Warning to Allegiant Air customers - pre-check your baggage or pay more

3 comments December 12th, 2007

Important tip from Sally Truitt, owner of Truitt Travel in Rockford:

Allegiant Air, as you may know, charges passengers extra for checked baggage. It’s their way of lowering the base fare and, as they say, making it so you don’t have to pay for other people’s bags. The fee is $5 per bag.

But recently, Truitt said, the airline started charging $10 per bag at the airport if passengers didn’t pay ahead of time when booking. Truitt said the change was made quietly … and when some of her clients went to the airport, they were stuck paying twice as much as they planned.

So if you’re booked on Allegiant but didn’t pay to check baggage, call them at (702) 505-8888 and adjust your reservation.

UPDATE: Talked to Allegiant spokeswoman Tyri Squyres. She said the extra fee at the airport has always been there, it just hasn’t always been strictly enforced. Now it is being enforced. She also said people who book online or on the phone are told about the fee up front. Those who book with travel agents might not always get the message, she said.

“We go overboard to make sure customers know,” she said. “We don’t want to surprise anybody at the airport.