The flight attendants also sell tickets to events and shuttle tickets while on board (at least on my

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I recently had the opportunity to fly from Bellingham, WA to Las Vegas, NV on Allegiant Air (note: this was not a free ticket and I paid full fare). It was time for a little vacation, but vacation doesn t mean I can t review my flight.
On the blog, I have covered Allegiant quite a bit. I have looked at the possibility of them starting flights from Paine Field , talked about their Boeing 757 s and have explored their recent growth . However, I have never actually flown Allegiant and felt it was about time.
Although I haven t flown them, I have had a small, odd crush on the airline. They have a very unique business model of flying homes for sale los angeles older MD-80 s out of smaller airports and are geared towards the leisure traveler trying to get somewhere warm. They fly places that other low cost carriers don t fly offering non-stop service to airports not usually served. They also seem to under cut the competition homes for sale los angeles in fare price.
When booking my ticket I was looking at flights out of Seattle (SEA) and Bellingham (BLI which is located homes for sale los angeles about 1.5hours north of Seattle). Flying Allegiant out of BLI was $50.00 cheaper than anyone else even after the fees I ended up paying. Add that parking at BLI is only $9/day vs $28/day at SEA and the 1.5hr drive north sounds like a good idea compared to the 30min drive south for me to SEA (ok, so when I have to drive it from 1am-2:30am homes for sale los angeles when I got back, it didn t seem so great at the time).
There is no hiding that Allegiant love their fees. If you are just flying with a carry-on. homes for sale los angeles don t care about where you sit  and you don t eat anything you can get to your destination for dirt cheap. homes for sale los angeles Allegiant has become quite skilled at trying to sell you things during every step of the travel process homes for sale los angeles from going onto their website to getting off the airplane.
This is not to say I blame them for this, I have always said I do not mind fees. If I am traveling light why should homes for sale los angeles I have to pay for people who are not? When booking my ticket these were some of the upgrades I was offered. Some of these fees you do not see on every airline (note that the priority boarding fee is the same for each flight, but the other seat fees will differ depending on flight length):
You can fly without having to pay any of these fees, but many will end up paying. Allegiant recently went to a new boarding process. homes for sale los angeles First the people that pay the $9.99 for the priority boarding homes for sale los angeles get to board. Then those who need a little homes for sale los angeles extra time (not kids or family) that they need extra time getting seated get to board. Next, passengers with seat assignments get to find their seats. Then those who do not have seat assignments, but have kids that are under 7. Then it goes to open seating and people get to pick what is left as far as seats and overhead bin space. On the flight to LAS, there weren t many who went with open seating, but it seemed most of the plane was open seating on the way home.
Normally I wouldn t pay for an assigned seat, but on this trip I was flying with my girlfriend Amy and I wanted to make sure we sat together. I didn t get the premium seats and even after the $32.00 seating fees (for both of us there and back) our tickets were still $50.00 homes for sale los angeles cheaper than the competition. Since Allegiant flies MD-80 aircraft, homes for sale los angeles paying more to sit up front can be more useful since you are farther away from the jets in the rear of the plane.
One annoying aspect of Allegiant s fees is most are opt-out fees. It automatically signs you up for the $9.99 priority boarding and seat assignment charges and asks if you are really sure you want to opt-out. After I thought I opted out for everything and I was on the payment screen and I had additional charges adding up to around $60.00 that I didn t know what they were. It took me a while to realize Allegiant already added two tickets for a hotel shuttle homes for sale los angeles and for travel insurance. I could see people not realizing what is going on and paying for them, even if they didn t want or need them. Even though it was a bit more work to get the tickets (it was almost game like and I think I won) I still ended up with super cheap tickets.
Although their aircraft are a bit older, the ones I flew on (N416NV N419NV) were quite clean. The new Allegiant homes for sale los angeles seats are a bit unique with not having a standard seat pocket. Instead of the seat pocket being down by the knees, it is up above the tray table and is much smaller. This allows them to put the seats closer together and cut down on turnaround time since there really isn t room to put trash.
