Visit Jacksonville & Allegiant

[spuwho]

As Allegiant has grown as the carrier for vacation travel to and from Florida, their east coast edition travel magazine (Sunseeker) is bursting with articles and ads from almost every city they serve, except one.

Yep, no Visit Jacksonville, no Ponte Vedra/St Augustine materials at all. No Fernandina Beach either. No ads for any food or establishments in NE Florida.

Why? Dont they fly to JIA?

The people flying Allegiant for vacation travel are 80% likely to use them again to reach a different destination in Florida.

Yes, I am flying them today, and I check every edition to look for First Coast advertising. Nada.

[Steve]

That could be on allegiant. When an airline mag decides they're going to do a profile on a market, the sales staff usually stalks the CVBs for that area to let them know and encourages them to advertise.

I suppose that VisitJax, PV/St Aug, Amelia/Fernandina, Brunswick/Golden Isles could have ALL turned down the opportunity to advertise, but that seems strange.

[ProjectMaximus]

Visit Jacksonville:

https://issuu.com/sunseeker1/docs/ecss_feb-mar_2017/56

Amelia Island Convention and Visitors Bureau:

https://issuu.com/sunseeker1/docs/ecss/12

[spuwho]

Visit Jacksonville:

https://issuu.com/sunseeker1/docs/ecss_feb-mar_2017/56

Amelia Island Convention and Visitors Bureau:

https://issuu.com/sunseeker1/docs/ecss/12

Excellent. Do you know when these appeared?

[spuwho]

Visit Jacksonville:

https://issuu.com/sunseeker1/docs/ecss_feb-mar_2017/56

Amelia Island Convention and Visitors Bureau:

https://issuu.com/sunseeker1/docs/ecss/12

Excellent. Do you know when these appeared?

Never mind, I see the date in the link.

The flight went great. The plane was a MD-80 and I checked the plate and it was made in 1985, but didnt see the patchwork of fixes I usually do.

What was amazing is that the destination airport (Mid-America - Belleville) which is only used by Allegiant, had both of its only 2 gates busy. The other gate had a flight leaving for Las Vegas.

I have flown in and out of that airport for years and never, ever seen both gates occupied.

Now it serves flights from Vegas, Sanford and Jacksonville and a host of others.

For many years the airport was criticized as a waste, not so anymore!

Allegiant is still improving checkin. The kiosks are better, big posters with 800 numbers to explain the bag policy. The mobile app is spartan, but improving.

I joked with the flight attendant that they should announce everyone to turn on their phone cameras just in case. Lol.

[ProjectMaximus]

Yeah I'll be headed to Indy again on Allegiant next week. It's a shame Mid-America isnt *really* connected to the light rail line in St Louis. Maybe  serious uptick in passenger traffic will get that last mile connection (obviously would need to be much more than just Allegiant growth)

I have the app simply for the e-ticket option.

[ProjectMaximus]

It's a shame they dropped the Memphis and New Orleans routes. I would have taken those at some point already. I don't really understand why MEM has been showing on the allegiant site for the past few months when they haven't had any flights.

[spuwho]

Yeah I'll be headed to Indy again on Allegiant next week. It's a shame Mid-America isnt *really* connected to the light rail line in St Louis. Maybe  serious uptick in passenger traffic will get that last mile connection (obviously would need to be much more than just Allegiant growth)

I have the app simply for the e-ticket option.

Years ago, they used to run a shuttle from Mid America to the transit station by Scott AFB and to the Enterprise Rental center in O'Fallon. But after Spirit and later the discounted version of PanAm gave up on the airport, the shuttles stopped.

Today Enterprise comes on site and I noticed yesterday that they have increased their inventory at the airport. Being the only rental provider at the site, they do well.

For awhile there was talk to extend the transit line to Mid America, but with such carrier "instability" and when it sat unused for several years, all transit talk has stopped.

Personally, until a major carrier uses MidAmerica as a hub of some kind or Allegiant expands their beyond their seasonal patterns there, it will stay this way for awhile.

FWIW: The big news on the flight was that Allegiant is bringing service back to Marion IL.  They had dropped the service there, but the county there put up a $3M referendum to build a new terminal and it induced Allegiant to come back. Time will tell if that will work again, but Marion says they want the service to Florida.

[spuwho]

Checking in at Mid America now. Place is packed. The airport is expanding the free parking lot due to the demand.

This used to be a pretty spartan place, it has a cafe now, TV's, and large flight aware board and signage for the gate destination.

You may laugh as these seem like normal things at an airport, but this one has been bare bones since it was built in 1998.  (It sat unused from 2008 to 2012)

So when you use the terminal enough you notice it.

In a sign of full government employment, there are now 15 TSA agents for just 2 gates.

[ProjectMaximus]

Well that is making me think twice...

Flight up to Indy on Thursday was pretty smooth sailing. IIRC departure was delayed ~25 min and arrival was ~15 min late. No biggie.

But the return flight on Sunday, Mother's Day, was supposed to depart at 2:38p and AFTER we had all boarded and pushed back from the gate we were returned, deplaned, and informed there would be a "quick" repair. After several extended delays we were reboarded at around 6:45p and then informed by the captain that although the repair was not complete, they wanted us on board to get going asap as soon as repair was done. Around 7:15p captain informs us that repair is complete and now just waiting for panels to be put back.

