Air Tran, anyone?

[MikeJ]

Anyone have any experience flying AirTran? We've got a trip booked for August, and AirTran has n/s flights from Flint, MI to MCO at very attractive rates. There's a lot of info about them over on the transporation board, but I was wondering if anyone here had any experience with them.

- Mike

 

[Dragon Lady]

Hey Mike,

I flew AT to the Dominican Republic and to Puerto Vallarta. Unfortunately I wasn't very impressed, especially on the DR trip.

We got to the airport at their recommended time (4 am) to ensure good seats (we didn't pay the 100 pp to reserve seats), the check in people were incredible unpleasant, very strict about luggage weight, and about carry on weight and dimensions. For carry-on you are allowed one bag each up to a certain weight and dimension, we had one bag between the two of us, it met the dimensions, but was above the individual weight restriction, they would not listen when we said it was for both of us (ended up taking out our water bottles and just holding on to them till after the checkin, then put them right back in again). The seats were tiny, thankfully our seats were at the back of the plane so my husband spent most of our 6 hour trip leaning on our seats from behind. You have to pay for headsets (we brought our own), used to get to keep them (neat wind up set) now they want them back!!

And of course, the food was horrible.

Dragon Lady

 

[MikeJ]

Upon checking the AirTran website, they don't appear to fly to either Puerto Vallarta or the Dominican. Are you referring to the US discount airline AirTran or the horrible Canadian airline Air Transat? I'm talking about the former.

- Mike

 

[krishouse]

Hi,
My husband and I recently flew
Airtran from Buffalo to Orlando and found it a great experience.
Great staff, right on time and all in all a really good
atmosphere.

good luck
kristin

 

[Dragon Lady]

hey Mikej

my mistake, i was talking about air transat (assumed you had abbreviated it).

DL

 

[dsneygirl]

We have flown Air Tran many times, most recenlty last week from Buffalo. The only downside is that you have to change planes in Atlanta but it is usually only a few gates over and the Atlanta airport has lots of restaurants and shops. Also the stopover's are also usually only 20-30 minutes.
Also there are no meals, movies, blankets or pillows so come prepared for no frills. For us it is totally worth it. Our flights were half the cost to fly out of Pearson.

 

[MikeJ]

Actually, AirTran has one daily Flint-MCO non-stop flight (and two dozen connecting flights) which would eliminate the need for the Atlanta stop. Southbound leaves Flint at 7:15am and northbound leaves MCO at 7:45pm. As far as no frills goes, we've flown Spirit out of DTW before, so we know what we'd be getting into.

Most reviews of AirTran have been very good, so we will take a serious look at them.

- Mike

 

[dsneygirl]

Sorry I didn't see that you had posted Flint and was thinking Buffalo. If it is direct then I wouldn't hesitate to fly Air Tran.

 

[Yzma and Kronk]

MikeJ - DH flies them frequently to BUF when visiting family in YYZ. He actually prefers them over Delta. They fly new Boeing 717's, he says the service is good and you can't beat their pricing. DH will be taking them Flint to ATL in July after dropping us off at family near Sarnia, ON. I've also heard great things about using Flint airport (as opposed to Detroit Metro). Much smaller and less hastle than DTW. If you are planning on flying after July, I can give you more feedback then.