Allegiant Air :Talk me down from this ledge...

[BigAlsGal]

DH brought to my attention some info just released about Allegiant Air and how it is 4 times more likely to make unexpected landings due to issues. We fly Allegiant all the time. I've never experienced any issues but I dont know what this new info should mean to me (if anything). Should I worry about this stuff?

 

[Alesia]

Allegiant does not have a great reputation where maintenance is concerned. Only you can decide what you're comfortable with.

Personally, I refuse to fly Allegiant.

 

[DebbieB]

My neighbors had a trip booked on Allegiant to go to Mexico. After a news story about an emergency landing, she spoke to a pilot friend. He said he would never put his family on Allegiant. She cancelled the flight and lost the money, rebooked on American.

 

[BigAlsGal]

I find it hard to resist. It's cheap and it takes 1 1/2 hours to get to Disney. Non stop. I guess until they're reporting them crashing out of the sky I'll take my chances. There's a 1 in 130 chance I'll die in a car right? I still some how manage to drive every day.

 

[Alesia]

I find it hard to resist. It's cheap and it takes 1 1/2 hours to get to Disney. Non stop. I guess until they're reporting them crashing out of the sky I'll take my chances. There's a 1 in 130 chance I'll die in a car right? I still some how manage to drive every day.

Fatal plane crashes are extremely rare. The real problem with Allegiant's planes is that they are incredibly old. Only Zimbabwe Air, Iran Air, and JAT have a higher average age of their fleet. http://www.planecrashinfo.com/accidents.htm

 

[BigAlsGal]

Fatal plane crashes are extremely rare. The real problem with Allegiant's planes is that they are incredibly old. Only Zimbabwe Air, Iran Air, and JAT have a higher average age of their fleet. http://www.planecrashinfo.com/accidents.htm

I also made myself feel a little better when I googled other companies/emergency landings. They all have them for x, y, z, reasons. None of them seem immune to emergency landing. American, Delta, United. All of them experience problems.

It was funny. One time we got on an obviously old Allegiant plane. You know when you see the ashtrays everywhere. Lol

I looked at DH and said "You know what that means? Means this plane hasn't crashed in the 25 years it's been in operation! Good plane!"

 

[markb681]

My daughter flies Allegiant Air all the time...and about 50% of the time the planes are either VERY late arrival or not at all...They have zero backup plans and IF something goes wrong ur STUCK! and they don't care! SO IF u absolutely need to be somewhere on time I would never fly them

 

[BigAlsGal]

My daughter flies Allegiant Air all the time...and about 50% of the time the planes are either VERY late arrival or not at all...They have zero backup plans and IF something goes wrong ur STUCK! and they don't care! SO IF u absolutely need to be somewhere on time I would never fly them

I must get lucky. I've probably flown with them 25 times and can only remember 1 issue. Computers went down and they had to check everyone in manually with a printed out spreadsheet! Took an extra hour to take off. Bleh.

 

[markb681]

I wish I was THAT lucky with them! lol....But I kid u not...once I took my daughter to catch her plane in Knoxville to fly back home to Orlando...her flight was scheduled to leave at 10:15am....we got there around 9am...they tell us that the flight will be delayed and to come back around 4pm! So we kill time and return at 4pm...they then tell us it will be until 9pm and to come back then BUT in the mean time they would PROVIDE us food...well the FOOD arrived...it was 4 large Domino's pepperoni pizzas for the ENTIRE flight! SMH....

 

[AngiTN]

We do not fly Allegiant any more. We tried them a few times since they fly out of here.
In the end it does not work out to be significantly cheaper. Not enough to put up with their record.
Plus, time saved leaving is lost trying to get to and from Samford instead of Orlando
Honestly though, I'm not sure I'll fly them for free
Customer Service means a lot to me. They have none

 

[rwdavis2]

An article in the Wall St. Journal covered this. They fired a pilot for returning to the airport after smoke began filling the plane. I'd never fly them.

