Allegiant Air

[maddaug]

Does anyone know how many months in advance Allegiant posts their flights? I have been waiting for what seems like 2 months for them to open up the rest of June for booking. They seem to be stuck on the first 2 weeks of June for our area. Hope that doesn't mean their testing the market and are considering pulling out like they did the Orlando flights.
I love when they decided to fly to Tampa-St. Pete. It's great for us going to Longboat Key. Hope they get enough interest because flights are expensive and haven't come down.

[Carolinian]

I am also curious about Allegiant, which recently started flights from Kinston in our area, right after Delta pulled out, but only to one destination, Orlando.

[dougp26364]

We use them to fly to Vegas from Wichita. They're considerably cheaper than the major carriers but, they nickle & dime you for everything. They charge you if you want to pre-reserve your seats rather than waiting until you get to the airport for your seat assignment at check in. If you check bags, they charge you per bag checked ($8 I think). There are no free snacks or drinks onboard but they do offer a nice selection of things to eat. IMO better than the pretzels and 4 oz glass of soda on the majors. Even with all the add on charges, they're still almost $200 per person cheaper than the next best price.

As for their scheduling I've noticed that they're booking more like 4 months out rather than 6. My guess is they're wanting to see what the price of gas is going to do before releasing prices.

[talkamotta]

Thanks for telling me about this airline...

Doesnt work for me but it does work for my sister that lives in Peoria. I have wanted her to come stay with me at Longboat Bay Club forever or meet me in Vegas.

[Jimster]

I've flown them to Vegas. They also charge more for guaranteed aisle seats. Most importantly, you don't get any ff miles. After you deduct these from the equation I decided that Allegiant was not the bargain I intended.

[easyrider]

At $69.00 to vegas and $89.00 to return plus taxes Alegiant is half of what all the other airlines are for a round trip for us. Also, some of the hotel partners they have combined with the airfare makes going to vegas very affordable for folks in our area. We just sit luck of the draw and are usally close enough to all our group and besides that everyone one on the plane to vegas is there for fun. Its always a great time.

[JLB]

If they serve Tampa from Peoria, that'll work.

From Springfield, MO, they serve Vegas, Orlando, and Tampa, with Daytona appearing to be one that will be added in late Spring. Now that I look at it again, I think it is showing Daytona, and then flipping to Orlando/Sanford because that is not far away.

I have also had problems getting them to say when future dates will be available. I have called and talked to them a few times and the answer has been that they had not confirmed the hotel packages that they have available.

I believe they said four months out and I see that's how far it is now, June 10 being available.

We like them. It's nice to get up in the morning in Florida, visit some friends, drive around and sightsee, be home at 6:00 PM and be home home a little while later. We've used them the last two trips to Florida and all seats have been filled on all four flights.

We like the little airports they use, too.

http://www.allegiantair.com/

Originally Posted by talkamotta

Thanks for telling me about this airline...

Doesnt work for me but it does work for my sister that lives in Peoria. I have wanted her to come stay with me at Longboat Bay Club forever or meet me in Vegas.

[JLB]

Luggage was $4 per bag this year, no charge last year.

We have had four in our group both times, did not get assigned seating, and sat with each other on all flights. We check-in early.

Fares vary considerably. A few seats sometimes go for $19, then $39, $59, $69, $79, $99, $149, $169, $199, $229. That's for the same seats on the same flights!

[frenchieinme]

Something else to consider is they have dropped/canceled without warning or notice a flight and flights from Pease/Portsmouth NH to Orlando (use Sanford/Orlando not MCO) and on other occasions postponed the flight by a day.

Travel agents in my area got burnt once with them and now refuse to do business with them. Otherwise if everything goes as planned they are a good discount carrier.

frenchieinme

[maddaug]

I did notice that there are charges for seating and even reserving online. I can beat the ticket charge and just go out to the airport and reserve. They post the times the ticket counter is open. I didn't know about the luggage charge. Can't dodge that. I need clothes but maybe I will pack light then.

Thanks for the heads up about how they post flights. Now I'll just wait and see when the dates pop up.

The seating concerns me somewhat. We have two teens. We usually get to the airport early so I'll hope it won't be an issue. I know airlines try to keep families together. Thanks for all the info.

Talkamotta, your sister is freezing and it's only going to get worse this weekend and next week. COME ON SPRING. Thanks everyone for your help.

[dougp26364]

Originally Posted by Jimster

I've flown them to Vegas. They also charge more for guaranteed aisle seats. Most importantly, you don't get any ff miles. After you deduct these from the equation I decided that Allegiant was not the bargain I intended.

Since for us they are half the price of the airilnes that do have FF miles, they're more than a bargain for us. After only two flights I've saved enough to pay for one fare on the airlines with FF miles.

Of course that will be different for each airport. At our home town airport, the major and discount carrirers have made the decision not to try to compete on price with Allegiant. I guess their 125 seats daily to Vegas isn't enough of a threat to cut into their 50 seat regional jet business. After all, Vegas is only one destination served. Those regional jets work as feeders into hubs for travelers to go to points unknown.

Allegiant has not attempted to take on Airtran and it's Florida routes here in Wichita. I suspect Airtran fights a little harder to protect it's turf.

