Airtran Flight Upgrades after Nov 1?
 

While shopping SEA-ATL on Nov 6, the SWA website offer four routes and three of them ended with a FL flight (from MKE, MDW or LAS). Thinking it would be great to be bumped up to biz class on a long LAS-ATL, flight, I bounced over to Airtran.com to buy the ticket. But...you can't buy a flight on Airtran.

Lately, I've been getting bumped up front on every Airtran flight, provided I book through Airtran.com.

What is happening to those 12 biz class seats after November 1? Is there any way to secure them? What about getting assigned seats on FL metal after Nov 1? Is there any way to do that? I can't imagine that SWA.com is going to add a seat selector for a handful of FL flights.

Since the A+ Rewards program ends on November 1, does that mean I don't have Elite status anymore? (and the A+List status seems to be a relative joke...) Can I pay four Airtran credits for an upgrade before Nov 1?

I suspect I am out of luck. I appreciate any advice.

Bill

GOOD QUESTIONS!

So far as I know no announcements have been made.

I suspect seat selection will work the same way it does now. I am pretty sure that if you purchase a BS seat you will get in the front, like you do now.

I suspect that Elite upgrades will be the same confused chaotic situation we have now, only worse. I carry my Elite Card with me just in case.

I don't think the 4 credit upgrades were ever available for tickets booked on Southwest.com, but I never tried.

I also never tried to upgrade at the gate. I wonder if that is or will be offered to people up purchase on Southwest.com. Southwest does have a $40 upgrade to A1-15 which could be applied to Airtran passengers with a Biz seat.

Airtran Flight Upgrades after Nov 1st?
 

When I flew Friday out of BWI, the counter clerk told me that Southwest sold all the AirTran planes to Delta. The last Air Tran flights with business upgrades will be 12/28 then all flights will follow the current WN model.
Basically, enjoy your upgrades for a couple more months.

I am trying to decide to take one more flight before the Nov. 1st deadline. I have 5 points in 90 days with 4 more booked.

I need to find a $69 dollar flight.

As I mentioned in the previous reply...

Sign in to Airtran.com
Sign in to Southwest.com
Buy an itinerary that includes an Airtran flight.
After completing the purchase, SW sends you to Airtran.com to select and pay for a seat. The color coding shows rows 12-15 are $18-$20, but that seat fare was waived once I selected it. So Airtran.com "knows" that I am elite, even after November 1.

But... then I tried to call the Airtran Elite desk to use 4 points to buy an upgrade. She said I could not do that unless the ticket was purchased through Airtran. I pointed out this was impossible since Airtran.com won't issue tickets after Oct 31. She said the only way to get into Business Class was to pay full fare on Southwest.com.

A shot in the dark... I wonder if the ticket counter folks have a way of selling Airtran flights during the 11/1/14 to 12/28/14 period?