Airline Shopping

[OhMari]

I need a new airline. I know Sunshine's has Travelocity, but can someone tell me who to trust?

Midwest Express can get me to Orlando from Milwaukee, but they can't get me home. I would be stuck in Indy. So my only solution was a refund, or pay $440 per ticket extra to fly home with a different carrier. I took the refund.

I am so hesitatant to start over-I don't know which airline to trust.

Airtran would be $260
DELTA-$182
Those 2 are out of Milwaukee

If I flew out of O'Hare, prices are running in the $300-$400 and above. Even Southwest out of Midway in Chicago is over $300 a ticket.

[SunshineGirl]

I fly both Delta and AirTran. AirTran does move flights sometimes, but I always end up getting them to give me an even better flight for the same price when that happens. Delta has a hub near here, so I used to fly them all the time. That's actually where SG has most of his frequent traveler miles.

I would say to look at baggage costs. I'm not sure if either of them is now charging for first bags, but I know that AirTran is charging for second bags. They also charge extra if you want to pick your seat. So factor in any of those types of things as well before you choose.

[m4travels]

Because of the amount of flying we're doing in 2008 / 2009 we definitely went shopping for the lowest fare on all of our travels during this time. In September we're flying US Airways, October is Southwest, and January is a combination of US and Air Tran.

If I had my choice of airline it would be Delta. If I wasn't flying as much and I had a bit more discretionary money, I'd choose Delta every time when flying to MCO.

OhMari, looking at the options available to you, I would choose Delta. They don't charge for the 1st bag (though they were the first to charge for the 2nd bag, I believe). The ONLY concern I might have would be your connection (if there is one). Do you have to connect or change planes in Atlanta? We never have but I understand that can be a pretty tough airport to navigate to other gates if you have a small window of time.

When are you traveling? If it's still a ways out there will still the possibility of both AirTran and Delta tweaking their schedules. If you're within 2 months or so they'll probably be pretty well set. Air travel is no longer the way we knew it when you could book 330 days out and plan on it being there on your travel day.

[disney_girl]

I agree that with Delta, it might make a big difference if you have to change planes in Atlanta. We flew Delta a few years ago and had to change planes. Luckily that was before kids because we barely made our connection and that was with practically running a portion of it!

We fly Airtran, but as Tricia said you have to make sure you are allowing for all the fees (2nd bag, selecting seats, etc).

Good Luck!!

[OhMari]

We are leaving November 7. Delta has a layover in Atlanta. If you are flying with Delta, and Delta takes you the rest of the way to MCO, wouldn't it be in the same area?



When are you traveling? If it's still a ways out there will still the possibility of both AirTran and Delta tweaking their schedules. If you're within 2 months or so they'll probably be pretty well set. Air travel is no longer the way we knew it when you could book 330 days out and plan on it being there on your travel day.I made my reservations in February. I am actually surprised I received a refund. I really thought Midwest was going to go Bankrupt.

I can't believe how expensive it is to fly out of O'Hare. O'Hare in Chicago was always the cheapest.

[m 'n c]

We are leaving November 7. Delta has a layover in Atlanta. If you are flying with Delta, and Delta takes you the rest of the way to MCO, wouldn't it be in the same area?


I made my reservations in February. I am actually surprised I received a refund. I really thought Midwest was going to go Bankrupt.

I can't believe how expensive it is to fly out of O'Hare. O'Hare in Chicago was always the cheapest.

I remember trying to navigate the Atlanta airport growing up. You would think that the planes would all be in the same area but Delta has multiple terminals and a quick layover will be tight. You need at least 1 hour between flights to navigate that airport.

Out of your choices, as much as I don't like Delta, I'd go with them. No matter how bad financially they get Congress will not allow them to go under because they are too big and too important in the airline industry here.

[mirandag819]

I have a similar issue right now, I don't mean to highjack this thread, but it is related to the suggestions other are offering. Airline didn't cancel my flights, but I had to. My sister got married last week and is moving cross country. I had booked all of our flights together and now I need to book her flight from Kansas and not NC. I wasn't able to just cancel her flight, I had to cancel everyones! Which sucks because I had an awesome price, less than 100 per person round trip from Southwest.

Okay my question is about carseats and strollers. I know with southwest they don't charge for the first 2 bags and you can have 1 car seat or 1 stroller person. We need to take 1 carseat and 1 stroller with us (there were 5 people so we could do this for free with southwest). Now that I am looking around at flights I think I am going to go through priceline. Does anyone know how other airlines handle carseats or strollers, do you pay the full fee for each as if it is another bag ? It looks like if we go through priceline it will be delta, united, or NWA.

Thanks for any advice you guys have.

[OhMari]

I have a similar issue right now, I don't mean to highjack this thread, but it is related to the suggestions other are offering. Airline didn't cancel my flights, but I had to. My sister got married last week and is moving cross country. I had booked all of our flights together and now I need to book her flight from Kansas and not NC. I wasn't able to just cancel her flight, I had to cancel everyones! Which sucks because I had an awesome price, less than 100 per person round trip from Southwest.