 

[MillauFr]

An article in the Wall St. Journal covered this. They fired a pilot for returning to the airport after smoke began filling the plane. I'd never fly them.

Yes that was an article in the Wall St. Journal. A credible, high quality news source. Not trashy journalism. How can anyone think it is ok for the airline to skimp on maintenance just to increase profits and give the CEO a larger bonus. At his last airline (Value Jet) he operated the same way until there was a fatal crash. After Value Jet went under the CEO then proceeded to lay low for a while before starting Allegiant. Simply irresponsible.

 

[kydisneyfans]

Allegiant just isn't cheaper for us, and they are at the Lexington airport which is the closest to our home. The Orlando flights don't go to MCO, adding travel expense. They charge for using a credit card, luggage, and choosing seats. We just returned from Disney and spent $179 RT on Southwest from Louisville, cheaper than the rental would have been just to get to Disney from the Sanford airport.

 

[AngiTN]

Allegiant just isn't cheaper for us, and they are at the Lexington airport which is the closest to our home. The Orlando flights don't go to MCO, adding travel expense. They charge for using a credit card, luggage, and choosing seats. We just returned from Disney and spent $179 RT on Southwest from Louisville, cheaper than the rental would have been just to get to Disney from the Sanford airport.

Yep. Same thing we found.
We have 3 airlines at our tiny local airport.
Allegiant, Delta and American.
We tried Allegiant a couple of times and it was just not the bargain it starts out to be, all things considered. The worse for me was the limited flight dates and times. They aren't daily
We started driving 2 hours to Atlanta to fly Southwest.
Then last May I checked our local flights, on a whim. Well, wouldn't you know Delta was only about $50 more than Southwest and we didn't have to drive 2 hours. Yes, we have to change planes but total flight time, when you consider drive time AND how much longer it takes to reach a gate at Atlanta, it wasn't longer to fly from here with a plane change. Got a Delta credit card so we get free bags too.

 

[stinkpickle]

I don't worry about it. I've had more problems with Delta than Allegiant.

 

[Carriemel]

Yeah, probably a bad idea...

When a mechanic won't even fly an airline he's working for...

http://www.tampabay.com/news/busine...says-he-quit-over-obscene-maintenance/2260591

 

[missbrooke06]

At least they find lots of maintenance issues. Better than not finding them, right?

(I no longer fly them either).

 

[MillauFr]

At least they find lots of maintenance issues. Better than not finding them, right?

(I no longer fly them either).

The problem is they find them and then ignore them. Let the next flight have to deal with it is the attitude. Their workers get penalized when they raise safety issues. They get branded as agitators and demoted.

 

[BigAlsGal]

It usually ends up being way cheaper for us. For DH and I to fly there and back and rent a car it costs about $425 total. Then you throw in the fact there is no connecting flight. Just a straight shot to Orlando it's too big a draw for us. A flight from another carrier at the same airport is about $725 then throw on 4 hours in layovers each way. Bleh. With Allegiant I can leave my house in Indiana and be in MK in about 4 hours. (Given if we don't crash).

I also try to avoid irony. The moment I choose another carrier over Allegiant because it's "safer" that plane is gonna crash out of the sky just to rub it in my face that I have ZERO control over some things.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

My husband is a pilot and said he would NEVER fly with them because of the safety and maintenance issues they have. Enough said. I had a friend take a flight with them. Her flight was delayed 6 hrs. They were told that the inbound flight had issues with maintaining the cabin pressurization. Once it landed they continued to have issues. She and I were headed to WDW.
I flew SWA out of CLE and she was flying Allegient out of Akron. She paid $20 less than me but did not get to WDW till 2:30 a.m. She had spent a total of 9 hrs at the airport because she had a distance to drive to get there and was concerned about traffic. Not to mention Akron is a small airport and she had two kids with her. What a way for her to start her vacation. She was dead dog tired the next day and I enjoyed the parks. I told her from the start not to fly with them but did she listen. Oh on her way home she as delayed 3hrs.