Final Flight #1 12-28-2014
 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/southw...151000270.html


"AirTran Airways Flight 1 will operate on Sunday, Dec. 28, 2014, as the carrier's final scheduled departure. The evening flight from Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to Tampa Bay reprises the first flight the carrier operated on Oct. 26, 1993. Southwest Airlines Co. announced its acquisition of AirTran Airways in September 2010, and closed the transaction on May 2, 2011. The FAA awarded the Company a single operating certificate for the two carriers on March 1, 2012, and the Company plans to close 2014 with wholly owned subsidiary AirTran fully-integrated into Southwest Airlines serving a network of 93 destinations in five countries."

End of an era
 

And so it is final.

Which leads us to another question. When do we lay the Airtran Airways | A+ Rewards forum to rest? With the last flight scheduled for December 28, 2014, I suppose the Mods could let her live on 'til the end of the year. Keep in mind, the forum would always be available for reference (similar to America West, Midwest Air, TWA, etc.). Thoughts?

I think it's good to keep it open until December 31, 2014 because that would let us post final links to the AirTran final flight, etc. and share them on this forum before it is put to rest.

As an interesting note: all business class seats and low cost seats on the final flight have already been sold out. I was thinking of going, but if I can't fly up front then that's not how I want to remember my final AirTran flight. :-)

The Business Class seats were marked as sold out as soon as the flight was posted. I imagine GK and crew are turning it into some sort of "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" junket. As far as I can tell there have been no WGA seats on any flights to Florida between about Dec 25 and Jan 4 almost since the new schedule was published. I used the low fare calendar and saw nothing for several different destinations.

Incorrect. J seats were available from around 0500-1100.

GCK is not one of those people up there.

The reason why fares have not dropped initially is because the revenue management system lags in populating the lower bucket fares that far out. This is true of every other flight as well that gets opened up with an extension.

That doesn't seem correct. Low fare buckets are available up to Jan 4 on many other flights. It may well be that the Revenue Management system is holding out certain popular destinations, but it is not doing it across the board.

When the schedule opens up all flights only show full Y. After a few hours the system populates lower buckets, but not all based on demand. Had you looked at the flights early in the am they would have all been at the same price point.

Lowest fare is still $346. Airtran would sometimes lag up to 3 days. We're now further out than that. This flight has to be booked on Southwest.com

On the flipside all Airtran bookings after Nov 1st forward to Southwest.com.

A+ earnings end on Nov 1st.

That seems to be the date it should switch.

Putting the airline to rest with comments should be allowed in the WN forum.

Yeah, but we've all seen firsthand how hostile the WN loyalists can be in their forum toward us FL refugees when we bring up the benefits of FL and our disappointment in losing them. (Similarly, we're just as protective over here when the WN folks start spilling the LUV koolaid in our forum.) Suggesting that we reminisce about FL over in the WN forum is a recipe for disaster.

I was looking at flights in and out of Florida between Xmas and the end of the schedule including TPA, FLL, and MCO.

I actually first looked at about 7:00 AM EDT the day the schedule opened and there were a few WGA fares and even a couple of flights with Standard Award availability. By the afternoon they were gone. Since then in a few cases some WGA fares have shown up but very sparsely.

I've also noticed that Southwest is not the lowest priced flight on on any of the routes I checked during that period. Depending on the airport and the route Southwest was usually $100 or more higher. The lowest price (even adjusting for bag fees) varied but included AA and Delta.

Yes, because the lower buckets were probably available for a few hours if that at all due to demand.

Just stood in 20-minute line at ATL counter to buy FL01 ticket offline.

It's not allowed.

I don't think this is correct. I received a PM from another Airtran fan timed stamped at 8:22 AM* asking me if I was planning on taking the last flight and expressing disappointment that neither Biz or WAG Biz seats were available. Therewere no WGA fare availible at that time on any ATL-TPA flight that day. There are a few now although FL 1 shows Biz and WGA "Sold Out" although the other flights that day only show WGA "Not Available"

I'm not sure why but time stamps on FT are usually 2 or 3 hours earlier that actual time. I am posting this about 11:30 EDT. If that hold the PM i got was actually sent at 5:22 EDT>