Okay my question is about carseats and strollers. I know with southwest they don't charge for the first 2 bags and you can have 1 car seat or 1 stroller person. We need to take 1 carseat and 1 stroller with us (there were 5 people so we could do this for free with southwest). Now that I am looking around at flights I think I am going to go through priceline. Does anyone know how other airlines handle carseats or strollers, do you pay the full fee for each as if it is another bag ? It looks like if we go through priceline it will be delta, united, or NWA.

Thanks for any advice you guys have.


Instead of going through Priceline, why don't you go right to those airlines and save yourself the fee Priceline charges. Plus, than you can read about their individual policies concerning carseats and strollers. I know Midwest did not count a carseat or stroller as a carry-on. I don't know about those you are interested in.

[mirandag819]

Instead of going through Priceline, why don't you go right to those airlines and save yourself the fee Priceline charges. Plus, than you can read about their individual policies concerning carseats and strollers. I know Midwest did not count a carseat or stroller as a carry-on. I don't know about those you are interested in.

Pricline doesn't have a fee.... and the prices actually look lower then when I went directly. It looks like priceline is having us fly 1 airline 1 way and another the other way, but the one way fares on their own direct from the airlines would be much more. I guess I will just have to go look at each airlines policies before I book.... was just hoping someone already had done this before and knew which airlines handled it differently, since it isn't the easiest thing to find on each of the airlines sites.

Plus I get a few dollars in SR rewards through Priceline !

[bellanlivismom]

We flew Airtran out of Milwaukee 2 years ago when we went to Disney. It was GREAT, the plane left 15 minutes early and arrived at MCO 40 min early. The direct flight was a must for us with the small children. We liked them and would fly them again. I have no opinion on Delta as I have never flown with them. Good luck with your decision. we flew Midwest this time around...never again.

[disney_girl]

I know that Airtran does not count a carseat or stroller as carry ons. Even if you are going to go through Priceline, I would probably look at the carriers website to see their policy on those items to be on the safe side.

[IckyMickey]

I just book AirTran last night going to Orlando, and it is $10 for a 2nd bag (even more for a 3rd!) and $6 total for both flights to choose your seats. When we flew AirTran 2 years ago, the thing we didn't like was the Atlanta layover and changing planes.

I was wondering about the stroller for AirTran. So if I were to take it to the gate, it wouldn't be counted, but if I checked it with my luggage do you think it would?

I had also heard that when you book through Travelocity, Priceline etc you would be the first one to get bumped. Not sure if that's true, but since I haven't found any savings for flights going through them, I booked right with the carrier.

Michelle

[MamaO]

We got caught in this week's Midwest canceled routes. We booked last Feb from Milw to Tampa and returning Orlando to Milw in late Sept - DH on a paid ticket through Midwest's web site and my ticket on the same flights but booked through nwa.com with World Perks miles. MCO to MKE has now been canceled on our return date.

After reading the options on their web site, I felt reasonably comfortable that they'd work things out for us, either on another carrier out of Orlando or on a flight out of Tampa, either of which we were willing to do. I figured reticketing me would be more of an issue, so after waiting on hold almost 2 hours, I started with my flight. We've always felt Midwest's customer service to be above and beyond other airlines - but not any more. I knew there probably wouldn't be a frequent flyer seat left anymore on the flight, but since there are available seats, I thought there'd be a chance they'd just let me have one. Instead they offered a redeposit of my return flight NW miles or a one-way ticket on the Tampa-Milwaukee flight for $311.

My DH's options are what really yanked my chains. When I asked about rebooking on an Air Train flight, she said they did contract with other carriers to honor Midwest passengers on routes that were canceled. Our flight didn't qualify because the route technically wasn't canceled - it was 'suspended' until Oct 21 when they will resume a seasonal schedule between Orlando and Milwaukee. So I asked if he could be rebooked on the Tampa-Milw return flight. She said of course they wouldn't charge a rebooking fee, but he did have to pay the difference between what he paid for his flight and the current price of the TPA-MKe flight, almost $200!! As far as a refund on the return leg of his trip - she quoted $90.50 even though the round trip ticket price was $264.

I told the agent that I was shocked that they were handling it this way and she said 'We're shocked, too.' I actually felt bad for her - she must have talked to unhappy people all day long who had also been on hold a very long time.

We are probably going to cancel - as soon as I have another 2 hours to spend on hold.

[disney_girl]

I was wondering about the stroller for AirTran. So if I were to take it to the gate, it wouldn't be counted, but if I checked it with my luggage do you think it would?

Michelle


Hmm... not sure on that one. We always gate check the stroller and car seats. Hopefully someone else has experience with checking them.

[OhMari]

You know I am reading more and more scenario's and things sure are twisted with their wording.

I had a flight from MKE to Orlando. But I needed to get to come home from Fort Lauderdale to Milwaukee. They could get me from Fort Lauderdale to Indy, but not for the last leg of the journey from Indy to Milwaukee. The flight was booked solid from Indy to Milwaukee. The kicker was, I only had an option to get a refund. If I wanted a change of venue, I had to pay the difference, because I wanted the change. So, she looked up how much it would be for me to drive 4 1/2 hours back to ORlando to catch a plane that would cost me $400 extra per person for 4 people. So I took the refund, I don't have an extra $1600 for plane tickets that cost me $800 for 4 people.

