Delta, Northwest or Air Tran?
 

Which airline is better? Are there any significant differences between these airlines? These are the only airlines that have non stop service for the one hour flight I will need. I usually fly AA and UA. Any tips? Thanks.

It depends on where you're going to. Airtran is just fine for a short hop, but for longer flights, I prefer Delta because of their schedules, on time record, and their proffessional manor. I think it's more a matter of preference.

Six of one, half dozen of another. I'm not an AirTran fan so I'd probably pick NW or Delta.

Take the cheapest... they're all pretty much the same.

I'm also not an AirTran fan so would pick NWa or Delta but for an hour flight you probably can do any of the 3 and be fine.

Not sure if you are a frequent flyer participant, but I believe if you belong to a Delta, Northwest, or Continental FF-program, you can accrue miles on Northwest or Delta to be used for reward travel on any of those 3 airlines. :S-

All depends on where you are going and if you are upgrading to business or first class. AirTran offers BC upgrade for only $35, Delta, NW, AA or UA I am sure are considerably more.

IMHO, I dont think you are going to get a warm and fuzzy for ANY airline in a one hour flight experience.I also wouldnt be concerned about frequent flyer miles...you've got 60K UA miles and dont know what to do with them!! And you are contemplating a Concorde flight!! And it sounds like you might be traversing the Southeast.That is definitely Delta country.Take Delta.

After my experience with AirTran (a 7-hour delay going from NYC-Cleveland, and a 4-hour delay on the way back, for a WEEKEND trip) I will never, EVER take them again. They couldn't even move us to other airlines to make the flights.

I am impressed with Delta. When my Continental flight home from Florida had to make an emergency landing in Orlando, Delta took most of us on and flew us home. How nice.

Just don't care how cheap they are, I would never take AirTran and let me tell you why:

Remember the ValuJet (now AirTran) crash into the Florida Everglades on May 11, 1996 killing all 110 on board? The crash was caused by the illegally loaded oxygen generators that created an intense fire in the cargo hold of the ill-fated DC-9.
Soon after the crash, ValuJet bought the also troubled discount airliner AirTran. The AirTran - ValuJet merger was an attempt to hide ValuJet's troubled past by using another airline's name in hopes of erasing the stigma associated with the very high profile ValuJet moniker.

I've posted the same reply on another forum just to remind people who those guys really are.

Air Tran stopped buying 30 year old planes and now have new Boeing 717's. Their last old plane is kept as a spare plane and will be gone by September or October.

I have had good experiences with Northwest with delayed flights. Several times, I have received hotel vouchers, meal vouchers, etc.

A few (not the majority) of Delta people have been extremely rude to me.

For a one hour flight, it probably doesn't matter unless there is a storm, delay, cancellation, etc. It requires fewer trips to get a free trip on Air Tran's frequent flyer program compared to Northwest and Delta. However, only domestic free tickets are available on Air Tran.

As far as cheapy airlines, Air Tran is not on my "do not fly" list. Pan Am (not the original but the upstart airline), North American, Spirit, America West, Hooters Air are on it.

Hiroshi, AirTran is still flying the aging DC9 on their regular schedule.
All their DC9s were acquired from foreign airlines and the engines were acquired from Turk Hava Yollari (a Turkish airline). Their DC9 fleet is the oldest in the nation.

I'd like to retract my comments on AirTran.
I've recently flown AirTran for a business trip, and I had a great experience. If I have to fly AirTran again, I would not hesitate.
They now have one of youngest aircraft fleets in the nation, made up completely of Boeing 717s and they are expecting a delivery of brand new Boeing 737s this summer.

i love airtran, too...last Easter we (family of 2 adults and 3 kids)were stuck in Ft Lauderdale for 7 hours waiting for the plane to arrive (being repaired in Boston)...well, for us it was worth it since AirTran handed us vouchers for 5 anywhere they fly...we got to go back to Florida this year!

We have flown Air Tran south many times and only once did we not have extensive layovers, and one time after 3 hours, they were actually looking out the window for the plane. I thought they had computer systems to track planes(?)
Anyway, one vote in their favor is that we never had an old plane (once a brand new one) and no problems if you are lucky enough to be able to book non-stop. From now on, any layovers involved, I will book another airlines unless things have improved with them in the past year. We actually got a better deal through Delta our last vacation, but that doesn't always happen. We did book July flight with Air Tran again this year, but it is a direct one. We'll see.

My son and his family have flown Air Tran several times the last couple of years, and have been pleased. (I wasn't thrilled that they were choosing it......... because of the memories of Valu-Jet crash,etc.) We have had good experiences with Delta.........

I flew Air Tran to Kansas City from Atlanta. We arrived at ticket counter and my charming wife had left all of her cards, license, ID, money, and whatever else women pack into a purse sitting at home on the table.

No ID, no boarding pass. We had two choices, say to heck with it and give up the trip, and the cost of the tickets, or take Air Trans offer to book us on a later flight AT NO EXTRA CHARGE!. We took the later flight, drove home, got the missing ID documents and whatnot, returned to Atlanta Airport and had a nice flight to KC.

AirTran did NOT have to waive the fee for reissuing the ticket for a later flight,but the supervisor in duty took good care of us in an sort of embarassing situation. I became an Air Tran fan because of that gesture of good will.
All we lost was some time while we returned home and then came back to the airport.

bob_brown, on my son's last trip with Air Tran, they (three of them) missed their first flight out of Boston because of a detour into the city. To make a long story short, Air_Tran got them here to Raleigh and then to New Orleans without ever charging them a re-issue fee. They had to accept certain less-crowded flights to do that, but were very happy about the way it was resolved. They ended up paying no penalty for missing that first flight, and having to be re-routed and re-ticketed. Can't beat that!

Having just done a Delta 737-300 NS RT DFW-SAN, I had forgotton how bad the seats are on Delta and Continental in coach class. They are reliable, but so is AA which we usually fly DFW - BJX in much more comfortable coach seats.
M

Mikemo, I agree with you on those Delta 737 seats.......... talk about feeling like a sardine!:-(