Hopefully you all had the chance to read Brooks’ blog post on Feb. 14, 2013, and watch as our boss Beth flew on a connected itinerary. We were pretty excited to announce that we were on our way to connecting the Southwest and AirTran route networks. We started operating those initial connected itineraries (which went on sale Feb. 23) on March 10.
Well, time flies, and I’m thrilled to announce today that we have successfully connected all 97 of our combined destinations! This past Saturday, March 16, we put the remainder of our newly connected cities on sale which means that you can now purchase itineraries to any of our combined destinations, including international, in one transaction. The itineraries that went on sale this weekend will begin operating on April 14.
As a reminder, now that our networks are combined, our Customers may:
- Add one or more AirTran domestic flight segments to a Southwest itinerary, using Southwest booking channels (southwest.com, 1-800-IFLYSWA, travel agencies, Southwest’s mobile site and apps, and Southwest Airlines ticket counters).
- Book one or more Southwest flight segments connecting to an AirTran itinerary, using AirTran channels (airtran.com, 1-800-AIRTRAN, AirTran Airways ticket counters, and travel agencies).
- Use all Southwest channels to book an AirTran-only domestic itinerary.
- Add an international AirTran segment to a Southwest itinerary within a single reservation, through a Customer-friendly transfer of the transaction to AirTran channels for booking, purchase, and ticketing by AirTran.
- Earn currency in either loyalty program no matter what carrier they fly. The currency a Customer earns is determined by the carrier from which they buy their ticket, even if flying on a shared itinerary.
