For a few years I'd been aware of a discount airline named Allegiant Air flying out of Bellingham, Washington - about 25 miles south of where we live in British Columbia. Its about as easy to get here as it is to get to the Vancouver Airport, barring any delays at the US border crossing that is. Allegian Air offers reasonably priced air or air and hotel packages to several destinations from Bellingham - Phoenix, Las Vegas, and several Southern California airports. The prices are much better than flying out of Vancouver Airport, mostly because Allegiant does not charge hundreds of dollars in taxes that we have to pay if we fly from Vancouver.
It had been many years since I last flew out of Bellingham Airport. I used to work for a company called SilverWing Vacations and staff got 2 free passes each year and I flew to Las Vegas in 1993 I believe, but I don't recall the name of the charter airline the company used. I remember we had to check in at the Alaska Airlines counter because they were affiliated with the charter airline.
The first thing one notices when parking at the Bellingham Airport is that the lot is full of cars with British Columbia license plates! No kidding! Cheap flights and only a few bucks in taxes!
We had prebooked our seats - cost about $9 per seat to do this - and checked in online so when we arrived at the airport all we had to do was go straight to security. Allegiant allowed 2 pieces of hand luggage and that's what we had.
**Note** Allegiant recently announced it now charges $35 per carry on bag. Might as well pay the $35 fee for checking your luggage. That is high end. It might be slightly less for carry on bags.**
Seeing as how we prepaid for our seat selection we were among the first people allowed to board. Allegiant lets all passengers who paid for seat selection board first and then everyone else is allowed on the plane for open seating. Grab a seat.
Then it got interesting. The pilot went to the runway but didn't take off. Then he announced he was returning to the gate to have the mechanic check something and do a reset. I'd rather the pilot find something not quite right with the plane while its still on the ground rather than up in the air. After an hour of being inside the airplane on the Bellingham tarmac the pilot announces we won't be flying this plane to Las Vegas. Fortunately Allegiant had another perfectly good airplane also at the gate and we would be disembarking, waiting inside the Bellingham terminal for the crew to ready the replacement plane, and then embarking again, similar to how we had just done it. Everyone in the open call seating were to take note of their seat numbers and take the same seat on the replacement plane.
We finally left Bellingham two hours late. This particular plane/crew were scheduled to fly from Las Vegas to Fresno, then back again, then the final flight Las Vegas back to Bellingham. So that meant everyone down the line would now be delayed and it was a longer day than anticipated for the crew.
When we arrived in Las Vegas, due to the delay there was no open gate to receive the plane. We were on the tarmac for 45 minutes before the plane was cleared to take a gate. So 3 hours late we finally arrived in Las Vegas.
No complaints about Allegiant Air. These things happen. The main thing is we all arrived safely. And yes, I will definitely fly with them again. Even with the baggage fees its still cheaper than flying from Vancouver.
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