Just say no to Allegiant
We, my partner and I, had our spiritual civil union ceremony. We went to the Virden Center for this occasion and we were very impressed with everything they provided. In fact, this is a place that we would recommend to anyone who is planning a special event.
The staff was very attentive to us and to the needs of our guests. However, not everyone is so inclined to be helpful, as we were soon to find out.
In March of this year, Shelley and I made reservations to fly on Allegiant Airlines into Orlando for a restful week on the west coast of Florida. Hotel and car arrangement had been completed and we were looking forward to both relaxing and reflecting over the wonderful support we had just been shown by our many friends and family.
We were scheduled to fly out of Salisbury Airport June 14 at 1:50 p.m. Now, this is a very small airport, and we had been told by others who have flown out of there that we didn’t have to be there two hours prior to the flight. We didn’t have to waste a lot of time sitting in the terminal. And this definitely appealed to us.
However, things cropped up that day that made us rush to make to make our flight. My grandson-in-law, who attended our ceremony and then took my granddaughter for a special vacation at the Boardwalk Plaza, took ill on Wednesday, the day before our flight. He had a high fever and I insisted that we take him to the hospital. He was diagnosed with infectious colitis and had a fever of 104. Since he was visiting here from Texas and was scheduled to leave for home on Saturday, the hospital agreed to release him, with medication, and the assurance that he would seek immediate care when he arrived home.
On Thursday, the day of our scheduled departure, I wanted to stop by to check on him and make sure that he was OK. And so we stopped for a quick (15 minutes) cup of coffee with him and my granddaughter. Then Shelley and I rushed to the Salisbury airport. We encountered heavy traffic, trash trucks,
etc., while driving there. We arrived there at 1:19 according to our parking ticket. The parking lot is small, and we parked in the third space from the door.
We immediately entered the airport where the check-in counter was right in front of us. However, no one was at the counter. Shelley and I called for an attendant and no one answered us for another five minutes. When the attendant did finally come out, she immediately said “You're late.” We replied that we had been calling for someone for over five minutes. She replied in
a huffy manner, that she was at her post until 1:20 and that was what her contract called for her to do. She said she didn’t have to give us a boarding pass.
Shelley became inconsolable in her pleadings for our getting on our flight. She said, “You don’t understand. This is our honeymoon.” Well, that was the wrong thing to say if we were appealing for support. Her arms clutched her shoulders as she replied "That’s not my problem. “ Anyone who is gay has seen the unspoken response on the face of the person they are speaking with. She might as well said “Not on my airline.” And I knew we didn’t have a chance of getting on the plane.
We pleaded for another few minutes, asked for her supervisor and then
a man stepped up and said that that would be him. We doubted this,
as he was dressed in the apparel of a person who would be working at the counter, so now we were facing two people with smug expressions on their faces. We could see the plane, which was just starting to board. But no amount of reasoning or arguments were going to sway the attitudes we were facing.
When I asked about the money we had already paid for our flights, she just said, “That’s gone because you were late.” I finally convinced Shelley
that we should just leave and attempt to deal with Allegiant later. We went into the parking lot, where we attempted to call the airline and were on hold for 25 minutes. However, this did give us the opportunity to watch our plane depart 25 minutes late.
Yes, the plane left at 2:15 instead of 1:50 and yet we were denied the right to board because we were at the most two minutes late.
I don’t know what the resolution will be on this matter. So far, Allegiant has said that we could not get a refund on our tickets since we were late. We were able to book on another airline a day and a half later and fly into Miami and then drive to Sarasota.
This letter is to alert people of the unfair tactics used by Allegiant airline. I just heard that they were suspending travel between Salisbury and Orlando between August and October. They said that this was a scheduled shut-down. Then they also said that the people who had tickets during that time would have to rebook.
My question is, why would they have sold tickets to anyone for departure during a scheduled shut-down? I hope this will be resolved quickly and fairly.
But in the meantime, say no to Allegiant Airlines.
Brenda Sims
Milton
