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Nope -- they still function as completely separate airlines. Your AirTran credit can only buy flights you purchase on airtran.com.Originally Posted by dldkjones
I have funds from a cancelled Airtran ticket that I would like to use to buy a ticket on Southwest. Is there any way that this can this be done?
There is talk of code sharing coming soon, and while it's been talked of several times before (the purchase was completed 20 months ago) it sounds like it might be right around the corner. However it's described as "limited", at least at first. And therefore it might not help with your request.
--It would have to be code sharing which allows you to buy Southwest flights on the AirTran website as if they were operated by AirTran. If, instead, this code sharing is just about putting the Southwest code on AirTran flights, that won't help you.
--Code sharing could limited to connecting flights between the airlines. So perhaps code sharing will allow you to go to the AirTran site and buy a RIC-ATL-AUS connecting ticket, where ATL-AUS is flown by Southwest. But it might not just let you buy ATL-AUS alone (the Southwest leg) on the AirTran site.
--The notion of "limited" code sharing could mean only select markets are available. So even if this looming code sharing does allow you to buy a Southwest flight on airtran.com, it's possible that it will be limited to specific routes.
So there's a fair chance that at some future point (perhaps soon) code sharing could allow you to use your AirTran credit to buy a Southwest flight. But at this point it's uncertain when that will be, nor it if it will necessarily be the type of code sharing that will help you.
Beyond code sharing possibly helping you in the future, there's not anything to suggest you'll someday be able to use AirTran credit to buy tickets on Southwest.