Any tips for booking flights with Allegiant Air?

[Piglet]

We are going to fly out of our local airport to Sanford in January 2017 for our WDW trip. Allegiant just released the flight schedule. Should I book now or is it best to wait? Looking at round trip, it is $149.00. Do I need to add our luggage now or can I do that sometime closer? I also have little ones that need to be seated with a parent. Do you recommend choosing seats at the time of booking or waiting?

Any other tips are appreciated? TIA!!!

Edited to add: Is is generally cheaper to book a car rental when I do flights or do them on my own separately?

 

[Alesia]

Book directly from the airline website, not from a third-party site.

 

[AngiTN]

If you know what you want to add do it at the time of purchase. No since in waiting
Just watch those fees. Every time I price out Allegiant it ends up almost double the price and it no longer a bargain. Most of the time it ends up being more expensive than driving 2 hours to fly Southwest.
And I'd never book car rental through anyone but the car rental site. I don't care for the package deals airline sites do for car rental or hotel stays. I like to piece it all together myself.

 

[isabellea]

Expect some delays. We flew Allegiant 3 times from Plattsburgh, NY and every single times we had 2-6h delays in FL (didn't flew to Sanford, only to Ft Lauderdale and Clearwater).

For pricing, I think it's cheaper to buy your tickets directly at the airport then online or by phone.

 

[nacho113]

We are going to fly out of our local airport to Sanford in January 2017 for our WDW trip. Allegiant just released the flight schedule. Should I book now or is it best to wait? Looking at round trip, it is $149.00. Do I need to add our luggage now or can I do that sometime closer? I also have little ones that need to be seated with a parent. Do you recommend choosing seats at the time of booking or waiting?

Any other tips are appreciated? TIA!!!

Edited to add: Is is generally cheaper to book a car rental when I do flights or do them on my own separately?

Not sure what airport you are flying out of, but $149 RT sounds decent.
Allegiant does have sales occasionally but the flights you want may or may not go on sale.
If you are comfortable with the $149, book it.
Allegiant has tiered pricing, x number of seats at a certain price, when they are sold the pricing moves up to the next tier (ie: $67 to $79 to $92 to $104 just examples, not actual prices).
If sales are not trending as predicted, the system will open up some lower priced seats to stimulate sales.
The opposite is true also; if demand is high, prices can and will rise.

You definitely want to pay for your baggage when you book. Allegiant recently (Nov 2015) changed how they charge baggage fees, if you pay when you book the flight you will pay the least amount, paying after booking but before departure is more and paying at the gate is the most expensive.
It varies by airport but goes something like this: pay at time of booking $20-30/bag, pay pre-departure, but not at time of booking $45/bag, pay at gate $50/bag.
Allegiant also charges for carry-on bags, again depends on airport and when you pay, at time of booking $15-20/carry-on, pre-departure $45/bag, at gate $50/bag
https://www.allegiantair.com/popup/optional-services-fees#baggage

Also big FYI: checked bags only have a 40lb weight limit! (not 50lb like most legacy airlines)

Seating: If you want to be sure everyone sits together, purchase the seat assignment. When flying with family, I usually purchase my seats.
If travelling with buddies and don't care if we get separated, I'll save the money and skip the seat assignment.
Sometimes we get seats together as long as we are all on the same itinerary. Sometimes we get middle seats all over the plane.

Again: If you need the seats together, purchase them.

Rental Car: generally we can find better rates by booking directly with the rental company than booking through Allegiant.

FYI: Allegiant sometimes shows a very attractive rate for rental cars BUT (and its a big but) they DO NOT include the taxes and fees in the price. You are required to pay these to the rental company when you arrive at your destination which can increase the total price a huge amount.

 

[Kaytie]

Rental car: book separately now, don't prepay, and keep checking for lower rates. Don't forget to cancel unneeded reservations.

 

[honeybunches]

We buy our Allegiant tickets at the airport, saves money -- but they have very limited times that they're open. Be sure to check beforehand.
Also, they charge a fee if you use a credit card. With debit card, no fee. I use a debit card from a bank account we rarely use so that our main account isn't tied up if something happens.

 

[Best Aunt]

Just watch those fees. Every time I price out Allegiant it ends up almost double the price and it no longer a bargain.

This.

 

[stinkpickle]

We always pay for baggage when we book, as well as pay for seat assignments. We prefer to do car rentals through Costco, though.

 

[Laz]

It has been a while since I have flown on Allegiant, but a few things stand out: First is the long delays that our common and if the flight is cancelled, You will have to wait a couple of days to get another flight since they do not fly daily routes. Second is all the fees that were mentioned that can negate the published fare. In addition to the fees that were listed, I believe they charge for carry ons that can not go underneath the seat.

