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I was notified of my Uncles death and needed to travel on short notice to Northwestern Illinois. I had heard about an airline that flies out of what used to be Williams Air Force base in Mesa Arizona direct to Peoria Illinois. I found the name of the airport on the internet, Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport formerly Williams Gateway Airport. Everyone just calls it Williams. I also found the name of the airline, Allegiant.
I checked the Allegiant Air’s Website for seat availability. The first thing that I noticed that they only fly on Wednesdays and Saturdays to Peoria. I noticed that the seating arrangement was two rows on the left of the aircraft and three rows on the right of the aircraft. The only model of aircraft that I knew that had that seating arrangement was the MD-80, not exactly my favorite aircraft.
Seats were available for the Wednesday flight but they were $229.00 not the $99.00 fare I was hoping to get. I had to be in Illinois for the Thursday funeral and it was Monday when I heard the sad news. I called the airline to see if they had a bereavement fare. They did not and I asked if I could get go ahead and book my flight through him. I could but it was cheaper to do it online.
So I went back to book online. You are given the opportunity to reserve a seat. The option was a little confusing. What would happen if I didn't reserve a seat? There was a $12.50 charge for seat reservations. The choice of seats was pretty lousy and I being the cheapskate that I am decided to take my chances without seat reservations.
Want to check a bag? $10.00. And the rates go up for three or four bags. You are charged a $11.50 Convenience Fee. Convenience Fee? You can avoid the fee by booking at Allegiant Air’s airport ticket offices usually located at the airports that Allegiant flies into and out of. The hours of operation are limited so you may have to plan in advance to purchase tickets at one of these offices. My itinerary shows a Miscellaneous Fee of $9.50 that I assume is the Convenience Fee. If that is correct, then the cost of convenience has gone up $2.00.
Update August 13, 2008: Checking a bag is now $15 'per bag, per person, per segment' for the first two bags when purchased at the time you make your reservation. If purchased at check-in, the cost rises to $25 per bag. Three or four bags are higher still. No doubt these price will continue change. Verify the lastest bag check-in rate when you make your reservations.
I had heard that parking was free. Just my idea of what parking should cost. I discovered online that parking was $5.00 per day. I later heard that they had just initiated the parking fees in April 2008. I was flying on April 9, 2008. Just my luck.
I found the address of the terminal building online as 6033 South Sossaman Road and I knew where Sossaman Road was. I decided to check Mapquest to get directions just to be safe and it was a good thing I did. You have to take South Power Road to East Ray Road to get to Sossaman.
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This was my first flight out of Williams. I turned into what appeared to be the parking lot for the terminal. There was a group of 15-20 ICEmen and ICEwomen. The Iceman goeth but probably not on my flight so I figured I had missed the terminal. I turned the truck around and found a similar small terminal. It is not very well marked but I should have seen the banners in the parking lot. The two large jets parked on the Tarmac with painted logos on the tails should been another clue. I can miss a lot of things at 6:00 AM and a two and a half hour trip from Tucson.
The terminal is small and cozy, which is just fine with me.
I like being the last on. I don't like lines. Those needing help board first. Passengers with priority seating are then allowed to board. I am just guessing but those are probably passengers who paid for assigned seating. One member of a family had lost their boarding pass. After a few minutes their tickets were confirmed and they were allowed to board.
To board, you walk across the Tarmac to a covered ramp that doubles back 180 degrees half way up. It can hold a lot of passengers. Did I tell you that I don't like lines? I like them even less when you are suspended in the air on a moveable ramp with dozens of other passengers. They allowed me to wait inside the terminal building until the line had dwindled down to just a few remaining to board.
The aircraft turned out to my great relief to be an MD-82/83 and not an MD-80. It may just be my poor memory of the MD-80, but the MD-82/83 seemed to be larger and I didn't have that feeling of sitting in a long tube that I got when flying the MD-80.
My unassigned seat turned into an emergency row window seat that was perfect for me. I could stretch out my long legs in an emergency row seat and this is not the first time I have been assigned an emergency row seat. Perhaps the ground attendants think I will be able to pull off the heavy emergency door. You do need to appear to be capable of handling the door in order to be assigned an emergency row seat.
I was seated in seat 25F over the right wing. I passed the time watching the ground crew load the bags. Wasn't that one of the attendants who checked in passengers now loading bags onto the plane? I thought that it was. I wasn't too surprised to see that. Airlines are trying to cut corners wherever possible.
She helped put on a few bags and then got into the Tug to move the bags to the front undercarriage compartments. She turned too sharp and too fast. The picture below shows the result. She laughed after stopping and realizing that she had left some of the bags behind. I know she was probably laughing to relieve the tension, but I doubt if other passengers were as forgiving as I was especially if it was their bag on the Tarmac.
She wasn't wearing the orange safety vest that the baggage crew members were wearing making me wonder if she had been properly trained for baggage loading on the Tarmac.
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Click On Picture for a Larger Version
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View of
Phoenix-Mesa
Gateway Tarmac
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Helping
with baggage
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OOPS!
Bags on Tarmac!
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Comic
Relief
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Don't fly hungry or thirsty. You will be charged for everything including $2.00 for soft drinks. The bathroom is still free or at least it was when I flew.
Allegiant Air is headquartered in Las Vegas. They like to play several games during the flight to pass the time. One of them is the Dollar Game, although I thought I heard one of the attendants mention that it can be the $5, $10 or $20 Game. Participation is voluntary. You write your seat number on the dollar and place it in a bag. After collecting all of the dollars, the bag is shaken to mix the dollars and one is chosen. The winner takes all and is asked to count the dollars. The winning amount is then announced over the intercom.
