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Allegient Air Reviews wanted


emuangel

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My husband and I are cruising on the Pride of America in August from/to Honolulu. Flight from Albuquerque to Honolulu are high, so we looked into flying from Albuquerque to Phoenix, staying the night and then flying on Allegient Air to Honolulu and doing the same on the return (it is still cheaper to do this then a round trip flight from Albuquerque to Honolulu). We've concerned about how Allegient Airlines is, as we have never flown with them before. Please all reviews and information on them are welcome. Thanks!

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You have good reason to be concerned; I recommend against this. Allegiant has a very spotty record to Hawaii. For example they dropped service abruptly to several cities (e.g Santa Maria, CA) and announced they would not start Monterey flights just a few days before they were going to begin. In both cases, hundreds of people had to buy very expensive last-minute tickets on other airlines.

 

Allegiant uses a "travel club" business model. They depend on ancillary revenue from hotels, rental cars, etc. at *both* ends of a route. If that fails to materialize, they drop service as a stop-loss.

 

They have had frequent mechanical problems with the 757's they use to Hawaii. Several times over the past year, people were stranded in Hawaii for several days. (You can do a google search on this or route cancellations).

 

Last thing- Allegiant does not interline. If your flight is delayed or cancelled, you will not be put on another airline's flight. The next available Allegiant flight may be several days later.

 

If you want to take the risk, definitely fly in 2-3 days early instead of the day before. And be prepared to arrive home a day or two later than planned. It's very likely everything will go fine, but the risks are higher with Allegiant...only you can decide if it's worth the savings.

 

Have you checked flights on Hawaiian Air from LAX, SAN, PHX, LAS, or even SJC or SFO? Also check fares on Alaska from LAX, SAN and the Bay Area.

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My husband and I are cruising on the Pride of America in August from/to Honolulu. Flight from Albuquerque to Honolulu are high, so we looked into flying from Albuquerque to Phoenix, staying the night and then flying on Allegient Air to Honolulu and doing the same on the return (it is still cheaper to do this then a round trip flight from Albuquerque to Honolulu). We've concerned about how Allegient Airlines is, as we have never flown with them before. Please all reviews and information on them are welcome. Thanks!

 

Well, lots of things to note, but here's a few

In Phoenix they don't fly from PHX airport, but from IWA (in Mesa,AZ)

They have a small fleet of trans-oceanic 757s, and if there's a problem it can cascade quite badly.

They're greatly cutting back their service to Hawaii effective September: http://crankyflier.com/2013/04/04/allegiant-slashes-hawaii-flying-this-fall-and-it-shouldnt-be-a-surprise/

 

I would look into ABQ-SAN or ABQ-SJC and fly on Alaska instead, or ABQ-LAS and take Hawaiian.

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I have flown with them a few times when I've found really cheap tickets from Plattsburg to Florida for land vacations. Seats were comfortable, flights left with little or no delay. They charge for luggage and love to 'bing' people for oversize and over-weight.

 

I would not trust this airline to get me to a cruise on time. This is not from my experience but from what I've read and what I know about the airline industry. Also, I don't like to travel on two separate tickets. If something goes wrong you can be stuck in the middle with no help from anybody.

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  • 2 weeks later...

We use them from our small airport to get to Orlando. They only fly a few times each week and it the flight does not go, they will not book you on another line. They are VERY cheap--we have paid as little as $19 for what other airlines charge 200 for. The trade off is reliability. In our case we can drive to Orlando in 8 hours if they fail.

There is no way I would trust them to get me to a cruise in Hawaii.

As another poster stated, they do not usually fly into the "main" airports but regional ones.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My 1st flying experience was with Allegiant 4 years ago. It was just a 2 hour flight from East Tennessee to Sanford and we got a great combo deal with motel and WDW tix. There was no problems.

 

We're flying with them again next month, Knoxville to Ft. Lauderdale. Less than $330 round trip per person and that is with an extra bag to cover their weight limits. An added plus, this will be a direct flight.

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If using this airline, I would be CERTAIN, there were at least 5 scheduled flights after the one you book that would get you to the cruise. Which means probably coming in a week ahead. My sister flys them frequently, because she is trip, but it does not involve any cruise. Overall she has made her flights, some with significant delays but one trip was just refunded, she didn't care, no problem for her to cancel the hotels. But if it had involved a cruise- SoL.

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  • 3 weeks later...

We flew Allegiant one way from the west coast to Honolulu last Saturday. It was an interesting experience to say the least. The crew was professional and the gate agents were friendly and efficient. Be warned that on these 757s seats do not recline. This airline charges for everything, early seat selection, carry ons, checked bags and all food and drinks including water. The FAs made 4 trips down the aisle selling refreshments. We brought our own. There is no audio or video on these planes.

 

Problems were entirely due to the passengers. We fly a lot and most of the pax on this flight were very different than we have seen on other flights. They were loud and got louder as time passed. Many we're dressed in very sloppy clothing. About half the pax arrived after the doors should have closed, boarded and were unhappy with their seats. The man sitting by the window in my row decided he'd rather have my aisle seat and told me so! I of course refused. As soon as the seat belt sign was turned off, many of the pax jumped up and looked for

different seats! We were about 25 minutes late departing all due to problem passengers, not the airline.

 

So no complaints about the airline....just the passengers....at least on this particular flight!

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