 

[AngiTN]

It has been a while since I have flown on Allegiant, but a few things stand out: First is the long delays that our common and if the flight is cancelled, You will have to wait a couple of days to get another flight since they do not fly daily routes. Second is all the fees that were mentioned that can negate the published fare. In addition to the fees that were listed, I believe they charge for carry ons that can not go underneath the seat.

Yes! I am honestly surprised that they don't charge to use the bathroom!

 

[keishashadow]

we were on the first Allegiant flight to MCO from PIT last November. A 'big band' prizes, etc. surprised at the hoopla. More surprised to sit on the plane for well over an hour before the plan left the gate. Props to my 5 y.o. GD for not uttering 'are we there yet'.

have flown them 3 more times since then, coming to the conclusion that their departure time is more of a suggestion. Twice, we've had mechanical issues that caused the delays. Longest was approx 3 hours back to PIT.

What i do find odd is how in PIT they don't open the luggage check until exactly 2 hours prior to the first flight out and then only have 2 staffing it. Glad we were at the head of the line. They then stop accepting checked luggage an hour later (totally closed down the counter) and the same staff moved over to the gate. Talk about running lean & mean lol.

Price is right, employees are polite and enthusiastic & the planes have looked 'newish' and, thus far, they have gotten us to where we are supposed to be the same day. I wouldn't dream of booking them if i really needed to be somewhere the same or next day...as in a cruise.

I put them into the same category as Spirit (who we fly out of LBE) but they are heads above for general friendliness and professionalism. I have my fingers the Spirit flight i'm booked on the end of the month makes it to MYR. Every single time I book an afternoon flight (only flight offered) it gets backed up by 'weather issues' sigh, but the price makes the trip affordable.

 

[Monykalyn]

We use allegiant flying to Florida and have never had issues. But that may depend on airport. Last year booked rental car thru them as well and it turned out to be cheapest. Actually like the Sanford airport better than MCO. Yeah watch the weight limit on bags- we generally add an extra bag cuz of this. Southwest lately hasn't had the super prices making it worth driving 3 hours for us (each way). And definitely book as soon as you know you are going- I've not seen prices go down yet! Again may be our location (smaller regional area vs a larger city with more competition). For our family of 5 even a couple hundred dollars saved (and no driving at end of Vacay on way home) is worth the hassle of smaller airline

 

[BigAlsGal]

We fly allegiant often. We usually avoid bag fees because you are allowed 1 personal item each which we all carry a backpack with a couple days worth of clothes and basic toiletries. They really do only allow 1 bag as a personal so no cheating. One time I invited a friend and she sort of freaked out about the one bag thing. She went out and bought this crazy huge backpack. I gave her a warning "just a heads up they might make you pay for that bag". They didn't. Seems as long as you have just one bag they didn't say anything. It can be done. If it's a long trip or you don't want to do laundry then pay for an additional bag.

I was shocked to see so many people attempt to take 2 bags though. At the Indianapolis airport they loaded the no bags people first and said "if you have more than 1 bag(personal item) you need to consolodate or pay for the additional bag". People were standing all over the place trying to shove purses in rolling suitcases. Laptops. You name it they were going to get them into 1 bag! Crazy.

If sitting together is a priority then yes pay for seating. They'll separate you. Every time we've flown without selecting a seat we have been separated. Not by just a couple seats. Sometimes multiple rows away. It's lame.

We always rent through Alamo because it's been the cheapest for us and you get your car from the airport super fast. The one time I tried to save some money ($30) I rented separately through dollar/thrifty. We stood in line FOREVER and we saw people coming back left and right with problem cars. After watching the fiasco for almost 30 minutes I said forget it. (Luckily I hadn't paid or given credit card info, just the reservation)

We walked to the first open line we saw (budget) and we paid more than what we would have with Alamo but I didn't care. I wanted to get the heck out of the airport and on to Disney. So I vowed to always choose Alamo while booking.

 

[stinkpickle]

The delay issues must be at certain airports. We fly Allegiant quite a bit and have been delayed a lot more on Delta and US Airways (now AA).

 

[Piglet]

If you know what you want to add do it at the time of purchase. No since in waiting
Just watch those fees. Every time I price out Allegiant it ends up almost double the price and it no longer a bargain. Most of the time it ends up being more expensive than driving 2 hours to fly Southwest.
And I'd never book car rental through anyone but the car rental site. I don't care for the package deals airline sites do for car rental or hotel stays. I like to piece it all together myself.

UPDATE: You were right! Booked with Southwest and got a much better rate without all the fees. Thanks for the advice!!!