This flight review took place on Sunday, May 12th, 2019, on Allegiant Air from Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) to Punta Gorda Airport (PGD) on board an Airbus A-320.

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Airline:  Allegiant Air (G4 #1695)

Date:  Sunday, May 12th, 2019

Departure City:  Pittsburgh Int’l Airport (PIT)

Departure Time: 9:17 AM

Arrival City: Punta Gorda Airport (PGD)

Arrival Time:  11:44 AM

Aircraft:  Airbus A-320

My wife and I were planning a trip to Florida, and exploring our options to get to Siesta Key. We had traveled on Allegiant Air in the past on trips to Savannah, Georgia and Cancun, Mexico, and we had no hesitations about using them for the short hop down to Florida.

Booking on the Allegiant website is quick and easy. We secured two roundtrip tickets, with 1 checked bag, and pre-selecting our seats in both directions for a total of $462. Without a checked bag or seat selection, the total would have only been $326.

The morning of the flight, we arrived at Pittsburgh Int’l Airport (PIT) about 90 minutes before departure, and found the Allegiant Air check-in area completely empty! We walked up, dropped off our checked bag, and were on our way to security within 60 seconds.

Boarding commenced on-time and our aircraft pushed back at 9:17am. Our estimated flight time was 2 hours and 27 minutes.

The thing I enjoy about the Allegiant Air and Spirit Airlines employees at Pittsburgh is that they all seem to enjoy their jobs and put the passengers into a good positive mindset as they are boarding. It’s a night and day difference between these folks and some of the “legacy airline” employees you meet at big hubs like O’Hare, Newark, JFK, etc. A big round of applause for the awesome gate agents of Allegiant and Spirit in Pittsburgh.

The Allegiant Air flight today (G4 #1695) is being flown by an Airbus A-320. The aircraft interior is simple and clean. The seats are basic with minimal padding and no reclining option. I love this, as I am usually stuck with someone directly in front of me who throws their seat into full recline the moment we take off.

Once we reached cruising altitude the snack purchasing service began. The offerings are basic, but reasonably priced. Only credit cards are accepted.

Nothing is free on Allegiant Air. A bottle of water will set you back $2, unless you are an Allegiant Air credit card holder. If you have an Allegiant Air card, you are comped (1) free drink of your choice for the flight.

The Airbus A-320 has no in-flight entertainment, so be prepared with your own (whether games on your phone, an iPad with movies, or a good book).

After 2+ hours in the air, we began our descent into Punta Gorda. The warm Florida landscape below us looked so inviting, and we were counting down the minutes until we would be relaxing on the warm sand of Siesta Key beach.

The flight made a hard landing at 11:35am and within 4 minutes we were parked at our stand in Punta Gorda Airport (PGD). Punta Gorda is a small airport with no jet bridges and all remote parking with ramps/stairs.

It was a big change going from the chilly weather of Pittsburgh to the 90F sunny temperature of South Florida! Upon disembarking the aircraft, we walked into the terminal and proceeded to the baggage claim area. The total time walking from the aircraft door to baggage claim was roughly 2 minutes.

The baggage claim is small with only 2 belts, and the bags took roughly 15 minutes to appear, and ours arriving about 20 minutes after we arrived at the baggage claim.

Overall, our experience on this Allegiant Air flight was very good. When traveling on an Ultra Low Cost airline like Allegiant, Frontier, Spirit, etc, you need to set your expectations based on your price. They provide everything as expected. Safe, clean, non-stop, and reliable transportation from Point A to Point B for a very low price.

Despite all the former negative posts in the media about Allegiant, I have never had a bad experience with them in the 6 flights I have taken. While Allegiant used to have a large fleet of old MD-80 aircraft, they have since phased them all out and now only operate new/modern Airbus A-319 and A-320 aircraft.

Thank you to Allegiant Air for a safe and cheap way to travel to Florida!