ADVICE Allegiant Air from Austin

[codimouse]

I have never flown Allegiant Air. A round trip in June to the Sanford airport for 3 people is $589. Half of what SW offers. Even with add ons of 2 pieces of luggage and driving the hour to Austin and parking fees this is a fabulous deal.

Anyone personally experience this airline? I DO understand it is no frills.

 

[nacho113]

We have flown Allegiant several times over the past few years and mostly have not had any issues. Our one time that we had an issue I can honestly say that Customer Service is almost impossible to get hold of and are not very helpfull when you do finally manage to get a hold of an actual person.

They are an Ultra Low Cost Airline which basically means EVERYTHING is an additional cost.
Baggage fees for Checked bags as well as Carry-on luggage.
Seat selection $12-25/seat depending where you want to sit on the plane. If you don't care where you sit and don't care about sitting together, you can opt not to purchase.
On board drinks and snacks are available for a fee.

It should also be noted that they fly into SFB, which while technically is in Orlando, it is not serviced by DME and is a 45-60 minute drive to WDW.
A rental car is definitely your best option when flying into SFB. You will need to factor this into your budget.
SFB is a nice small regional airport and really easy to get in/out of, an absolute delight compared to MCO!

Allegiant is flying an aging fleet of mostly MD-83's and MD-88's with a few A319's and A320's in the mix (mostly for the longer haul routes)
They have been in the news quite a bit lately for mechanical issues with their aircraft, pilot issues and flight attendant issues.

Check the following link, there are already 8 delays/issues today and there were 14 delays and/or issues yesterday:
http://www.allegiantair.com/travel-alerts

Allegiant typically only flies 1 or 2 days per week from your local airport so a mechanical delay can cost you several hours or even days of your vacation while the plane is repaired or a new one is flown in for you (Allegiant does not have agreements with other airlines to handle issues like this).

 

[MillauFr]

If you are ok flying an airline that flies old broken down planes that have far more mechanical issues that a quality airline like SW than go for it. I would prefer flying an airline that has new planes.

 

[nacho113]

If you are ok flying an airline that flies old broken down planes that have far more mechanical issues that a quality airline like SW than go for it. I would prefer flying an airline that has new planes.

Just to be clear here, I'm not defending Allegiantair's decisions, policies or equipment. I would fly Southwest myself if they flew out of our local airport in Grand Forks.
Southwest is still a budget airline but has a much larger fleet, has more flights daily and serves more airports each day than Allegiant.
They fly exclusively Boeing 737's which is a great commuter plane.
A fair number of those (113 at last count) are the 30+ year old 737-300's...just an FYI.

 

[codimouse]

thanks for the responses.
I found they do fly from San Antonio to Sanford which saves us on travel and parking lot fees.
My total with 2 carry ons and 1 checked bag is $585 vs SW at $981 with stops.

As for snacks I bring our own and get a drink before we board.


I used to LOVE SW however our last few flights have been delayed and with plane changes. We have waited an hour in the plane in Las Vegas for an hour. We have waited in Atlanta for 2 hours to get our plane back home.
From San Antonio twice we had to get off of the plane for mechanical issues.

I just don't hold high standards for any carrier anymore. Just looking to get from Point A to Point B.