AirTran Airways A+ Rewards - ? Concerning If/When SW pulls out of an Airtran City

So, booking a flight on Airtran for winter trip...It will be in early February. The local airport (BMI) is in talks with southwest to see what their plans are, but nothing is firm.

If SW pulls out, I assume I will get my money back. My concern is more around booking another ticket with shorter notice and paying crazy money for it.

Do you think SW would allow me to move to another city nearby w/o charge? I'm not sure how soon SW will pull services out of a given city, but I just want to be prepared.

Fellow BMI flyer here. I think you are safe with a February flight. I don't think Southwest even starts flying in Atlanta until February, so I don't think there will be any Airtran cuts before then.

Even if they do cut the flight, I think you will be given pretty good lead time so a replacement ticket will not be crazy expensive.

I figured that February would be safe as well, especially if they can fill the planes. I know they have pretty decent loads through then end of March for winter escapes and spring breaks.

Legally WN must provide alternative transportation if they stop serving a location assuming you have already been ticketed.

Can they supply you with a bus ticket?

FWIW, I had a LAX flight booked when FL pulled out of TLH.

After 4 schedule changes in 3 days, I spoke to a CSR. She got me on confirmed flight and I didn't think anything of it.

It wasn't until the day of the flight that I realized that the CSR had comped my wife and I into BC.

FL made a friend for life...well the life of the airline anyway

Legally WN must provide alternative transportation if they stop serving a location assuming you have already been ticketed.

I believe the only legal obligation is to refund the amount paid for the ticket.

That is also my belief. I wouldn't know where to look for the threads, but I am sure they exist where that is the only thing that happened.

Legally WN must provide alternative transportation if they stop serving a location assuming you have already been ticketed.

All they must do is provide a refund. Ask those who bought tickets to Hawaii via WN's codeshare with ATA a few years ago. When ATA went bankrupt, WN initially promised to rebook everyone who purchased a ticket. Then, WN decided it was FAR too expensive to rebook on other carriers and decided to just refund the tickets -- ruining many passengers' dream vacations in the process.

All they must do is provide a refund. Ask those who bought tickets to Hawaii via WN's codeshare with ATA a few years ago. When ATA went bankrupt, WN initially promised to rebook everyone who purchased a ticket. Then, WN decided it was FAR too expensive to rebook on other carriers and decided to just refund the tickets -- ruining many passengers' dream vacations in the process.

Remember when YX pulled numerous flights in 2008. They promised to reaccomodate passengers. In the end, the easiest solution was to issue refunds.

I might add they were issued quite promptly.

well, I guess I'll hope they still offer the service. And I'm really hoping they offer it to 2 cities as I'll be connecting...

If things were to fall through, moving me to MDW or IND would be acceptable if there are open spots.

They are discontinuing service to my city, but they did give plenty of notice. The announcement was back in July (or maybe August), and they are discontinuing service in January.

Kind of ticks me off that they are leaving though. I just flew a round trip last week, and both flights were packed full.

All they must do is provide a refund. Ask those who bought tickets to Hawaii via WN's codeshare with ATA a few years ago. When ATA went bankrupt, WN initially promised to rebook everyone who purchased a ticket. Then, WN decided it was FAR too expensive to rebook on other carriers and decided to just refund the tickets -- ruining many passengers' dream vacations in the process.

I still think that was a HUGE mistake for Southwest. Yet it gave us an accurate picture of how decisions are made at today's Southwest. Cost is very much an object.

I hope WN continues service to BMI in some manner post merger. BMI is surprisingly a top ten ATL load factor market for FL. Boyd mentioned that daily O&D traffic generated by BMI into and out of ATL for FL would equate to three full 737-700s for WN. The question may be if BMI could support traffic to BWI/DEN in addition to ATL. However, everything appears to be up in the air at the moment. It would be a huge loss for BMI if WN discontinues all service. Let's hope that doesn't happen!