Allegiant Air review by hal

This is hands down one of the absolute worst travel experiences I’ve had with the worst airline company I’ve ever dealt with. We are very unhappy and displeased and this is not our first issue with Allegiant so this makes it even worse! I am very upset with this company and bothered from start to finish!! They have lost many customers (myself, my family and friends) from this situation and their lack of help/response. We were at the airport and a very light snow flurry started that lasted less than 10 min. They tell us that there has to be a over ¼ of a mile visibility for the plane to land. Within a few minutes of the storm hitting we could see to the lake which is about 1 mile away. They then told us that the “plane does not have enough gas to circle while waiting for weather” They said that the plane had to fly back to Mesa (over an hr flight) to fuel up. We find this upsetting and hard to believe as the FAA has very specific rules and guidelines about how much gas a plane has to have. They should have had enough to circle and wait for the short flurry to pass. I have been on planes before that circled for 30 or more minutes before turning to go somewhere else. Even had a plane turn back around and land where we were supposed to after circling and waiting. So this is completely unacceptable! We are then told it will be a 2 hr delay (in the worst, most uncomfortable and claustrophobic airport I’ve been in) so they can go fill up the plane. This is upsetting and frustrating but we can handle a 2 hr delay. Shortly after this we are told that it would be even more delayed further into the evening causing a TEN hour delay. They said that they did not have snow removal equipment at the airport so the plane can’t come back. How does an airport in Utah not have snow removal equipment? It snows there half the year but they don’t have the equipment!! But then we see a snow plow in the parking lot.. All of this is completely uncalled for, unnecessary and ridiculous. I have been on planes that have landed in worse weather and take off in worse weather in many other airports! If we had been in the Salt Lake airport we would have taken off and been in our destination on time. We had to pay for an uber to get us to and from the airport which cost us even more money. Thankfully we live within 30 min of the airport. When we got back to the airport there is ANOTHER DELAY!! The incoming plane doesn’t land until it is almost time for our flight to take off. They finally load the plane and we sit on the tarmac for an extended period of time waiting without any reason, they never told us why we weren’t taking off. Once we land we then sit on the tarmac again, once again with no explanation. When we were on the plane we were not offered anything as an apology, no free snacks or drinks from the over priced selection. Staff did not seem apologetic for the issues or problems with the flights! Our entire first day of the trip was completely gone and ruined! We are very aggravated with Allegiant and will be pressing the issue further. We will be speaking with the FAA and Provo City as well as reporting them to the Better Business Bureau. We will leave reviews on every website we can. Multiple people at the airport today told us they won't fly allegiant again as well as no one in our family or friends will fly with them. I have been trying to contact customer service since this all happened!! I have emailed a few times with no response. I spent about 4 hours trying to call Allegiant today to no avail. Everytime I called or my mother called we got disconnected. I sat on wait for up to 40 min to get connected to a person and once I told them the issue they disconnected! I know it is not our phones fault as before, during and after trying to call we had other phone calls that never got dropped or had any issue. They offer a live chat option on their website, it said “Agents available and online now” So I put in my name and issue and then it says “no one is available.” This happened EVERY TIME I tried to do the chat option. They are very poor with their customer service and clearly don’t care that we have an issue. We would like some form of compensation whether that is a credit for our flight today as we missed a whole day that was planned. Or a free change of flight for our return flight. My mother never gets to get away from home as she is a caretaker for our dying father. We came down to surprise her mother for her 89th birthday. She only has a couple days away from home to enjoy and Allegiant ruined one day of that. Poor communication, slow moving, poor customer service and not following FAA rules. But no one has contacted us or answered our calls so we have yet to hear anything. We now have to pay out of pocket a ridiculous amount to change her flight in hopes that they will refund us and make this right!