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ALLEGIANT AIR, FOR BETTER AND WORSE
By Chris Barnett
February 14, 2013 -- Remember the days when you could commandeer an entire row of coach seats and stretch your legs straight out? You might relive them by booking your next flight on Allegiant Air--if you are going where it's going.

But if you want an easy, smooth reservation, effortless check-in and a human voice to answer your questions, consider another airline. Book away if you want an in-flight cup of coffee. And if you pay for tickets with the American Express card, definitely book another carrier. Amex isn't among the cards that Allegiant accepts.

A no-frills Las Vegas-based discounter, Allegiant Air operates from 88 smaller cities such as Duluth, Minnesota; Stockton, California; and Huntington, West Virginia. And right on its Web site, Allegiant states that it caters to leisure travelers flying to vacation spots such as Honolulu, San Diego, Phoenix and Branson, Missouri.

But for business travelers, if your schedule matches its schedule and you're willing to forgo frequent flyer miles, Allegiant's MD-80 fleet can be more comfortable than two to three hours crammed into a major carrier's tinny, tiny regional jet.

So when I was quoted $25.10 for an Oakland-Palm Springs roundtrip, I had to investigate.

No surprise, but 25 bucks was not the cost to fly me, my garment bag and a carry-on rolling suitcase. Not even close. The ticket costs $151.98, six times higher than the initial quote. Tacked on to the $25 fare were the usual taxes and fees. Then Allegiant's creative pricing took over: $7.60 for something it called a "segment fee"; $40 for my garment bag; an $18 "seat selection fee"; $20 for a "carrier usage fee"; and a whopping $26 for my roll-a-board bag. In fact, Allegiant charged a dollar more to fly my bag to Palm Springs than to fly me.

Turns out I actually "saved" money. A window seat would have cost me $25 more. And had I paid the checked luggage fee at the airport instead of pre-paying it when I bought the ticket, it would have been $50 instead of $40.

Yet the prices I paid are no guideline and largely irrelevant. An Allegiant spokeswoman insists that the airline uses "dynamic pricing" on everything. As she puts it, all prices and fees are "route specific and flight specific."

Still, even with the upcharges, my Allegiant ticket was $50 less than a ticket on United, Virgin America or Alaska Airlines. But don't break out the bubbly yet. The real cost of flying Allegiant was my time and the sheer frustration of trying to check in 24 hours before flight time. It may have been the worst experience I've ever had on the ground with a U.S. airline.

The day before takeoff, I surfed to the Allegiant home page. When I clicked the check-in link, I was asked for my "confirmation" number. But Allegiant doesn't give confirmation numbers. I checked the E-mail Allegiant sent to confirm my flight details, but there was no confirmation number anywhere. So I punched in an eight-digit "customer ID" number. Rejected. I tried the "itinerary" number included in the subject line at the top of the E-mail. Also rejected.

When I called the contact telephone number--which I found only by drilling down a few pages into the Web site---I was disconnected because of "high call volume." I called the number--not toll-free, by the way--four separate times, including midnight the day before my 7 a.m. departure. I was disconnected every time.

With no confirmation, no information and no way to talk to Allegiant, I decided to be first in line at the airport ticket counter. But Allegiant's ticket counters are outsourced and, while friendly, their agents don't have answers, either. One agent did have a direct number to Allegiant's operations center in Las Vegas and found out that the "itinerary number" is, in fact, the confirmation number and should work for an online check-in.

One Allegiant charge I didn't bite on: $14 for priority boarding. There were only 22 passengers on the 166-seat MD-82 that was previously part of the Finnair fleet.

Thankfully, the in-flight experience was more relaxing. The cabin was spotless and seats were freshly upholstered in blue leather. The seats were also designed to accommodate outsized carry-on bags. The downsides: The chairs don't recline, there is only 30 inches of legroom and the tray tables are small and don't slide toward you. That makes it uncomfortable--almost impractical--to use a laptop.

For Allegiant, everything is an in-flight profit center. Soft drinks cost $2, beer and wine sell for $5 and mixed drinks are $7. (A double is $12.) Sandwiches are $6 and snacks cost around $3. Just don't ask for a cup of coffee. Allegiant doesn't serve coffee.

A retired Bay Area high school counselor named Dorothy, who also had a row to herself, is cautiously optimistic about Allegiant. "It's certainly bare bones, but it works for me. I don't think it would work for business travelers."

It does seem to work for Allegiant Travel, the carrier's parent company. The company has recorded 40 consecutive profitable quarters. In January, it reported an 8.7 percent growth in total passengers and a 15 percent jump in revenue passenger miles compared to last year. The load factor was 85.5 percent in January, down from 89.5 percent in January, 2012.

In other words, don't expect three seats to yourself on many Allegiant flights.

Research assistance by Rebecca Graulich

ABOUT CHRIS BARNETT Chris Barnett writes about business-travel tactics and strategies that save time and money and help minimize hassles. He is based in San Francisco and has written for a wide variety of major newspapers and national magazines.

THE FINE PRINT Joe Brancatelli makes this space available to Chris Barnett in the spirit of free speech and to help encourage editorial diversity and the wider discussion of important travel issues. All of the opinions and material in this column are the sole property of Barnett. This material may not be reproduced in any form without the express permission of Chris Barnett.

This column is Copyright © 2013 by Chris Barnett. JoeSentMe is Copyright © 2013 by Joe Brancatelli. All rights reserved.