Allegiant Air Nightmare

A mother and her two year old spent 24 hours trying to get to her parents' house.

photo by Marguerite Wakeman / Via docs.google.com

When my father told me that Allegiant Air was opening up a direct flight between Baltimore and Asheville, I was excited to try it. I had been hesitant to take my daughter on a flight to visit her grandparents, because I wasn’t looking forward to sitting with a two year old in the airport on a layover. Allegiant Air’s low pricing was also a draw, since I was going to have to buy two tickets. Little did I know I would pay almost double in fees for a checked duffel bag, a printed boarding pass, and to ensure that my daughter and I could sit together. Then I tried to actually catch my flight.

I was booked to fly on Allegiant Air flight 1221 from Baltimore (BWI) to Asheville (AVL) at 5:30 on 6/2/16. Even before I got to the airport at 4 PM, I had a notification that the flight had been delayed two hours. At 6:30, the flight was pushed back to 8:35. At 9:15, the flight was pushed back to 10. Each time the passengers in the gate area would get a text notification, they would ask the gate agent what was going on. Usually she wasn’t even aware of the further delay yet. When pressed for an explanation, she would say vague things about a mechanical problem. At one point, she offered vouchers for future flight if anyone wanted to bail out. No refunds were offered unless the flight was cancelled. They started loading the flight at another point, but stopped when they realized that the plane was still having mechanical issues. All the passengers who had gotten on were removed.

At 10:00 my daughter had a diarrhea in her car seat. While I was cleaning her up in the bathroom, the announcement was made that the flight was cancelled. I came back to an angry crowd of passengers leaving the gate. When I asked the gate attendant about a refund, she told me to go to the ticket counter for more information. So I did. There was no Allegiant Air personnel there. I stood at the end of the line for around an hour before the word filtered back that Allegiant was only offering hotel vouchers. I didn’t need a hotel voucher- my husband was coming to pick me up. I still hadn’t seen any sign of any Allegiant Air employees, so I left at 11:40. The passengers waiting for hotel vouchers were still waiting. We got my daughter into bed at 12:30 AM.

At 1:42 AM I got a phone call to be at the airport at 8 AM for a 10 AM rescheduled flight. I debated showing up, but figured that they had all night to fix the plane, and we would only lose half a day of our two day trip. I showed up to the airport and got in line at the ticket counter at 8. There was no Allegiant Air employee in sight. At 8:30, passengers in line started getting text alerts that the plane was delayed again. Around 9 AM, Allegiant personnel finally came out to address the line, explaining that the plane was still not fixed AND that there was a flight attendant shortage.

Robert, who is not technically an Allegiant Air employee (to the best of my understanding) was the only person who made the effort to come out and speak to the line of people. He got down on the ground with me and my daughter as I weighed my options. Should I scrap the trip completely, since I’d already lost a good portion of one of two days I had to spend with my parents, and ask for a full refund? Should I gamble (his word) on the rescheduled 5221 flight to Asheville, which may or may not take off at 11? Or should I switch to the 11:50 flight to Knoxville, which is a longer drive from my father’s house, but has no history of persistent breakdown and is likely to take off on time. I chose the Knoxville flight, hoping that I’d get in to Knoxville early enough that Rory could still spend some time with her cousins and grandparents.

After getting to the same gate I had been at 9 hours earlier, I realized that the two flights had to share a gate, and the Asheville flight was first in line. The Asheville flight loaded, and then… nothing. The plane was still experiencing maintenance issues AND blocking the gate my new flight was supposed to be using. My heart went out to my fellow passengers on the doomed Asheville flight, and I felt like crying. Eventually Allegiant Air moved my flight to the neighboring gate, and we boarded at 12:30 PM. Once we took off, I could have cried- I was only an hour and 30 minutes from seeing my father, and we’d make it home in time for dinner.

We landed at 2:40. The crew kept telling us that it would be “10 minutes” before we could taxi to the gate. The plane heated up, and emotions were heated, too. The captain made embarrassed announcements: the computer system was down and the plane at the gate couldn’t load; there was only one ground crew, and they couldn’t taxi us in. I don’t know what the real story was- at this point, I didn’t trust a word that they were telling me. With one exception. After an hour on the tarmac, the flight attendants made the announcement that according to FAA regulations, they were required to serve us a free snack. She emphasized that it was only free because the FAA required it. THAT I believed, and it was one insult too much. I started crying, and my daughter tried to comfort me.

We finally got off the plane at 4:26. My father was waiting at the security point, and I still had hope that we would make it home in time for dinner. The day was was wasted, and I was exhausted, but I was almost free of this nightmare. We settled down to wait for our luggage. I tried to talk to the ticket counter attendant about cancelling my return flight, but the line was full of angry customers demanding to know where their luggage was. The poor woman behind the counter wasn’t even an Allegiant Air employee- she was telling people that she was a contractor and didn’t even have security access to the airport, and couldn’t track down our luggage. Some time between 5:30 and 6, my father and daughter appeared with our duffel bag, and we finally were able to escape the airport. We pulled into their house at 8 PM, and after a quick hello, I rushed to put my daughter to bed.

I was due to fly home on Allegiant Air Sunday morning, but there was no way I was attempting to get on that flight. I left my daughter with her grandparents in Tennessee for the week. She had shown remarkable maturity through the whole fiasco, and they were eager to make up the lost time with an additional week with her. I also felt guilty for putting her through 28 hours of travelling only to put her on a plane after only a day or so with her grandparents. I knew that I could deal with another late night of travelling, but I couldn’t ask her to do that. I arranged a last-minute flight with Southwest for Sunday evening, and I flew home by myself on a red-eye.

It is now Tuesday morning, and I still haven’t heard from Allegiant. I filed a complaint on 6/4 and a request for a refund of my 6/5 flight. I received an email response that someone would be in touch with me within 24-48 hours. I received a request for feedback on 6/6, and submitted the following:

You are likely to Never recommend Allegiant.

Will you share why? We appreciate any feedback you may have that will make traveling with Allegiant the best experience for you.

I had a terrible experience on my flight(s) on 6/2 and 6/3. Look up what happened to flights 1221, 5221 and 857. Of the three flights I attempted to take with your company, none of them took off when they were supposed to, and flight 857 even kept me at the airport 2 hours after we landed! You have terrible maintenance, communication, computer systems, ground crew staffing, and nonexistent customer services. It took me over 24 hours to get to my destination with a two year old, and the ONLY person who took the time to listen to me and help me wasn't even an Allegiant Air employee. I am actively working on social media to alert my friends and family not to fly with your airline. Heck, I was talking to random people in the airport to share my story. I refused to board my Allegiant flight back to BWI and flew home on Southwest later that evening, who treated me with dignity and kindness despite the two hour delay. Believe me, that matters.

Still no response, and honestly? I don’t expect one. They have made it very clear that they don’t care about their customers. My nightmare is over, but it’s not an isolated nightmare- Allegiant has a pattern of poor maintenance and poor customer service. I hope that someday it catches up to them, and I pray that they learn their lesson before a plane falls out of the sky.