Can anyone tell me about Allegiant Airlines?

[ceecee]

Southwest is leaving our city and Allegiant is the only airline offering a non-stop. However the prices are not really clear, it looks like they charge $8 if you use a credit card and $15-$30 or $50 at the airport for each carry on for each segment of flights. That really adds up plus they fly into Sanford so no Magical Express so we need to have a rental car for a week. Can anyone tell me how much the fees are and what about Frontier Airline?

 

[crazylady]

We flew Allegiant and didn't have enough any issues but they do "nickel and dime" for everything. For us (family of 4) in the end of each person ends up with a checked bag, and we do a carry-on bag or two, it ends up about the same price as Southwest. But if we are taking a shorter trip where we can share checked bags, Allegient ends up a little cheaper.

 

[dclpluto]

Non stop is nice but is it that nice where you have to get a rental car? What is your home airport?

 

[ceecee]

Our home airport is Dayton. Columbus is an hour away and Cincinnati is just a little over an hour. Never flown into Sanford so don't know anything about the rentals there either. I'm just so upset Southwest is leaving Dayton, we loved them.

 

[kymom99]

I would drive to Cincinnati. Did you know SW is coming here?

Allegiant is known for mechanical issues and delayed flights. My friends daughter was coming from Orlando and the plane turned around and went back. They were lucky. They were put on a flight the sane night. Others aren't so lucky.

 

[powellrj]

We took Allegiant on our last flight. We rented a car and it wasn't that expensive. It was a little over $100 for a midsize. It is outside of the airport, but its really a short walk.

We had a list of what we wanted before we did tickets so we knew what we were getting. We flew out of Indy and it was just over $300 for the 2 of us to fly which I didn't think was bad because we didn't decide to fly until the last minute. They were very nice to deal with and I flew with a wheelchair and they were very helpful.

 

[kadrachb]

My boyfriends parents tried to fly Allegiant before. The first time (they were supposed to take off at 5pm), the departure kept getting pushed back, and then finally canceled around 1am, they were flying out of BWI to somewhere in NC. They were able to rebook, and then did use the airline to fly out of BWI again (they were delayed about 3 hours at BWI) and then came back with no problems. As a PP said, they are notorious for this, and their mechanical issues.

However, I have a cousin who uses them to fly from Kentucky to Pennsylvania, they haven't had any problems, and have a large family so they've been happy with the price.

 

[BigAlsGal]

We fly Allegiant often. We love it! Yes you get charged per bag but you do get 1 free personal item. We pack back packs. We never pay for checked bags. You find a decent enough size back pack you'd be surprised how much you can get in it. That way you could get away with maybe 1 checked bag. Or none!

Nonstop is priceless. Really. Layovers...bleh. There's also something to be said for smaller airports. Easy access and shorter lines.

Sanford is a small airport. Only 2 terminals but it does have restaurants and shops. There's probably 6 or 7 rental places. I'd choose Alamo. They usually offer a better rate to Allegiant customers and it is fast and easy to get your car. We just got back and literally it took him 2 minutes to punch in my info and I was headed out to the car.

As far as the safety thing I have never experienced any issues. Yes you might look up "statistics" on how they're more likely to be grounded for mechanical issues. You can also look up that Allegiant has NEVER had a fatal crash. Wouldn't worry about it.

The only thing about Allegiant is yes sometimes flights get cancelled and being a smaller carrier there's no real plan B. You might be left flightless. I've never experienced this but I've heard of others who have.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Flew Allegiant CA to AZ. Super cheap so they nickel & dime like every other super cheap carrier (Spirit). Plane was VERY loud. Guess they save $ on insulation? Like shouting to the person next to you in order to talk loud. I would fly Allegiant again if it was a great deal AND the flight was under 2 hours.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

I don't care for allegiant. For our airport they aren't competitive enough so we can justify a 1 1/2 hr drive to an airport with Southwest. Our home airport where allegiant flies is only 10 mins away.

One downside if you do get competitive fares is their checked baggage limit is 40lbs vs 50 with most other carriers. Last time I flew allegiant my bag was 41.25 lbs and they wanted $50 additional fee for over weight bag. Thankfully my carry on (which I paid for) could fit a few more items. Totally my fault though for not checking their weight limit, amd just assuming they were the weight limit of other carriers.

