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would you fly allegiant air

W

wegottago

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Looking to go to Florida in June and the prices keep going up. I can go on Allegiant Air out of Allentown, PA but never have. Would you fly this airline? What are the positives / negatives. Thank you!
 
Positive - cheap fares.

Negatives - they nickel and dime for everything including choosing a seat in advance of flight day and water on the flight. And no first class, which for us is now a must.

We took a flight from NW WA to LV in 2007. It was fine for a short flight. The flight crew was very entertaining, they got us there and back.
 
If you are looking for basic transportation, you should give them a shot.

Couple of things you should know.

They fare they quote isn't really the fare you pay unless you actually drive to the airport and buy the tickets. They tack on a convenience charge for buying on the internet.

They will charge you for everything. As the previous poster said, you have to pay for advanced seat assignments. Or you take a chance that the family could sit apart. I am sure they would make efforts to keep you together, but no guarantees. You pay for soda, water, snacks.

One thing you also need to consider is what your backup plan is if there is a problem with the flight. They don't have a heavy flight schedule. So if the plane has a problem, there likely won't be another flight to squeeze you on in a couple of hours. You are at the airline's mercy in terms of when they can get a plane to you. Could be the next day. Doesn't happen often, but it happens.

That said, I would fly them if they went somewhere I wanted to go from ABE. I don't have a lot of needs when I fly. A few beers and I can go into my happy place. And if that doesn't work, I usually bring my laptop and can play games or watch movies.
 
zazz said:
If you are looking for basic transportation, you should give them a shot.

Couple of things you should know.

They fare they quote isn't really the fare you pay unless you actually drive to the airport and buy the tickets. They tack on a convenience charge for buying on the internet.

They will charge you for everything. As the previous poster said, you have to pay for advanced seat assignments. Or you take a chance that the family could sit apart. I am sure they would make efforts to keep you together, but no guarantees. You pay for soda, water, snacks.

One thing you also need to consider is what your backup plan is if there is a problem with the flight. They don't have a heavy flight schedule. So if the plane has a problem, there likely won't be another flight to squeeze you on in a couple of hours. You are at the airline's mercy in terms of when they can get a plane to you. Could be the next day. Doesn't happen often, but it happens.

That said, I would fly them if they went somewhere I wanted to go from ABE. I don't have a lot of needs when I fly. A few beers and I can go into my happy place. And if that doesn't work, I usually bring my laptop and can play games or watch movies.
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There is always a thread on the DIS board Transporation forum about Allegiant and the actual price you end up paying and the price you first see when you click on your dates. Someone is always :mad:

If you are flying into Orlando, they fly into Sanford not Orlando International, which makes the back up plan kind of tricky.

The fly out of Toledo, but I prefer to go up to Detroit(have more options to Florida with better schedules and usually better pricing even with Delta for when I fly).
 
Friends have used Allegiant out of Grand Rapids, MI, to Tampa. Flight to FL was OK, but flight back was delayed (mechanical) and another plane was not available until the next day! Very inconvenient for my friend who both had to miss work one full day. Be aware that this could happened to you (no extra flights or planes if yours has an issue!)
 
All of previous posters have provided a good reporting of Allegiant.

We flew non-stop from Bangor to Sanford (not Orlando), about a 3-hour trip.
Any options to Orlando would have involved a stop,
and 5 1/2 + hours.

It was BASIC---but quick, and 'ok'.

Pat
 
Just got back from MX today and one of the ladies is flying Allegiant from ABE to FL tomorrow. She flew up the beginning of Feb. She does it a couple of times every winter. I've never heard her complain. ABE is a great airport to fly from. Small, compact, small if any lines. Parking is reasonable. My favorite airport but I have never flown Allegiant.
 
Allegiant now flies into Orlando (MCO), the large airport, not into Sanford anymore. I believe they made this switch in late February, 2010.

Our friends just arrived from Michigan via Allegiant into Tampa/St. Pete airport. Flight was nice, crew were very entertaining as a previous poster noted. Friends commented that they do "nickle and dime you" for everything and that their flight had quite a few added on "fees". They're flying back via AirTran.
 
kjsgrammy said:
Allegiant now flies into Orlando (MCO), the large airport, not into Sanford anymore. I believe they made this switch in late February, 2010.

