I get a great deal for 2 seniors on SW airlines going to San Diego from Boston. She (SW) told me to call ATA to get my seat reservations for that leg of the flight.

On the phone for over an hour ... no answer just a voice message saying the next operator will help. They never did. My husband then called the Chicago office...same thing.

So what do I do...?...do I show up at airport and then hope to get a seat???..

Need advice..

Thanks

See if you can do it online here:

https://www.virtuallythere.com/new/h...e.html?host=TZ

Otherwise, just call back some other time. Weekday, weeknight, midday, midnight... I don't know...

Thanks..I copied the url and sent it on to my husband..he took over after I was on for over an hour. But I have to say I got great prices...

$129 plus tax for each of us. Now if we can only get on the plane, lol.

This is not till June so we have some time. If we never get hold of them I guess we would just show up at the airport?!

If that url doesn't work I may call Southwest as it's the operator there who booked my ticket that told me to call ata on their toll-free number which she gave me.

That good rate was too hard to pass up.

Thanks

You are not calling them to be able to get on the plane. Your ticket allows that (unless the plane is overbooked, but even then you'll likely get on). You're only calling them to get a seat assignment. In other words, to find out which seats you'll be sitting in. You have seats, so no worries. If you don't ever reach them, show up and they'll assign your seats at check-in.

I have a feeling we will never reach them so thanks for the info. It might help me to relax a bit. But I guess this is why we got a bargain price, right?

Thanks again to all of you.

You won't ever reach them. My experience with this code share has been that you can only get a seat assignment/boarding pass BEFORE getting to the airport with the airline that issued the ticket. And one airline will not issue a boarding pass for the other airline's flight (e.g. if you check in for ATA flight, they won't issue a boarding card for your Southwest flight; you'll have to wait til you get to the Southwest counter in Chicago to get that boarding pass).

Phone support for ATA is abysmal, and their website is challenging too. Southwest is a bit friendlier, but they can't help you with the ATA portions of your trip.

Exactly as Callaloo says, they can't issue each others seat assignments or boarding passes. But I did get a ATA agent to conference call for a SW seat assignment change. But it is extremely hard to get the connection. Now probably impossible since so many jobs have been eliminated.

One thing you may do and should know. If you are doing the double desk line thing (Confirm numbers but no paper ticket), you will only need to do it once. You can get your paper ticket and document for the return flights at the same time you get your outgoing ones. That way you will only have to go to one vendor for the return trip boarding pass on the way home.

Seats on Southwest are never assigned, only a letter on the boarding pass on the day of boarding. Why ATA tickets bought through SW would get the seat assignment? What is it I am missing?

You're right -- SWA does not issue boarding passes, just a group number. However, normally, if you book a SWA flight, you can get your boarding card (with group number)on-line. But if you booked a codeshare flight on ATA that includes an SWA leg, you can't go on SWA's website to to get the boarding card for the SWA leg (regardless of whether it is the first or second leg).

Similarly, if you booked your flight through Southwest, you can't get the boarding pass for your ATA leg on ATA's website on-line, or through SWA; you have to line up at the airport to get it.

This is different from other airlines' codeshare arrangements. If you are flying Delta/Continental for example, when you check in with Delta, you will get boarding passes for the Delta and Continental flights, with no need to stand in any additional lines.

I don't know whether SWA and ATA have any plans to make their arrangement more seamless.

Well I guess we just have to get to the airport early. This is a one-way flight. I will try again to reach them when I am in the Boston area..

Many thanks and if anyone finds out any other info please let me know.

As an aside, twice now, I have gotten an "A" boarding pass on SW because of my "double line" former ATA (flight I paid for was deemed cancelled and now is a designated SW #) Confirm#/ no paper ticket scenario rigamarole. Boy, do I know how confusing it gets. Trying to explain it is harder than actually doing it. But Callaloo has done a good job.

So if you get to the airport early you will not only get good ATA assigned seats, but you will probably also get "A" (first board) if SW is on your first leg.

These are exactly the trade-offs that the public must make [or choose] when buying tickets with price as the sole criteria.

If you want really cheap tickets - then there is no extra money for the airline to provide personal customer service. If you want preassigned seats, or upgrades, or somebody to answer the phone, then you have to expect to pay more on one of the legacy carriers. Neither is right and neither is wrong - it's simply a value choice. And with the success of the the Southwests of the world, many people are obviously willing to sacrifice things like preassigned seats for cheap fares.

Thank you for explaining! I did see ATA on the SW website and wondered how it works. Will keep in mind for future trips.

I didn't tell you but when we were on the phone with ATA for hours...my husband got upset and wrote letters to people in other areas of ATA.

We did get a call from a company representative and now have confirmation numbers. The situation is the same as with SW. At 12:01 the night before we can get our passes. She did give us seat assignments??..we will be busy that night.

Just wanted all to know we are home to San Diego from our trip out of Boston. Got our seats from ATA and everything went fine.

Our connection to Souhwest Airlines worked well altho when we tried to get boarding passes at midnite the night before, they told us we couldn't do that with senior tickets.Next time we will know better.

They wouldn't let you get your boarding passes online because you had senior tickets? Why?? I don't understand that policy.