 

[Pkltm]

We have taken them twice, once to Vegas- would do again in a heartbeat. And once to Orlando, we disliked flying into Sanford, we really enjoy the Disney transportation! I know many don't but we like relaxing and letting them do the driving!

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

I have used them for an adults only trip to Vegas. We used our debit card so didn't have to pay the CC fee. The flight is only a couple hours long so we didn't worry about paying the fee to pick our seats (we did end up sitting next to each other but were not worried if we got separated). It was a 4 day trip so we shared a checked bag between two people and everyone brought a backpack for under the seat. All together it ended up being $100 RT pp.

If we were traveling with young children or were staying for a longer period we would have had to pay the fees for all the extras which would have probably chipped away at the savings.

 

[klbrow11]

Flown many times. Never had a real problem with delays but sometimes counter service lines are long. Have always used a debit card since it's a bit cheaper. I believe if you a check bags with the purchase of tickets they are a little cheaper. Def prefer purchase bags because they cost more to check at airport. Sanford is an easy airport and rental cars aren't too bad for a week.

If you really want to fly in to MCO frontier is in Cincinnati which is a similar business model to allegiant.

 

[MillauFr]

You can also look up that Allegiant has NEVER had a fatal crash. Wouldn't worry about it.

That is because Allegiant is really Value Jet. After they had a fatal accident the CEO sold the company to AirTran. He later started Allegiant using the same business practices that he used at Value Jet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ValuJet_Flight_592

You aren't concerned when their own mechanics refuse to let their families fly on the airline?

 

[BigAlsGal]

That is because Allegiant is really Value Jet. After they had a fatal accident the CEO sold the company to AirTran. He later started Allegiant using the same business practices that he used at Value Jet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ValuJet_Flight_592

You aren't concerned when their own mechanics refuse to let their families fly on the airline?

No. I'm not going to worry about a carrier that hasn't had a fatality in almost 20 years. That's just silly. 1.3 million people die every year in car accidents and 20-50 million people end up injured or disabled. So 26 million people have died in cars over 20 years. Yet.....you probably still get in a car right? I bet all those mechanics still put their kids in cars too.

 

[MillauFr]

No. I'm not going to worry about a carrier that hasn't had a fatality in almost 20 years. That's just silly. 1.3 million people die every year in car accidents and 20-50 million people end up injured or disabled. So 26 million people have died in cars over 20 years. Yet.....you probably still get in a car right? I bet all those mechanics still put their kids in cars too.

I just think it is outrageous when the mechanics bring up legitimate safety concern and management tells them not to worry about it and clear the planes to fly. The mechanics that refuse to go along are fired. The company clearly does not have a culture of safety and takes unnecessary risks in order to boost profits. In my opinion safety of the passengers and the crew should always be more important than profits.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...cdd5fe74204_story.html?utm_term=.7a3b6e982ffd

 

[potterfanatic]

I have flown Allegiant twice and wouldn't hesitate to do it again even though we had a 5 hour flight delay on our last flight (all the planes coming out of Florida were grounded due to a storm so we had to wait for the flight to get to us before we even had a plane to board). Both times I flew to Florida, just me and my three kids. I didn't have to pay to pick my seat because they guarantee children under a certain age to be seated next to their parents, and we did a large checked bag in additional to our personal items which I paid for in the original booking.

 

[DizMe]

I live an hour and a half to 2 hours away from the airport. It's not that big a deal to drive an hour to an airport if the traffic isn't an issue (it isn't for me, as I live in a rural area).

 

[kydisneyfans]

Too many cancellations and the cost savings doesn't justify the few pennies saved(if any at all).
We also don't like flying into the "off" airport and have found car rental fees are normally higher than the surrounding larger airport.
Also don't like the 40 vs 50 lb packing as many trips are for running, with multiple pairs of shoes, etc.
Just a personal preference, not a fan.

We live 20 minutes from the Lexington airport and can take Allegiant NS to Sanford or we can drive to Louisville(over an hour) for a direct on SW. Cincy has direct on Delta also. There are other options from this part of the world.

 

[minorthr]

southwest flies from Columbus to Orlando