Go to any major airport in the United States and you will see all the big name air carriers. Names like Southwest, United, American, Delta, Northwest, Airtran and US Air will headline the customer counters, but you will rarely see the name Allegiant with the exception of a couple major airports. What's the big deal about Allegiant Air you ask? Allegaint is the most profitable air carrier in the United States and for most of the recession, has been the only airline making a profit and increasing passenger volume.

Allegiant Air offers discount airfares to major leisure destinations with rates as low as $19.95 one way from smaller U.S. markets. So unless you live in places like Rockford, IL, Springfield, MO, or Chattanooga, TN etc., you probably won't be able to enjoy these spectacular airfares.

Many savvy air travelers are not only using Allegiant to go to its 8 major leisure destinations (Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orlando, St. Petersburg, Ft. Lauderdale, Phoenix, Punta Gorda, FL, and Bellingham, WA) but are also using Allegiant to reach places like Myrtle Beach, SC, Branson, MO or even Hawaii!! Need to go to Portland, OR from NW Arkansas Airport? Easy just book your Allegiant flight to Las Vegas transfer carriers and then hop on a Southwest or Alaska Airlines straight to Portland, OR - the savings is dramatic. Or how about a McAllen, TX flight to Washington. DC. for $150.00 dollar savings by flying through Orlando-Sanford, taking the 30 minute/ 30 mile ride on the shuttle to Orlando International and flying out on Jet Blue. Or how about flying from Springield, MO to Los Angeles, then transfering on Continental to Kapalua/Maui for a total $694 roundtrip cost versus $806 from Kansas City or $840 from St. Louis/Lambert not to mention avoiding the 6-8 hour roundtrip drive from Springfield to those cities. Now there are some small roadblocks when booking these flights, the main one is the fact that Allegiant does not have agreements with other airlines to transfer your luggage so you will have to claim your bags and then go back through ticketing to drop off your bags or only use carry-ons. Hint: Join Allegiant's online web club and bypass the ticket counter so you can just drop the luggage and go. Also make sure you have plenty of time between you Allegiant flight and your second leg flight in case your flight is delayed for whatever reason. You may spend some extra time between flights and doing some extra research to time your flights and get your tickets, but the savings could be well worth it.

Allegiant Air also is a no frills airline. If you want it, you have to pay extra for it. Food, Luggage (except carry-on), drinks, etc. are all add ons. There is no entertainment, no web service or free water, but if you like cheap flights and good service then Allegiant is for you. Its not unheard of for Allegaint to offer crazy fares for as low as $3.50 cents on special days. On July 7th, 2007 (777) they offered $7 dollar fares. How do they do it? Who cares as long as continue to do so.

The biggest drawback to Allegiant is that in most places they only have one scheduled flight out a day. What this means to you is that you will have only one time a day to fly out and if the plane for any reason needs to be grounded (repair, weather, etc) your flight could be easily cancelled until the next day! In most cases Allegiant will send a "rescue" plane if your flight has mechanically problems that cannot be fixed quickly, but this could delay your flight by hours and hours.

Allegiant has an all-jet fleet and flies to 69 cities using 44 jets. In comparison, Southwest Air connects 67 cities with 544 jets. Allegiant flies used 150 seat MD-80s. Southwest uses brand new 737s. Springfield, Missouri has the most flights to Allegiant destinations, with flights to 5 out of Allegiant's 8 destinations. Las Vegas is the number one hub and serves 40 cities and is also Allegiant Air's headquarters.

Rumor has it that Allegiant Air will add flights to the Big Apple (NYC), Cancun, MX, and Hawaii with some 757's they recently purchased.

Having flown Allegiant Air over 40 times I give them an A++ rating and would highly recommend them to anyone.