Thursday 8 March 2012

Review of Allegiant Air

So my holiday in Las Vegas had to come to an end :) and I came back a little bit older but not any wiser. May go into detox after all the cheap booze that was also had on my travels.
Wanted to give you my thoughts on the airline and getting to Bellingham.
So we decided to drive as it was the easiest option for us, luckily there was no queue at the border crossing and we were finished within 10 minutes and the guys we had were lovely.
$6 American or you can pay by credit card for the form that they place in your passport. Once that was done we were free to go.
Took about 90 mins to drive to Bellingham, takes about 4 hours on the bus, but that's stopping at all the stops, and getting everyone to line up at the Border.
Parking cost $9 a day at the airport and there was plenty of it.
The airport is very small, seen bigger houses. So don't expect to be having your breakfast there.
Getting to check in early means you will get to choose a decent seat, if you have paid for assigned seating you get first choice.
There was plenty of seats on the early morning flight :)
They did seem to be strict on the baggage weight, just like Ryanair, they charge you and don't give you the chance to take some stuff out for carry on. You are allowed 2 items of carry on luggage.
It costs $35 if you want to check a bag on, you pay that when booking the flight on line. If your bag is heavy its an extra $50.
It took seconds to go through security, and then to the seating area. There is a small shop but it doesn't sell much, - magazines, crisps, drinks and the odd sandwich if you are lucky.
Flight was quick and easy to Las Vegas, seats were comfortable enough. If you have flown Ryanair, its similar but better customer service.
Allegiant air give you the option of booking a transfer to your hotel for $14 return and its worth it, at least you get dropped to the door of the hotel. You go out gate 8 and there is a ticket booth and hand them your reservation, they will give you some tickets for you to hand to the driver, and off you go :)

Coming back, the shuttle will drop you off at the allegiant air desk at McCarran international airport. Now maybe this is for busy evenings only, we flew home on a Friday evening, but there was a desk outside and we could check in there, this I didn't understand when there was a huge line inside for checking in. No catch, they work off tips and they didn't seem to be bothered by the bag being a bit over the limit (I might have added some purchases to the case), so it took 2 mins to check in, get rid of the case, get boarding pass and walk past the lines of people inside.
Keep an eye out for this, its worth tipping for it.

Flight was on time coming home, and we didn't have to wait long for the bags, the guys just throw the cases onto a shelf for you to take.
Beware if you are waiting for the bus, there is nothing to do at the airport, there is sufficient seating areas.

Just make sure they take the green form out of your passport when coming back through the border, the woman didn't take it out of ours and now I have to gather some paperwork to show I actually returned to Canada.

Happy travelling :)