concord airport

My Experience Flying with Allegiant Air

Allegiant Air gets a bad rap because they sell cheap base tickets and “get you” with all of the add-ons such as choosing a seat and carry-on bag fees. Personally, I actually found Allegiant to be a great option and would definitely fly them again.

Pros of flying Allegiant:

  • The price! Allegiant tickets are quite cheap. When going from Charlotte to Tampa this spring my ticket on Allegiant was just over $100 roundtrip nonstop while other airlines were charging $450+ because it was spring break season.

  • The smaller airports that most Allegiant flights fly in/out of are much easier to navigate. Parking tends to be more convenient and cheaper, lines are shorter, and there are less humans in general. At the Concord airport I parked ~25 feet from the main entrance of the airport, waited 15 minutes to check my bag, and got through security in 30 seconds.

  • In my experience I arrived early on both legs of my trip—departing Concord we left 10 minutes before scheduled and landed 30 minutes early, then arriving back to Concord we were 15 minutes early. Can’t beat that!

  • I found the seats to have a good amount of leg room. I am 5’10” so some planes have my knees basically in my tray table, but Allegiant had more space than your average seat.

  • Cheap a la carte drink and snack options! They have high quality drinks and snacks at great prices. Why do I need a free water and peanuts when I can spend $5 and get something I actually want? The key for me was the La Colombe Draft Latte—so much better than a coffee on a plane (gross) and so much cheaper than a coffee in an airport.

  • If you’re going to fly it a lot they have a credit card with some cool perks.

Cons of flying Allegiant:

  • No inflight entertainment

  • No plugs to charge your devices

  • Thin seats

  • Smaller airports have less amenities. If you arrive at the airport in need of coffee or food your options can be quite slim, BUT as I said above the planes have great food and drink options at low prices.

  • You pay to check your bag whether it is a carry on or a checked bag. A lot of airlines have moved to this practice, so personally this was not a barrier for me.

  • Limited routes. Allegiant is still a small airline so they don’t fly to very many cities. Most of their routes involve Florida and the Southeast.

The Bottom Line:

Would I fly Allegiant again? Absolutely. It was convenient, cheap and easy! My only wish is that they would add more routes so I could use it more often.

Read more about how I always score cheap flights here!