Our friends just arrived from Michigan via Allegiant into Tampa/St. Pete airport. Flight was nice, crew were very entertaining as a previous poster noted. Friends commented that they do "nickle and dime you" for everything and that their flight had quite a few added on "fees". They're flying back via AirTran.
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I just checked Allegiant out of Toledo for this April, the Toledo flight still goes into Sanford
 
other negatives

As has already been said, they nickel and dime you to death. Also important is that you get 0 frequent flyer miles, 0 miles toward status with any airline and they are not the most reliable. If one of their 8 or 9 planes encounters a problem in one region, it may throw off their entire alignment of planes. I have flown them before, but not again because the negatives are too great. Imagine flying 2K miles, that's about 1/12 of the miles needed for status or maybe more. Having status depending on how you use it, may save you hundreds of dollars.
 
Have flown Allegiant Air the last 3 years from Knoxville. They are just fine for an airline but we never leave on time and last year we didn't even get to Orlando before 12 midnight. With kids, that isn't good. I am glad to see they are flying into MCO now with a better time line. We never ask for our seats upfront so we only pay their price and luggage. Luggage is paid for by all of them so we still think we get a great deal. We just got Airtran in Knoxville so I would guess they will give Allegiant a run for their money.
 
I don't fly any LCC in the USA, including Alligient since if something goes wrong, you are generally SOL. I usually fly LCC's (except Ryan or Easyjet) in Europe since the EU has some pretty strict rules to protect you in case something goes wrong.

Cheers
 
I don't have any experience with them myself, but my sister was telling me about her niece's experience with them. Niece, and family, were flying from southern California to Branson, MO. Yes, the flights were "cheap". But they only had a couple of flights per week (not per day, per week) and by the time they got through paying all of the extra costs for the family of four the niece decided it hadn't been worth it.
 
I used them to fly from Hagerstown, MD to Sanford in Nov. '09. Loooved it!!! :)

Yes, they do "nickel and dime" you. I saw this as a plus. Because we chose to NOT pay for so many things, our tickets were cheaper. We decided to forgo checking any luggage, and saved $30 per checked bag, for example.

Next time, we're going this November, and I'll use them again. It will be just me and my husband, and we will save more by not choosing seats together. That will save us at least $50 total-we'll be fine sitting apart for a few hours.

I have to admit, a lot of the reason why I chose them have nothing to do with Allegiant. Hagerstown has free parking-that saved us about $100. It's only about 1 and 3/4 hours away, and an easy drive, vs. our other choice: Pittsburgh and all its horrible city traffic to get to the airport. The Hagerstown airport is small and easy to get around in.

Anyhow, I love Allegiant.
 
Well Air Tran brought down some of their fares so I booked us on that non-stop Philly to Orlando.
 
Was jsut in Hawii and there was an article in the paper that are are going to start flying to Hawaii as soon as they can get enough planes and get them certified. Article mentioned they will be buying 757, but didn't mention from what cities they would be flying from.
 
Carlsbadguy said:
Was jsut in Hawii and there was an article in the paper that are are going to start flying to Hawaii as soon as they can get enough planes and get them certified. Article mentioned they will be buying 757, but didn't mention from what cities they would be flying from.
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I saw it on Farecompare, but it didn't say what cities they would be flying from either.
 
Carlsbadguy said:
Was jsut in Hawii and there was an article in the paper that are are going to start flying to Hawaii as soon as they can get enough planes and get them certified. Article mentioned they will be buying 757, but didn't mention from what cities they would be flying from.
Click to expand...

There is a fairly lengthy discussion on this subject in the Alaska Air forum over on FlyerTalk. Maybe from Bellingham WA, but it seemed like Vegas was a good bet.
 
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LAR said:
Ever since the Colgan Air crash on CO metal to Buffalo, I've thought twice about the deep discount carriers. this was a fairly poignant video:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/flyingcheap/view/
Click to expand...

What makes Colgan analogous to Allegiant? They fly regionals for United and Continental on different types of aircraft. No discounts there.

I'll bet you that Allegiant actually pays its pilots more per hour because they fly MD-80s instead of regional aircraft.
 
BevL said:
There is a fairly lengthy discussion on this subject in the Alaska Air forum over on FlyerTalk. Maybe from Bellingham WA, but it seemed like Vegas was a good bet.
Click to expand...

I was looking at their route map and I think the Phoenix area(they fly out of Mesa) is a possibility.

Doubt if they'll have a Toledo-HNL run. :hysterical:
 
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