The Las
Vegas-based airline charges extra to book flights online, or to use a credit
card. Selecting a seat in advance costs $5 to $75 each way, depending on the
length of a flight. Even a bottle of water costs $2.
Like some
other budget airlines, Allegiant advertises extremely low base fares and then
tacks on numerous fees. A roundtrip ticket with Allegiant costs $195, on
average. But passengers pay an additional $83 in fees — or 30 percent of the
total cost of flying.
To book a
trip by phone, Allegiant charges $50 for each roundtrip ticket. To book online
costs $20 for each roundtrip ticket. The only way to avoid the fees is to
purchase tickets at the airport, something fewer than 3 percent of its
customers did last year.
But
whether you book by phone, Internet or in person, paying with a credit card
costs an extra $8.
Placing a
suitcase in an overhead bin is $10 to $25. Boarding passes signify who has paid
the fee. If passengers show up at the airport with a large carry-on bag and
haven't prepaid the fee, the airline penalizes them an additional $25 to $50,
depending on the route.
Flying Allegiant
isn't glamorous. While other airlines tout new aircraft with Wi-Fi and TVs in
every seat, Allegiant buys old planes to avoid hefty aircraft loans. And to
pack in as many passengers as possible, its seats don't recline. But for
small-town Americans with limited flight options, these inconveniences are
worth it for a few days of sunshine.
Allegiant
is ruthless about keeping its costs down. Its employees are some of the lowest
paid in the industry, in some cases making $20 an hour less than colleagues at
other airlines. It pays cash for airplanes nearly twice as old as everyone
else. It only sells directly to vacationers, refusing to pay Expedia, Orbitz or
other sites to list its flights.
And if
you have a question, it will cost you: the airline doesn't have a toll-free
number.
The
bigger problem is if a mechanical issue forces a plane to be grounded. Given
its limited schedule and packed planes, there usually isn't another flight to
book passengers on. Instead, they are left waiting six hours while a new plane
is flown in.
Sometimes
flights are postponed to the next day. In one extreme situation in March, more
than 1,700 passengers flying to and from Hawaii saw multi-day delays, including
one flight that was 52 hours late.
That's a
lot of time to kill at an airport bar.
__
Scott Mayerowitz
can be reached at http://twitter.com/GlobeTrotScott.
No comments:
Post a Comment