Allegiant Airlines and Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport

I am sitting in seat 16A on a morning flight out of Mesa to Cedar Rapids. It is my first time taking Allegiant Air and I thought I would capture some of my thoughts about the experience for other travelers.
The trip began weeks ago when booking the flights for myself and 3 others. Two of us were to depart on Tuesday, Two on Thursday, with 3 of us returning the following Tuesday, and one staying on for an extended visit. Using Allegiant’s web site is what I would basically describe as awful. Every time you make a slight change in your booking and attempt to continue I found myself getting slapped with add on fees for services I did not want. They must have hired some ruthless programmers to put this web booking site together to make sure they could get their convenience fees, from row seating fees, trip something or else fees, etc to the bottom line.
Once booked online we received email itinerary as one would expect. The email looks great until you print it. The way the programmers have designed the email your confirmation number (also called reservation number) is nowhere to be found when you print it out. I ran across this little gem the day before traveling as I was trying to resolve an issue for the other Thursday departure in our group who had taken ill and was not going to be able to fly. I could not find his confirmation number on the printed itinerary. So, I looked for a phone number on the printed itinerary to call to see if someone could help me. No, no phone number there either. This started to raise some flags. Back on the web site I found a phone number, in area code 707, where ever that is. I am saying to myself at this time, really, no toll free number for this. Oh well, so I dial up the phone number; get put on hold for 30 minutes before I finally talk to a real person. If you don’t have unlimited long distance the cost of your flight just went up by a few bucks.
I am now speaking to someone, I of course read on the printed portion of my itinerary that no-shows receive no refund. So I am calling to make sure I can notify the airline with as much advance notice that I had about the passenger who won’t be able to travel. The lady I spoke to explained to me that no cancellations inside of 24 hours are refundable, and that I agree to these terms when I booked the flight. Hmmmm. Another red flag. Of course I remember everything I read one month ago, don’t you? I guess this mid fifties memory of mine needs a tune up. So, after pleading my case that the itinerary clearly does not make that statement, and even implies that only no-shows are given such treatment I was given a fax number where I could send medical documentation as to why my traveling companion could not make the flight. Maybe after someone reviews it they may let him make a trip in the future, maybe not. Score another thumbs down on this experience, and I am not even on the plane yet.
The trip through the Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport this morning brought back memories of the way air travel used to be. I pulled into the parking lot at just after 6AM for my 7:10 departure. I received a plastic coin at the entry to the parking lot that apparently has the date and time of my arrival in its memory. Hopefully I don’t lose this little thing. I would have rather had a paper ticket that I could stuff in my wallet which I know would not easily get lost. Now I have 5 days ahead where I am going to have to babysit this coin.
After finding a parking space, installing the sun protector in the windshield and grabbing my bags I was off for a less than 2 minute walk to the terminal. Pretty nice if you ask me. Inside was a short line to check in, probably 25 or so people in front of me. I navigated this line in less than 10 minutes and it was off to the line for security. Pretty quick there as well even though one TSA agent was teaching a newbie how to correctly work with passengers coming through the body scanner. So after the usual emptying of pockets, removal of shoes, belt, watch, taking the trusty laptop out of its case and then reassembling myself on the other side of security I arrived in a nice waiting area with about 40 minutes remaining till takeoff. All was good. Next came an announcement telling all Allegiant Air people on my flight to hurry up and get to the waiting area as they had already begun boarding. Not true, no one boarded for another 5 minutes at least.
Boarding went smoothly once it actually began. I walked out of the terminal onto the tarmac and up the ramp onto the MD80 aircraft. If you or a traveling companion is wheel chair bound I really do not think the Mesa airport is right for you. The ramp up to the plane is pretty narrow, and with the MD80, you are going to have to walk once you get to the door of the plane. There simply is not enough room at the door of the plane or in the aisle to maneuver anything but yourself, and you had better be a pretty slim self.
I had brought a bottle of water along which I had purchased passed security. I went to stuff it in the seat pocket so I could free up my hands. Oh no, no seat pocket on this plane. I am starting to long for the convenience of a full service airline.
Once on the plane in a window seat while firmly holding my bottled water between my legs I placed my laptop on the floor in front of me and thought I would lean the seat back just a couple of inches until take off. Surprise, these seats don’t recline. Oh well, it is only a 3 hour flight, you can put up with almost anything for 3 hours. When I attempted to reach down to get my laptop after takeoff I banged my head into the seat in front of me. These seats are awfully tight. In fact, I almost decided not to use the tray table to set my computer on. I forged ahead with the tray table since my machine is fairly small. It is currently jabbing me in my belly as I type this. If you have a full size laptop, don’t even think about getting any work done in a seat configuration like this as you will not be able to raise the screen to an angle where you will be able to view it.
So how was the flight? As flights goes it was fine. Take off smooth, a little bumpy in the air at times, but even I know an airline can’t control that. The in flight hostesses seemed to be nice. They did make two trips through the plane so sell their wares. Bottled water and 12 ounce cans of soda for 2 bucks. Beer and wine at 5 bucks, and a stiff drink at a stiff price of 7 bucks. If I am paying 7 bucks for a drink I expect to get peanuts or pretzels or something. Nope. Nearly ballpark prices and they don’t even have to pay the vendor. Oh well, I guess that is capitalism for you.
There was a small pocket in the top of the seatback that held the emergency information card and a little, and I do mean little (about 4.5” wide, and maybe 20 pages), in flight magazine. The magazine was full of promotional items in various cities that Allegiant flies to, Las Vegas, Mesa, etc. As I browsed through and found the Mesa section I started reading about Spring Training. I am flying on June 24 and it is almost the all star break. A quick look at the cover of the magazine and it clearly states this is the April / May edition. I sure hope Allegiant has a better handle on scheduled maintenance to their planes than they do about keeping a current in flight magazine in the plane. Of course, maybe that was the only issue of the magazine they will ever produce.
So how do I score this little adventure?
Booking. Poor at best. They have a long way to go get that website to the caliber of Southwest Air, or any other flight reservation system I have ever used.
Gate operations. No serious issues noted here.
Equipment. Only experience so far is this one plane. Leather seating is nice, but really only if you are no more than 5’ 6” tall and you absolutely can’t be overweight. The seats don’t even come close to Southwest Air, and not being able to recline is a serious shortcoming.
Price. The old saying remains true. You get what you pay for. In this case you must pay for everything bags, convenience fees, front of the plane fees, and all the other fees which seem pretty hard to fathom. Compare it to Southwest where you get a much bigger seat that reclines, a soft drink and peanuts, and some short entertainment from the flight crew.
Will I take it again? Only if it is the only way to get where I need to go. And unfortunately this week it was.
Would I use Mesa gateway Airport again? Absolutely, yes. The convenience is terrific. So all we need to make me happy is for a real airline to operate out of Mesa. That would be heaven.
Prologue:
When taking the return trip from Cedar Rapids there was one other little item that popped up that others might want to be aware of. The three of us arrived at the airport, went through security and up to the C concourse. We looked at the departure board and found our flight number. No gate assignment. So, being the inquisitive folks that we are we asked an attendant at one of the other gates. You will love this. She said, well Allegiant does not have any gates, they simply use whatever gate is available, sometimes that is in the B concourse, sometimes the C concourse. So we sat and waited around until we saw an Allegiant plane pull up to a gate. Then and only then did we know where to board.