Allegiant Q

[AlexandNessa]

For those of you who have travelled on Allegiant Air, is there any reason to pay the extra fee for priority boarding if your carryons will fit under your seat?

I am scrambling to readjust our NYE trip now that Air Tran has cancelled service to our home airport on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Thanks for any help!

 

[tlenzendorf]

The only plus that I see is because of something that happened when we went to Vegas this year. And I would say book seats, not early boarding... The computer system went down when we were going out. Everyone with printed itineraries and assigned seats boarded first. Then everyone with printed itineraries and early boarding. After that it was a free for all as far as seats went.

They also will board everyone with carryons that will fit under the seat before they will board general boarding. So without any computer mishaps where the whole system goes down, I would say no, there would be no good reason to pay it.

 

[AlexandNessa]

Thank you. I was planning on booking seats, but not paying the extra $20 for priority boarding as long as our carryons can fit under the seat.

Thanks again.

 

[Tink1971]

We flew Allegiant May, 2009 - Memorial Week from Rockford, IL and did not pay for Priority nor a Seat assignment. There were 4 of us, 2 Adults+2 kids (6 and 8 yrs old). For us we knew the reservation/ticket counter opened 2 hrs before each flight so we arrived at the airport 2 1/2 hrs before each flight to be the first in line to get the seats we wanted. The planes were full but they were able to sit us together no problem. In retrospect -- paying for a specific seat might have been worth it instead of the early arrival with 2 kids and the stress of not knowing for sure if we'd all be together. We did not have any carryon baggage either.

 

[ohiotinkfan]

I have used Allegiant a few times from Huntington, WVA to MCO and I don't recommend spending the extra for seat or priority boarding. We were all seated together with carry ons only that fit overhead. Only those who paid extra boarded before us. In my experience, all other passengers without seat assignments boarded according to the seat assignment that was made at the airport. Nothing was ever said about overhead bags or bags that fit under your seat. We didn't have any trouble finding a spot for our bags either. Maybe it depends on how crowded the flight is for that day??

 

[vallamen]

We flew allegiant out of allentown at the end of september. I paid for seat assignments as I was traveling alone with my 3 yr old and 5 yr old. We only had carryons that fit under the seat. For our flight, (speaking about the non-medical only) they boarded the priority buyers first, then boarded anyone with underseat carryons only ( I think they called it express boarding) and then the rest of the plane. There was only like 2 other people that got on with us during the "express" boarding. It was like we got the priority boarding for free. Doing it all over again, I would still pay for seats (because of the kids being so young), but still wouldn't pay for priority seating. With that said, overheads were full very quick and I was very glad we limited our carryons!

 

[ccudmore]

No benefit to buying it at all. Even if you do have overhead carry-on, if you don't buy it and then you try to board but it's all full, they will tag your bag and check it for free (avoiding the $50/bag checked bag fee). At least that what I've seen them do when I've flown with them.