(Meanwhile, I was messaging with several folks who were on the ground in JAX waiting for our plane so that they could then fly to Indy. We all found each other through realtime complaints on the Allegiant Facebook page and they were desperate for info as apparently nobody could tell them anything at the gate in JAX)

Shortly after the captain's welcome news, I was given two separate worrisome accounts by folks in JAX. One said they were informed we were being deplaned and the other said they were told if we didnt get off the ground by 8p we would be grounded for the night. One of the people in JAX told me it was starting to get chaotic, and they had called it quits, booking a flight on WN out of MCO for the next day. At the same time, I saw a team of grounds crew, staff and pilots huddled at the front of the plane in deep discussion which had me worried.

But thank God the announcement came, finally, around 7:40p, that we needed to shut off all electronics and buckle up as the plane was ready to push back. Humorously, this came a few seconds after I received an email from Allegiant with a voucher for $25 off my next flight. ummm...

I landed around 9:25p, some 5 hours late, in JAX. Got to see my momma for 30 minutes lol. Oh and later that night Allegiant sent another $50 voucher. I think they can be combined for $75 total...which means it was more than I paid for the flight so there is that.

Was delayed approx 5 hours on a Jetblue flight DCA-JAX last fall and Jetblue only gave $50 credit. Of course in that case it was due to a storm so not the airlines' fault.

[Steve]

That's the thing with Allegiant. Because of the nature of their routes/equipment utilization, if an issue happens it's very difficult to get back on track. If they have a mechanical issue, usually the only option is to wait until it's resolved (which could be a while).

[spuwho]

FWIW:

Belleville (BLV) has gone from zero passengers in 2011 to 157,000 in 2016.  All on Allegiant. 2017 is on track to reach 170,000!  Just to compare, nearby STL/Lambert does about 14 Million annually.

Jacksonville currently has the lowest boarding factor of the 6 flights that serve. Being seasonal and not year round hurts the numbers, but in its first year, they served 3270 passengers between JAX and BLV.

That compares to full time routes of St Pete (PIE) 20,000 and Orlando/Sanford at 19,500.

Vegas, Punta Gorda and Destin filled out the rest at 14k, 14k and 10k.

If Jax had a year round schedule, they probably would have been just short of 7000 passengers.

Stats courtesy of US DOT / Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

[spuwho]

I just finished a trip up north and used Allegiant exclusively.  Unfortunately, none were through JIA but through Sanford.

I flew to Plattsburgh NY, which is just across the border from Montreal. I was surprised just how many Canadians cross the border to get the cheap fares. Even US Junior Hockey Teams from Florida were going up for a big tourney in Canada.

The plane was an MD-80, built in 1989. The interior had some blemishes but nothing serious. Once again the cabin got extremely cold about 60% into the trip. This is one of the longer flights on Allegiant (3 hours) and I was curious how the economy seating would hold up for the extra hour. It was fine until the last 30m.

I flew back on Allegiant to Sanford via Bangor, Maine. Again a 3 hour flight on an MD-80 built in 1988. Most of the flight was over water and just as before, the cabin got really cold about half way into the trip. Makes me think they arent heating the bleed air used for ventilation. Just as before, the economy seating started getting to me right as we flew over Jax Beach.

No delays, no mechanical issues, no service issues, though we almost had a passenger meltdown before we left for Plattsburgh.

In our return to Sanford from Bangor, it was total and complete chaos in the terminal. The lines for checkin in Terminal A ran all the way back to luggage pickup. The crowds in luggage pickup were huge as 3 flights arrived at the same time.

I dont think I have seen Sanford so mobbed as I did on Saturday. Our flight was almost all families headed to Disney Inc.

I would think JIA could act as a reliever for Sanford crowding, but if everyone wants Disney (which seemed to be the case) then most familes might prefer the direct route.

Its clear that Allegiant has found their niche east of the Mississippi, get everyone to Disney via Sanford.

I figured I saved around $800 in fares for this trip.  For a familynof four, the savings Allegiant provides is probably the difference between going or not.

Disney should be thanking Allegiant for making it financially possible for many families to make the trip.

[JaxAvondale]

I disagree. I routinely see good fares to MCO from all over the country. I'm sure that the proximity to Disney has helped Stanford land more routes.

As far as JIA, they seem to be getting more routes from the big carriers. I recently just booked a non-stop flight to DC on American (They have been my primary carrier this year). I can only recall Jet Blue flying to DC non-stop from Jax in the last few years.

[ProjectMaximus]

I recently just booked a non-stop flight to DC on American (They have been my primary carrier this year). I can only recall Jet Blue flying to DC non-stop from Jax in the last few years.

No. US Air has been flying JAX-DCA for the past 6 years, and at really good prices. (I know cause from 2011-2014 I was flying every few months and since then, a few times a year) AA maintained the route after the merger. When Jetblue added the route a few years ago it brought the overall price down a little, but the primary effect was driving down the one-way fares, which had been ridiculous on US Air.

Also note the region is served by United (JAX-IAD) and Southwest (JAX-BWI) and has been since at least 2009.