When we got to Peoria I was greeted to a song over the speakers - "A-Men, A-Men, A-Men, A-Men, AMEN! Someone in Peoria either has a strange sense of humor or is an Otis Redding fan.
The Return Trip - Peoria to Mesa
I was able to check in two hours in advance of my flight, which was nice. While checking in there were two ladies next to me checking in baggage. One of their bags was more than 50 pounds. The attendant told the passenger that there would be a $25.00 charge for the overweight bag. She apparently didn't seem to mind. I didn't hear any complaints, but I didn't want to be nosy and wasn't really paying close attention.
I had just had my boarding pass and identity checked by a TSA security agent when someone broke into the line just behind me. He was apparently returning for some reason and was allowed to break line. The TSA agent moved past me and helped him. Then something rather bizarre occurred. He asked me if he had already checked me. And then he made a joke about not wanting to have to check my mug twice. I thought it was rather funny and I rather liked the fact that he was poking fun at both of us but just make a joke yourself in one of those security lines and you run the risk of a pat-down and cavity check!
Insise the secured area one passenger was refilling his water bottle at the drinking fountain before the flight. I told him that I would have to remember that trick. He told me that he was just trying to save some money.
The plane arrived in Peoria from Mesa early and was turned around quickly. We left ahead of schedule. The Allegiant Air's policy states that you may forfeit your reservation if you are not in the gate area 30 minutes prior to your scheduled departure time. Their policy also states that the aircraft doors will be closed 10 minutes prior to departure. I don't think that there were any complaints about the early departure time. I was quite pleased to be on my way home earlier than scheduled.
This time my unassigned seat turned into 28F with the two seats next to me empty. You can't get much luckier than that. The last couple of rows were empty which is just as it should be. Seats in these rows are next to the fuselage mounted engines and are fairly noisy especially if you are unfortunate enough to have a window seat just a few short feet from the jet turbine engines. One lady didn't seem to mind. She moved into the last row, lay down and took a nap.
The two women who checked in with me were seated across the aisle in 28A and 28C. (There is no 28 B on an MD 82/83). They were happy-go-lucky types. They both ordered Ginger Ales, Smirnoff I believe and one of the ladies opened her can and a small geyser erupted leaving a small pool of ginger ale on her drop-down tray. The second lady opened hers with the same result. After a moment of consternation they both laughed.
The longer flight west was probably the reason that we played a new game on the return trip. This was a raffle game. Two tickets for $5 or seven for $10 if I heard correctly. Prizes were to be given away based on the amount of tickets sold - four in this case. Wouldn't you know it. The two happy-go-lucky ladies didn't just win one raffle prize but two! The prizes consisted of Las Vegas souvenirs including a wood poker chip set, a black-jack/21 hand held game, a Las Vegas shot glass and several other items that I missed.
In another game that was played the flight attendants asked if you had some obscure item and if you did, you would hold it up in your hand and receive your choice of candy.
During the flight the Captain/Pilot made three or four updates of our location and projected arrival time. I really liked the updates. He explained that we had a strong headwind making our flight 3 hours and 20 minutes. Due to our early departure our arrival time was 'on time'.
The pilot took us on a very slow descent into Phoenix. We did have a very interesting landing. We bounced twice and then landed. Without missing a beat one of the flight attendants got on the intercom and said, "that was fun." There was a 15-20 knot crosswind at the time no doubt making the landing more challenging than usual.
I like being the last off if I have to pick up a checked bag. I just don't like lines. I took the ramp down on the Tarmac and walked the short distance to the terminal building. Everyone was waiting around the baggage beltway. I was watching the bags come of the plane. No hurry until the bags are off the plane. I saw my bag come off and right on to the top of a very large pile of other bags in the first car of the baggage train. The bags were piled pretty high and I could tell that 'no-way' my bag was going to stay on. I watched the accident in progress. Sure enough, it fell off when the carts were moved. I told one of the attendants in the terminal that my bag was on the Tarmac. "Grey hardbody?" he asked. The bag was noticed and retrieved as I was about to answer.
I was rather perturbed by the incident. I could clearly see that the bag would slide off - an accident just waiting to happen. It was just plain carelessness on the baggage crews part and that is what bothered me. I thought the bag had escaped damage or the bag was someone else's, but when I got home and examined the bag closer the damage was obvious and what you might expect from a fall of six feet.
It seems that the $99 bargain one-way rates are a thing of the past. The price quoted on April 17, 2008 for a one way fare from Mesa to Peoria was $109. You can't blame Allegiant for the price increase. Airlines are still behind the curve in passing on the increased fuel costs on to the consumer. Fares will likely continue to rise unless fuel prices decline.
Would I fly Allegiant again? Sure, but only if flying to one of their limited cities and if I could get the discount rate. The discounted base ticket fare can quickly turn into less than a bargain. I had to drive from Tucson to Mesa and back approximately $36 for gas. Add $35 for parking. My short notice booking for the discount fare was $305.11. Add $22.89 for Federal Taxes, $7.00 for segment fees, $4.50 for PFC (Passenger Facility Charge), $5.00 for 911 security, $10 for one checked bag and $9.50 for Miscellaneous and the total bill is $435.00. Granted most of those fees are not unique to Allegiant, but I don't like the nickel and dime approach to pricing. I like to know the full amount up front. Some things should still be part of the ticket price including a drink on flights over one hour and check-in of one bag. For these reasons I will choose Southwest over Allegiant unless I have to fly to Peoria again.
In Memorial - Junior M. Brooks
1926-2008
