Complaint Review: Allegiant Air - Nationwide

Please note that I am a law abiding citizen and I have never even come close to getting arrested, nor have I ever been kicked out of an establishment, until my recent experience with Allegiant. I also spent 5 years of my professional life working in the hospitality industry, so I am no stranger to dealing with travelers needs as well as difficult personalities. This story takes the cake…

On Monday, May 19th, myself and 5 others boarded an allegiant aircraft on the way to Las Vegas (4 of our travel companions are Taiwanese, and visiting the US for the first time, depending on my boyfriend and I since we had made all of our travel arrangements). 

Tired and weary from previous travels, my boyfriend and I had fallen asleep as soon as we were seated on the aircraft. 

The next thing I know, we are awakened by an airline stewardess who is rudely commanding the elderly lady sitting next to me crocheting, to get off her cell phone (mind you she was texting her son to let him know that the planes departure was delayed by nearly one hour) . The lady crocheting responded to the stewardess by letting her know that she was not the cause of the delay in departure and that the only reason she was texting was to notify her son of the situation. The stewardess was not listening to anything the poor woman said, and immediately commanded her to gather her things and exit the aircraft. 

The lady was in disbelief, as was I, and she remained in her seat while the stewardess walked to the front of the aircraft. The stewardess sent another one back and this one had the demeanor of a corrections officer, not a customer service representative. This stewardess was raising her voice at the older lady sitting next to me. By this time my boyfriend and I are both wide awake and we feel bad for this lady. My intentions in speaking up was to try to diffuse the situation, not make it worse. I let the stewardess know that there was a misunderstanding. The older lady sitting next to me complied with the initial request of the stewardess, therefore there was no problem. She immediately began to threaten me as well, to which I responded to her by letting her know that she was being unnecessarily rude at that point. 

Shortly after she had a 3rd employee of the airline come back to retrieve the older woman sitting next to me. She quietly exited the aircraft. Then the stewardess evidently informed the other passengers on the plane that the reason for the flights delay was because of us, and when they came back to get me, I was in shock! I hadn't done anything wrong and I didn't even know the woman next to me! At that point I was waiting to speak with someone thinking surely this could be resolved! I hadn't even received a warning, just an abrupt, "you are coming with me!". Desperate to stay with my group and on the verge of panic, I was looking around for help, when all of a sudden the fellow passengers began to heckle me, "get off the plane!!" Which I can only assume was the result of the stewardess blaming the entire delay on us, which was completely a false accusation….We had already been waiting for some time when this incident occurred. 

I went to the stewardess and I apologized and pleaded. I asked if there was anything at all i could to to reverse the situation and she rudely responded with, "you told me i was being rude, therefore you broke a federal law by preventing the plane from taking off!" Seriously? Yes. Dead serious! 

I then departed the aircraft in a state of shock. I asked the Allegiant employee at the gate to speak with a manager and she rudely responded, "she is the manager, there is no one to talk to besides her". I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. The girl didn't offer to help me, she didn't offer to rebook my flight (which i later found out was an option) after I was humiliated and cast aside.  I refused to have allegiant ruin my vacation, and I immediately booked the next flight out to Vegas with Southwest Airlines. 

I later found out that my boyfriend was also dismissed from the flight as well. He stayed behind to plead my case to them and the flight crew instructed him to leave as well if he had a problem with their decision. My boyfriend (who hadn't slept for 24 hours at that point), ended up having to rent a car and drive 24 hours to Vegas (48 hours without sleep at this point), risking his life all because of this airline. 

The money that you save booking this airline is not worth the risk you take in the long run… This Airline is responsible for putting us nearly 1,000.00 over our travel budget. We thought we had made all of the right travel decisions and covered all of our bases. This is the first and the last time we will ever fly this airline. 

Please share this story with everyone you know, and beware of Allegiant Air!!!