Southwest has a history of failing to keep their aircraft in repair. I make it a policy not to fly with them. You may do as you wish.
2014 FAA fines Southwest $12 over aircraft maintenance issues going back to 2006
2015 FAA adds additional fines for additional incidents
As long as we get super cheap fares out of the deal, it’s all worth it.
You’re asking someone who has ridden dozens of times on auctioned American school buses with no brakes and bald tires driven on Ecuadorian hairpin curves by a driver eating fried chicken with his girl friend on his lap.
Americans really have to take a deep breath and get on a grip their visceral terror. Your airliner is not going to crash.
Right, one or another data point event does not drive me away. Longstanding patterns can give me pause, though.
Damn, I remember the late 90s/early 00s days when it was a prime hub for USelessAir. Fine airport/mall it was, many a connection I made there smoothly…
Which brings up something mentioned above: as the “legacy” airlines became fewer and fewer through bankruptcies and mergers, a lot of routes were left to rely on the LCCs with all the inconveniences that brings, including no privileges for rebooking across companies.
I heard that bookings have deceased. People are stupid.
Family members and wife and I had major delays leaving Rockford, IL. Not so much coming back home. Would I do it again? Very possible, flying out of small hometown airport so much easier than going all the way to ohare.
Never heard of them before.
I hate flying, hated it before the TSA stuff just because of all of the hassles and the discomfort of being strapped into a disgustingly small space.
However, if all of that went away, I’d love flying. Flew first class a couple of years ago on a relatively short flight (MSP to CHI) and enjoyed that.
Flew Spirit Airlines a couple of years ago and don’t think I’ll ever do that again*, so I’d have to say no to this airline too.
isn’t this one of those airlines that are nothing non stop sales pitches for over priced pillows and sodas ect ?
I fly Allegiant every time I go to and from Las Vegas, which is more often than I’ve ever wanted to.
Can anyone demonstrate an actual pattern of their flights having problems?
See the 60 Minutes report, Allegiant was 3.5 times more likely to have mid air incidents than other budget airlines.
I am flying Southwest later this month, and I gave no thought to cancelling or rebooking. Unlike Allegiant, the incident at Southwest does not appear to be systemic, so I don’t have any apprehensions about flying with them.
How much cheaper is Allegiant, anyway? I am flying Southwest from Manchester, New Hampshire to Los Angeles for $423 roundtrip with no additional fees. I bought my ticket just over two weeks before departure.
I live in Santa Barbara, so my airline availability sucks. We used to have a direct flight to Las Vegas, but that disappeared. We revamped our tiny airport for the better, but this raised airline fees considerably. I’ve flown out of Santa Maria on Allegiant because it was so damn cheap, plus it’s a direct flight. Allegiant sucks, but I’m a cheap bastard, and if a friend who goes to Vegas with me wants to drive, I’m OK with it. Allegiant charges extra for every thing, i think a small carry on backpack costs extra.
A superb Freudian slip. :D:eek:
I have two choices in airliners from the nearest airport to fly back home to Las Vegas, and the non-Allegiant option is over three times more expensive. If I didn’t use Allegiant, I wouldn’t be able to go home at all.
They are actually the only airline I have flown in this century. Price is important to me, and comforts, not at all. I have no reason to change that.
I haven’t seen the 60-minutes piece, but since seeing this thread, i’ve read some new stories about them, and it really seems as though most of it is blown out of proportion.
For instance
The fact that the passengers thought they were going to die doesn’t mean that they were going to. An engine failure on take off is serious, but it is something that airline pilots train for, and have little difficulty in safely bringing the plane down.
From the story, I suppose I can expect to experience a bit more delays and inconvenience, maybe even an unexpected amusement park ride, but I see nothing that actually impacts safety.
Harsh.
If you noticed, near the end of the story they mentioned that the problems have decreased dramatically as the new planes have arrived. The last of the old one departs in September, I think.
I guess that 60 Minutes researched the story, discovered that the problem was going away on its own, and said, oh, shit, we better air this before it becomes totally obsolete.
Quite ironic that Southwest had the problem the next week. Not Allegiant.
Allegiant is cheap. The people interviewed on 60 Minutes, who have plenty of money and more airline miles, wouldn’t fly Allegiant even if their safety record was perfect. They are not in Allegiant’s customer base.
Now Allegiant doesn’t have a lot of spare planes, and they fly into many smaller airports only a couple of times a week, so mechanical problems hurt worse than they do for a lot of airlines. And you have to pay for carry-on. They split the cabin into carry-on and non-carry-on, and you are not allowed to put luggage in the bins in the non-carryon area.
In some airports, like Stockton CA, they are the only thing going, so it is not like they could switch you. And all planes spend the night in a hub, Las Vegas for the West Coast, which saves money since they don’t have to pay for hotels for flight attendants and pilots.
Well, looks like I won’t be flying Allegiant. I want to fly to Florida, meet my son’s gf, attend their wedding, then fly home. Allegiant has a super cheap flight, but I’d have to leave two days before the nuptials, then stay another day before coming home. Missing work and paying for a hotel makes it a very expensive flight.
Oh well.