[dougp26364]

Originally Posted by maddaug

I did notice that there are charges for seating and even reserving online. I can beat the ticket charge and just go out to the airport and reserve. They post the times the ticket counter is open. I didn't know about the luggage charge. Can't dodge that. I need clothes but maybe I will pack light then.

Thanks for the heads up about how they post flights. Now I'll just wait and see when the dates pop up.

The seating concerns me somewhat. We have two teens. We usually get to the airport early so I'll hope it won't be an issue. I know airlines try to keep families together. Thanks for all the info.

Talkamotta, your sister is freezing and it's only going to get worse this weekend and next week. COME ON SPRING. Thanks everyone for your help.

Is the savings worth the time and the price of the gasoline used to drive to the aiport to buy tickets rather than book online?

While we always get to the airport early, I don't mind the charge for assigned seats when booking and just do that. My wife is slightly claustrophobic and prefers to sit towards the front of the plane if at all possible.

[camachinist]

After seeing firsthand the rise and fall of WestJet (Allegiant) and its DC-9's sitting gathering dust for a number of years at FAT (my local and its initial hub) after the BK in 2000, I've always been leary of them. Happy to hear they're doing better these days.

UA does a pretty good job competing with them on the Vegas routes and F9 (Frontier) is now entrenched here as well. So, for me, considering I'm 1K with UA, Allegiant isn't on my radar screen.

Pat

[dougp26364]

If the majors were more competitive, I'd certainly be considering them.

On the other hand it was Frontier that left us high and dry. The city put up some big $$ in incentives to help Frontier get started. I did my part by putting in more than enough miles to reach their Summit level for their FF program. Many business's in town used them to help them get started.

They returned the favor by putting in some of their oldest and least reliable regional jets, rarely being on time, routinely canceling flight and finally just pulling out much like Allegiant has done in markets it deems not profitable.

These past few years we've seen almost every carrier thank the City of Wichita for it's advertising and airport imporvements by cutting back the number of available seats and increasing the prices again to the point where 50% of the time I'm driving back to Kansas City again for reasonably priced flights.

IMO, all airlines have to be approached with trepidation.

[maddaug]

Doug2634, I work in Peoria and not far from the airport so picking up the tickets is no problem for me. I can save $30 (4 tickets) and just get there early for seating.

[dougp26364]

Originally Posted by maddaug

Doug2634, I work in Peoria and not far from the airport so picking up the tickets is no problem for me. I can save $30 (4 tickets) and just get there early for seating.

Then that would be the way to go. $30 would be almost a tank of gas for one of our cars. I don't think even I would burn a tank of gas getting there and back despite the fact we live on the opposite side of town from the airport. But, Allegiant uses (or at least used to use) the United counter, gate and personel for it's flights. United still has a lot of flights in and out of our airport and they won't issue tickets while they're checking anoher flight, leaving the times to purchases tickets at the counter very limited.

Last December when we flew out of our hometown aiport I noticed that Allegiant was now using the AA gates. I'm not certian if they're now checking in at the AA counter or not. I guess well find out when we fly them this coming March. AA has about as many flights as UA so the issue of buying tickets at the counter for us would be the same. Difficult to time around flight check in times.

[nana7]

Maddaug, where do you live from Peoria? We must be very close. Princeton here

[JLB]

I hadn't noticed a charge for booking online. I have never ticketed any other way.

As for seating, online you can see what has and has not been reserved when you go to the page where you select seating, if you desire. I use that page to see how fast the plane might be filling up. Of course, I can't see those who have not reserved seats.

Like I said, in the four flights we have taken, we arrived early and all four sat together even with a full plane. There were two seats on one side and three on the other.

Coming back from Tampa 1/7, the other person in the third seat was a Springfield, MO father (in shorts and T-shirt) who had gone down to get his vintage Chris Craft ready. His 7-year-old daughter goes back down with him.

As for cancelling service, I guess that is an inevitable happening given their business model. They open at a small airport hopoint there will be enough from that area wanting to go to Vegas of Florida once or twice a week. There either is or there isn't. If there isn't, oh well, that plane just goes somewhere else that day.

The one we took coming back from Tampa was on it's third roundtrip for the day.

[JLB]

I am surprised that they serve both Orlando/Sanford and Tampa, from such small areas. Although they fly to each area on different days, it seems like they would be in competition with themselves.

For Christmas week Orlando was up to $229, when they introduced service to Tampa at their normal discounted kickoff fare. Although those last about as long as it takes you to get to your computer, I noticed the flights to orlando stopped filling when Tampa opened.

Then Tampa got higher and Orlando got lower. Eventally, Tampa went back down to $69 (briefly and we grabbed two seats going down). Both we and our friends needed seats coming back (four total). We got ours for $69 and they got theirs for $99 even though we submitted at the same time. it was stil better than the drive and two motel rooms. Plus we got an extra day of vacation.

[JLB]

Peoria to St. Pete is now available through August--$89.

[maddaug]

Thanks, Jim I decided Saturday to just book online because it's too cold to go out. I hate this cold weather.
Glad I did because today the tickets just went up $20x4 to equal $80.
Yes, maybe it's a sign the BEARS will WIN.
Love it when I save some bucks. If not for the cold weather we would have
paid the extra bucks. Yea!

Allegiant only flies Peoria and Vegas.
As for the extra fees, a convienence fee is charged for online booking. Call for reservations and it's an extra $17.00 per ticket.

nana7, we live in Morton.