Looking for opinions on Allegiant Air

[Azure]

My DH and I never had a honeymoon. Not a really a big deal but we do have our 25th anniversary coming up in December so we thought an anniversary trip would be awesome. I can't get time off work in December (retail job) so we plan to go to Florida in early to mid November. Our son will be home from Australia by then so we will have a built in house/dog sitter!

I have been looking at airfare and Allegiant has the lowest prices and they are non-stop flights. I see that if we want to sit together we will probably have to pay an extra fee (looks like its $26) to choose seats. And also that they only allow 40 lb bags to travel for free.

Looking at their facebook page I am seeing quite a few complaints. So I thought I would ask folks who have used Allegiant what they thought about the whole experience? Any complaints or compliments? Any advice?

We would be flying from Lansing, MI to Orlando.

[nswef]

We loved the Allegiant flight from Hagerstown, MD to Orlando. The seats were fine, the plane was on time. The rental car was close by. We would do it more often, but they shut down during the summer and only go on Mondays and Fridays. We didn't have any trouble sitting together, but Hagerstown's airport is very small. We were gone for a week. I cannot remember if my husband took golf clubs, I think not, so we had free luggage. One suitcase and one carry on for both of us together for a week.

[lmerullo]

Hubby and I have used Allegiant more than ten times and have only one complaint - they don't fly often enough! They offer only direct flights and their schedules are not conducive to stringing legs together. If they fly where and when you can use them then I think they are an excellent option.

In all the flights we have only had one delayed - last christmas eve. Only about a two hour wait but flight time is consistently faster than promised in our experience so dh had already left home to meet us. He just took a lunch break. As did we. All was well.

What were the complaints?

[Azure]

Well, now that I look at it most of the complaints are about customer service & "hidden" fees. I guess most of them are about not getting any slack from the company on things that were against the rules. Like AA recommends you get to the airport 2 hours before flight time. And they close the flights 35 before take off and there were complaints from people about missing flights even though they were actually in line to check in 35 minutes before the flight. And complaints about the refund policy.

I guess I'm not worried about it that much after all. I will just have to check the "rules" very very carefully.

p.s. Just got the word today that my vacation time request has been approved!!!! Woo Hoo!

[Tussiemussies]

Good for you Azure, glad your vacation time was approved. Sounds nice to get away for your anniversary....

[Greg44]

I have not flown on them, but when my daughter's family flew to AZ last year they opted not to fly on them. I was surprized because they advertise such low prices. She too said by the time they added up all the fees it was cheaper to fly on one of the big carriers.

My boss and wife use them all the time, but they have a home second home in Palm Springs so they can travel - usually with just a carry-on on the cheap.

Have a good trip! And congratulations on the anniversary!

[Float On]

I've used them to fly to Vegas and Orlando. I usually just travel with a small carry-on. Good and inexpensive, planes were nice too.

[Azure]

Thought I'd update on our experience with Allegiant Air. We are going to Florida for our 25th anniversary. DH decided to try Allegiant because it is direct flights, and even with the add on's it was still a bit cheaper. However, when he tried to book our package the website was not working properly. It took him 5 times to get it to go through. When it did finally go through the website had changed our hotel reservations from 3 days to 7 days. So he called customer service. Was on hold for a looong time. Like 45 minutes or something. The CS rep said that she could change the reservation back from 7 days to 3 days but that we would not be refunded the difference. Infuriating! However, since we had JUST made the reservation we could cancel the whole thing and she would refund all our money. CRAZY! So we canceled. She said thanks for doing business with Allegiant Air & DH said we are NOT doing doing business with AA and never will.