 per seat per leg (thus doubling that $12 to $24 per ticket), but that is not the case.

Gosh, if that is all they are charging, you'd think that they could just pad that charge into the fare & get rid of the reputation that this can give them (ie, having someone like me think twice before booking with them).

They love those type A's!! My wife flys airTran.
She never pays for the seat. She maintains that few people do and when you check in you can get a really good seat for free that a type-A would pay for. I have to believe her. She always has her aisle seat at the front of the plane.

I just paid for the exit row seat on one of my flights. Do these always become free when olci is open? The middle seat is currently empty and I'd like for it to stay that way, rather than have the entire exit row fill up and have lots of empty seats on the rest of the aircraft.

Also, any ideas what I can do with two ff points? I'm visiting the US and unlikely to take any more FL flights. I'm just a little disappointed I'm getting the same points flying 5000 miles as one would flying 500 miles!

I just paid for the exit row seat on one of my flights. Do these always become free when olci is open? The middle seat is currently empty and I'd like for it to stay that way, rather than have the entire exit row fill up and have lots of empty seats on the rest of the aircraft.

Also, any ideas what I can do with two ff points? I'm visiting the US and unlikely to take any more FL flights. I'm just a little disappointed I'm getting the same points flying 5000 miles as one would flying 500 miles!

Hi ung1,

In general, exit seats do not become free at OCLI. However, if the flight is full (and not enough people upgrade to Biz Class), the gate agent will assign passengers to the exit row seats (and possibly even Biz Class seats) without charge. With luck, you will keep your empty middle seat.

RE your two A+ credits: I don't think there is anything you can do with them, short of buying a couple more and giving a one-way Biz Class upgrade to a friend.

P.S. - Welcome to the FL forum!

Hi ung1,

In general, exit seats do not become free at OCLI. However, if the flight is full (and not enough people upgrade to Biz Class), the gate agent will assign passengers to the exit row seats (and possibly even Biz Class seats) without charge. With luck, you will keep your empty middle seat.

RE your two A+ credits: I don't think there is anything you can do with them, short of buying a couple more and giving a one-way Biz Class upgrade to a friend.

P.S. - Welcome to the FL forum!

Thanks, that sounds reassuring. Unfortunately seatcounter.com doesn't seem to have data for FL, so I can't check how full my flight is, though a lot of seats seem to have been preselected (I'm guessing they block a lot of these so the loads probably aren't actually quite high?)

I wish I could be awarded the A+ points before the flight, and buy a couple and upgrade myself, but alas that's never going to happen. I suppose I snagged a really good fare, so that kind of makes up for it.

Is there a forum somewhere to sell these credits to someone who can actually use them? Transferring them costs $19 each while buying them costs $39, so I'm guessing this shouldn't be too hard. Anyone with experience doing this?

Hi ung1,

In general, exit seats do not become free at OCLI. However, if the flight is full (and not enough people upgrade to Biz Class), the gate agent will assign passengers to the exit row seats (and possibly even Biz Class seats) without charge. With luck, you will keep your empty middle seat.

RE your two A+ credits: I don't think there is anything you can do with them, short of buying a couple more and giving a one-way Biz Class upgrade to a friend.

P.S. - Welcome to the FL forum!

You could always use them to bid on an item at the A+ auction. Sometimes items there start for less than 2 credits. http://www.airtran.com/auction