The new seats are also pre-reclined, which is fancy airline-speak for they do not recline. For me, this is a non-issue. I rarely recline my seat out of respect for the people behind me. Non-recling seats allow more seats to be put in, cuts down on maintenance costs, which allows more revenue and keeps your ticket cost cheaper. For some reason, so many people do not see this connection. There are many other airlines out there that might provide a bit more room, less fees and a reclining seat, but it will cost you more to fly them.
Once you are on board the plane, you have more fees to consider paying as well. Unlike most other airlines, there is no free food or drinks. Not even that small glass of Diet Coke or a miniature bag of peanuts. A 12oz soda will cost you $2 and snacks range from $2-$6. Of course you also have the choice of beer for $5 or mixed drinks for $7. Considering I paid $3 for a soda and $5 for a bagel with cream cheese at the airport before boarding, I should have waited.
The flight attendants also sell tickets to events and shuttle tickets while on board (at least on my Vegas flight). My biggest regrets of my flight homes for sale los angeles was not getting an Allegiant MD-80 model which they also sell. They won t advertise homes for sale los angeles them, so you have to ask for it. I totally forgot on the flight to LAS and was sleeping the entire way back to BLI.
One reason I slept the entire flight back was it was so late. The plane was scheduled to leave LAS at 8:05pm, but we didn t take off until about 10:30pm. De-icing and flight plan issues caused the delay. homes for sale los angeles Add to that sitting in the plane for about 1.5hrs of that delay with a loud kid in front of us and a group of college homes for sale los angeles kids behind us, it was not fun. At least they did allow us to use our electronic homes for sale los angeles devices and the restroom during the wait. Although it was annoying, what can you do? There are delays in any form of transportation. How many times am I sitting in Seattle homes for sale los angeles traffic and it takes me an hour to go just ten miles (a lot btw)? As always people seem to get angry at the airline for delays; like someone is sitting homes for sale los angeles in a room somewhere making a plane late for fun. The pilots, flight attendants, ground crews, airport personnel, operations managers and everyone else waiting on the last flight of the day do not want the delay anymore than you. These sorts of things happen in a complex business like this and I always find it is best to roll with the punches (although Amy can attest I was getting grumpy at the time).
Allegiant has a smart model that works and they will continue to grow their route map. They own their planes, fly to smaller airports, concentrate on leisure travelers, homes for sale los angeles provide homes for sale los angeles complete travel options and have fees. It obviously is working for them since they have been able to grow rapidly over the past few years and I have a feeling it will continue to work for them. How have your experiences homes for sale los angeles with Allegiant been?
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Very interesting report. Before I read this, I would never have considered flying Allegiant ever, but the fact that even with the fees you can end up saving homes for sale los angeles some money sounds good to me. I may look into them for my next trip
I agree, great article! I have flown with Allegiant for the past three years and unfortunately have seen a constant erosion of not only flight schedules, delays for plane breakdowns and customer homes for sale los angeles service. This week I had to change a flight and their website wasn t working homes for sale los angeles due to problems (which is more the norm this year than not)and it directed me to call in. 7 days later and 8 1/2 hours on the phone with wait times up to 2 hours before I had to hang up and try another homes for sale los angeles day, I got my flight changed and rescheduled and they charged homes for sale los angeles me $30.00 for their problems because I had to use the phone . Another 3 hours later on the phone trying to contact a customer service manager after the phone operators claimed they couldn t change it as the system did it automatically homes for sale los angeles and only a customer service manager could change it, then a third operator said she had spoken with a manger and then later admitted she hadn t and said they had the right to charge even if their system wasn t working. After reading the comments about how the planes aren t maintained, wow! It s definitely time to change. Too bad, they were much better once, but are really going down hill fast.
Nice report!! I have flown on Allegiant 8 times since 2006 and have enjoyed everyone, all my flights were flown between Orlando-Sanford and Allentown,PA. I had one delayed flight in ABE due to the cargo door being broken and had to sit up there for 6 hours until a plane from SFB was one the way with the part. The best thing was when about ten people showed up wheeling in Domino s Pizza on dollies, (had to be one pie for every person, and it was a full flight)we also got a discount for another flight
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