8 Responses to “Who the F*** is Allegiant Air?”

1. 

   Airline State September 25th, 2006 at 9:32 am

   Its been fascinating watching Allegiant grow. Major airlines have been casting off smaller routes in an effort to control costs and conslidate leaving some nice markets unserved. All Allegiant needed was someone to point them in the right direction. That happened when Maurice Gallagher Jr(West-Air, Valujet)came on board in 2001. Since then they seem to have grown steadily. The question remains…what happens if (or when) the majors stabilize and want to step back into these markets?

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2. 

   The CF September 25th, 2006 at 5:08 pm

   It’s a good question. For the most part, the big guys haven’t ever been in these markets directly (at least not in recent memory). Sure, Topeka probably had hub service from the legacy carriers at some point, but I don’t know if anyone ever served Vegas.

   Meanwhile, Northwest tried to jump into the market with nonstops to Vegas from some of their upper Midwestern strongholds. They’ve announced they’re pulling out, so that clearly didn’t work, even in this booming market the last year.

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3. Plattsburgh International to Lose Big Sky - Adirondack Base Camp - Travel, Tourism, Outdoors, News and Information for the Adirondack Region of New York December 19th, 2007 at 6:30 pm

   [...] serves as sort of a regular charter service to Florida. Great if you want to go to Ft Lauderdale, sucks otherwise. Their business model is also based on buying aged equipment which other carriers no longer [...]

4. 

   Skip January 12th, 2008 at 11:54 am

   Many years ago, in the heyday of McDonnell Douglas, orders from American used to go something like this: “We think the MD80 is terrible. Can you cut the price? Ok, then we’ll take another 30.” Now AA has 300 of them. They average 12 to 14 years old. Designed and built when fuel was much cheaper, they are no longer that cheap to fly. Block hour costs for the plane used to be around $1200/hr. This made them much cheaper to run than other planes, and even though they flew a bit slower than any other in AA’s fleet, they were cheap. Nowadays fuel is expensive. Older planes grow heavier (kind of like us humans) and cost more in maintenance. But, there is no apparent replacement in the market for the MD80. Word is with winglets a 737 burns less fuel than an MD80, but not much. Adding winglets to a 737 drives fuel burn down 5% but only half that when compared to an MD80. So why replace the MD80 with more 737s if the saving is marginal? Turns out the MD80 was really a very well designed airplane.

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5. 

   Tony January 18th, 2008 at 2:05 pm

   Speaking only for the Bellingham Washington route, they are able to siphon a significant number of travelers from Vancouver BC (city of 2 million). I for one live in a suburb of Vancouver and the drive to Bellingham (minus border waits) is about 45 minutes which is what it would take to drive to Vancouver airport. The price, as everyone has raved about, makes the decision easy.

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6. 

   prreuben January 21st, 2009 at 9:14 pm

   They don’t just seem like a train wreck. If you have to make any schedule changes or a cancellation, whether due to death, sickness, whatever, they become pickpockets. Make sure you encourage readers to check the “frequently asked questions” that most people would never think of unless the unexpected happens. If you make a change, or cancel, no difference, their fees ofter can be twice as much as the original cost of the flight. My mother-in-law’s hospitalization just cost us more than $600 for flights my inlaws now can’t take and my wife’s return flight she couldn’t take. $600 stolen in my view, and now my wife still has to make arrangements for a flight home from Hagerstown, MD, to Florida. I think these guys are thieves. You have to search for it, but read about their Terms and Conditions, and you’ll think twice about using them.

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7. 

   Former Employee March 22nd, 2009 at 4:28 pm

   Allegiant to announce the following:

   Columbia to Fort Lauderdale

   Bentonville Arkansas to LAS

   Fayetville to LAS and LAX

   Enjoy!

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8. 

   BorisBadinoff July 21st, 2009 at 2:34 pm

   My wife and her two sisters secheduled a roundtrip trip from Phoenix, AZ to Medford, OR. The flight was delayed because of “mechanical problems”. They finally ordered pizza which was cold and then provided soda pop in very small cups. The outgoing flight should have arrived in Medford at 7:10pm. It did not arrive until about 1:30 AM. It was the last flight at the Medford Airport but they could not quickly unload the luggage so everyone could go home. My wife’s luggage was no where to be found. She was about to report it lost when it came up the baggage ramp. No other baggage had come up the ramp for quite some time. No compensation was offered for being over 7 hours late.

   On the return trip we kept checking the alrline’s website for any delays, etc. None showing they went to the Medford Airport two hours early as the airline demanded only to find out that they had “Mechanical Problems” again. Same yucky, cold pizza and soda. Finally they were told they would depart about 1:30AM. As they went through the baggage check the ticket clerk “Scott” was very rude. One bag was 6lbs overweight. After having them wait over 6.5 hours (the plane did not depart until 3:30AM) nthey wanted to charge for the overweight. They had to repack the bags, which was not easy. AFTER it was rearranged in total oopen view ov everyone in the small ticket area, all closed up and within the weight limit, THEN the TCS came over to the ticket counter and demanded to hand search the baggage. A 62 year old US Citizen has just gotta be a very high risk terrorist threat don’t ya think??? After not finding ANYTHING they could confiscate, they reluctantly ticketed the bag and sent it on its way.

   The plane did not take off until about 3:30AM!!!. Thats about 7.5 hours LATE. All the while their website had not shown that the flight was delayed or anything when I checked it at a little after 11PM (that was about an HOUR after it was supposed to land in Phoenix). I tried to verify flight status with the company but it was closed for the day. They did not have ANY phone numbers with a live person so I could find out what was going on. For all I knew the plane took off and had crashed.

   When they finally landed about 5:30AM (again about 7.5 hours late) they parked the plane quite a ways from the terminal. There were thunderstorms in the area with lightining so they would not allow deplaining (good idea). They waited another half hour while the passengers were hopping mad along with the ground crew that had to turn the plane around and this was making them very late too.

   The skies opened up and really unloaded just as they started to deplane (no covered skyways). Everyone was totally soaked as the distance to the first terminal was a distance away. Then they were drenched again as they have to go from the first building to the baggabe area. Then a third drenching from the baggage area to the parking lot.

   THe first sister ended up having to miss her work day as she normally starts work at 4AM (palne didn’t even arrive until 5:30 and deplane until 6AM and home by 7AM) so one more vacation day wasted.

   The second sister, after being up for 24 hours did make it to work but had to drive an hour to work without proper rest.

   The last sister has fibromyalsia and was in great discomfort with no sleep for 24 hours and all of the totally unnecessary aggravation finally collapsed into sleep within ten minutes of arriving home.

   After all of this (total delay for BOTH flights 14 hours) broke the piggy bank and offered $25 vouchers off the next flight with them. I hope it is made of very low acid paper because it will ROT before we EVER fly this abamanation of an airline again!!!

   Their rates may be low but their service (or lack thereof) is even

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