allegiant tell me about them

[pickles]

was reading another thread and they had mentioned cheap fairs for allegiant. I checked and I can get flights from dsm to mco on allegiant.
Usually I fly SWA out of Kansas city, I love SWA. I have done AA out of stl but that is a long drive for us.
DSM will actually be even closer than KC..so what is the pros and cons of Allegiant and how do they compare to SWA?

change flight fees? baggage fees? reliability?
we have had very good luck with SWA so far.
But no trips in the near future for us as we are broke, but whe someone mentioned like $10 airfares all of a sudden i see a birthday present for me in the future!!

 

[duffy]

I love Allegiant. They stopped flying out of my closest town, Hagerstown, Md, and I am sad about that. But, I could go to Youngstown, Ohio now!

Anyhow, I liked that they "nickel and dime" customers. I feel, why should I pay higher ticket prices if I'm not going to use the service? So, I paid lower prices for our tickets and didn't check any luggage.

If I'm flying with my husband and teen daughter, I'll save more by not bothering to get seats together-hey, I can sit beside them on the drive to the airport, right? We're all old enough to be ok on our own for a few hours.

All airlines charge now for drinks, so I'm okay with that. Again, if it means saving money so that I don't get a "free" drink, that's fine with me.

Allegiant uses smaller airports, and at Hagerstown, parking was free. That meant saving about $60 versus flying out of Pittsburgh or Baltimore, the "major" airports I would most likely then use.

Allegiant also charges for "priority boarding", something else I don't need and save money on.

So, I could use another airline, pay more and get "free" checked luggage, pay parking fees, etc., or use Allegiant, choose what options are important to me and pay accordingly.

As an example, I could fly Southwest and have 2 checked bags for "free", for about $200 round trip. If I could fly with only one checked bag and get a ticket cheaper, or even fly with no checked bags and fly for even LESS, I'd prefer that. I can't do that with Southwest. With Allegiant, I had that option. I flew for about $120 with no checked luggage with Allegiant.

 

[leanne11]

We use them all the time.. they do try to nickel and dime you///a seat for $50 could be over $100 if you pay all the fees...theres a bag,seating,conv fee..but you don't have to choose them all... if you get there early enough you pick your seat out then at counter..you lug your stuff in no fancy helpers you lug it to the weight place, and it's gone.. nothing fancy... we always flew into Sanford, i loved it there but now it's the big MCO... FROM OUR AREA ANYWAY...1 time there was a delay and since they only go out 1/day it was an 8 hour delay...but we just went back home...

 

[JB2K]

They are a great way to get to all the fun on the cheap from lesser-traveled airports!

Sure wish they hadn't moved-away from BLV, a couple of years ago...

 

[DebbieB]

There were some recent posts where they not only changed the time of their flights, but also the date! They only fly out of most cities on certain days of the week and that can change even after you book. So if you book Sunday, they could turn around and change your flight to Monday.

 

[tj4disney]

Ack! That's a new one to me that they actually change dates. I'll have to keep that in mind as I look to fly out of DSM.

To the OP, to date I have found Allegiant to be reliable and a good option. As others have mentioned, those cheap advertised fares won't be quite that cheap in the end, but they will still be less than almost everybody. Might also want to check AirTran out of DSM, but you're definitely taking scheduling chances with them...but if you can arrange it right (ie, don't care what time you arrive or depart, or whether you stay on a direct flight), they can be a cheap option.

Back to Allegiant...if you book online, you have to be very careful that items you deselect don't suddenly reappear again a little later...they are pretty sneaky that way (ie, if you deselect priority boarding, but then change your seat, the priority boarding option may re-populate as a selected option).

 

[Soon2B4]

If you live close to the airport or have someone who does, you can save 15.00 a person buy getting your tickets at the airport. They charge for booking online, but if it's done at the counter, there is no fee. I called and they said it would be fine to send my parents to buy the tickets as long as they had all of our info.