I was really bumped off the flight. I should have gotten my money back, plus a voucher to fly somewhere. I did ask if I could just fly down and get reimbursed for my flight back and I was told this wasn't an option. I was told I paid for a round trip ticket. Now I am hearing, people are getting reimbursed for 1/2 of their trip and still flying one way with Midwest.

I really am having a hard time dealing with this. I want to book new flights, but I don't know who to trust. United started with press releases today. This is exactly how Midwest started last May.

Why isn't the government stepping in and helping. They are helping out the banks and mortgage companies.

[disneyforever]

This is kind of long.

DH and I are booked on United Airlines in December. We were originally booked to fly from Eugene, OR to Orlando on the outbound with a change of planes in San Francisco and Los Angeles. We were meeting a friend in LAX and flying the red-eye flight all together. Our return flight is Puerto Rico to Dulles to Portland to Eugene. Well over the weekend I got a call on my cell phone that we had a major schedule change on our outbound flight. I called my travel agent (Stephanie) on Monday and found out the LAX-MCO red-eye flight was cancelled. They had put me on a flight from Eugene to San Francisco to Los Angeles to Washington Dulles. That's it. They never finished my flight to Orlando. :confused:

So Stephanie called the help desk! :rotfl: :rotfl: And the fun started!!!

The first UA gal says (Oh, I forgot to mention that these were mileage tickets) she cannot do anything since they were mileage tickets. The will have xxl the booking, put the miles back in our account, and begin a new booking. Stephanie said no way - hung up on United and called back.

The 2nd UA agent says she can get us to Orlando with a 5 hour layover in Dulles. Stephanie again said no way - hung up on United and called back again. This would have made our flight 28 hours with all the flying and layovers. Totally uncalled for.

The 3rd UA agent says at first there is nothing she can do - then she sees that we are coming home from Puerto Rico and says she will transfer Stephanie to the International Desk. (Now as a former travel agent myself, I know this is a load of bull. Puerto Rico is a common wealth of the USA and is not considered international by any of the major airline.)

So now we are on United agent number 4. Stephanie goes over the whole story about how our flights were changed/segments cancelled, and about how no one at United is willing to help change the tickets. Then the agent guy (Alan) says, "OK, what flights do they want to be on?" So Stephanie pulls up the different options in her computer and I say, "How about Eugene to San Francisco to Orlando?" (I was only kind of joking - couldn't even imagine they would give me a single connection, main routing flight.) So Stephnie asks Alan and he says, "OK, done! :eek: It will take me about 3 minutes per ticket to change them." After he was done with DH and my tickets Alan also changed my friends to match ours from SFO to MCO. :banana:

Once everything was done and fixed, Stephanie asked him why the first 3 agents would not help her. Alan said most of the agents (he said this goes for most airlines too) would rather not do ticket exchanges anymore. It takes about 3 - 5 minutes per ticket to do exchanges and a push of 2 buttons to cancel and refund. With all the flight cancellations and changes the airline agents are super busy - so now some of them just take the easy (ie: lazy) way out - and we, the passengers get screwed. The last thing Alan did was to give my agent Stephanie his personal extension number at United. Now if you know anything about airlines - then you should know - this is a huge NO, NO. Only immediate family are to have that number and only to call if it is very important. We both thanked him profusely!!! This took a little over 2 hours to get my tickets fixed.

Sorry this is so long... but hang in there a little longer...

So fast forward to Monday evening, I get another call from United. This time my September flights from Portland, OR to Orlando in September have changed. This morning I emailed travel agent Stephanie and asked her to help again. She called Alan at the number he gave her - and the call went thru. He fixed DH and my September tickets in about 10 minutes. So easy compared to the fiasco on Monday.

Now I just found out on the news tonight that Delta airlines is pulling all the Eugene - Los Angeles flights out starting in September. Unfortunately, I have a flight on them booked for October. sigh!!! Here we go again. This time it will have to be a refund only.

I think our next couple of trips are going to be road trips! ;)

Sorry so long.

[OhMari]

I just want to thank Tricia for letting us vent here.

I saw there is Priceline now at Sunshines's:banana:. I thought they had a booking fee. Then someone told me on here they don't. So I went to the site, put in a price i was comfortable with, and it gave me my tickets. I know who the carrier is, since I have been looking at those flights the last 2 days. I am even getting them $10 cheaper per ticket than DELTA's site.

Thank you Tricia, I know this should be down in the travel section.



disneyforeverI think this week, it paid to have a travel agaent. I had no idea what I was dealing with.

[3dog2kidmom]

I don't know if Southwest is an option for you, but I have always been very happy with them. They don't charge for bags, and if the price goes down, you can rebook and have a credit for next time. DH and I got flights for our May trip to Disney free this way :)

[disneyforever]

So an update,

Delta is refunding me my money - takes 6 to 8 weeks????

I priced out a new ticket to Los Angeles and it is over $400 for the dates
I need! I originally paid $189. :cry:

I just might have to drive for that price. :eek: