Want to save a bit of cash when flying Allegiant? It is possible, thanks to a quirky tax play the airline makes. But it is not without risk of actually paying more for the trip. Ask me how I know.
Airlines play tax avoidance games with optional fees
Allegiant is one of a few airlines* in the US that adds a surcharge for buying tickets via it website. The company calls it a “Carrier Usage Charge” and it is not entirely a secret fee – it is included in the price quoted online throughout the booking process – but it also is not entirely well disclosed. You’ll only see it if you dig in to the taxes & fees breakdown. And even then the company does not explain where the charge comes from.
Ultimately it is a means to reduce taxes the carrier pays to the federal government. Because it is an optional service – after all, you don’t have to buy a plane ticket online or via the call center – it is not subject to the 7.5% federal excise tax that airfares incur. If Allegiant wanted to scrap the fee and bundle it into the base fare it would need to raise prices by ~$23.65 to realize the same revenue.
But is Allegiant’s Carrier Usage Charge really optional?
To avoid the fee one must purchase their Allegiant ticket at the airport counter. For the vast majority of travelers simply needing to go to the airport weeks or months in advance is not worth the $22 each way savings. Allegiant makes it even harder, though.
The company explicitly advises passengers to book in advance through the channels where the fee applies (and does not mention the fee in that guidance). Only same-day travel can be purchased at the counter most of the time.
For 57 of the carrier’s airports the option to buy at the counter is available less than two hours per week. Many of them are not adjacent to flight operations, but just an hour or two on a random day of the week. Almost none of the airports allow purchases every day.
For an industry where pricing is so closely tied to inventory this mean customers trying to buy at the counter could face a multi-day wait, during which the fares fluctuate. It is a gamble as to whether the price will change by the time a traveler gets to an open ticket counter.
I took that gamble recently and lost.
Avoiding the Carrier Usage Charge, and paying Allegiant more as a result
I hadn’t paid attention to the ticket counter hours for my local airport. It was a Thursday and there was a departure that afternoon so I went to the airport. Fortunately, I learned very quickly that I had to wait until mid-day Monday to make my purchase rather than standing in a long line. But it was disappointing.
Still, enamored with the idea that I could save 10% of our trip cost, I went home and blocked the time on my calendar to return the following Monday.
Buying a ticket in the terminal is easy, though slower than online
When I returned after the weekend I was the only person at the terminal. The employee working seemed somewhat surprised that anyone showed up. But she knew why I was there and was happy to help.
Employees use a version of the Allegiant website to sell seats. It is slightly different from the one customers have access to, but it includes all the same prompts about fare bundles, bag fees, seat assignments and more. I was even invited to come behind the counter to look at the screen for my seat selection.
The agent was able to complete the transaction using my Allways Rewards account and the traveler information stored there. That saved some some time and potential for data entry mistakes.
Easy enough, but I paid more
But, in the end, the four day delay in purchasing the tickets proved my downfall. In the intervening hours the fare for the return segment jumped about $100 per passenger. Yes, I saved $88 by not paying the Carrier Usage Charge. But I more than made up for that savings with the higher fares.
I still bought the ticket. It is the best value for us for this trip. But the process certainly raises questions about what is optional for consumers, particularly in an industry where pricing and inventory shift so frequently.
In theory I could have booked and refunded the trip fare each day online, refunding within 24 hours so long as the price didn’t go up. That provides something of a hedge against fare changes. But airlines tend to frown on that sort of behavior, seeing it as manipulation of their inventory. Passengers have seen a range of enforcement, including loyalty accounts shut down, being blocked from future travel with airlines, or receiving outrages bills for such behaviors. I’m not too keen to go that route.
Or just book the flights at the price I thought was fair and not worry about the fact that the airlines are playing games with the taxes they pay to the feds. I took a gamble on getting good deal and a good story. At least I got one of those in the end this time around.
*Breeze calls it a “technology development charge” and also only typically has counters open two hours per week. Spirit calls it a passenger usage charge. Frontier calls it a Carrier Interface Charge, as does Sun Country.
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Scott says
Feel if tickets are not available for sale every day it’s not an optional charge and I’d file a DOT complaint and let them decide if random hours 3x a week is consistent with rules.
Seth Miller says
Not even 3x weekly for me. Just for two hours on Monday afternoon.
This is the sort of thing that I know works for a significant enough subset of passengers that it would be a shame to have it fully disappear. But it also is clearly bad faith by the airlines only running it for two hours a week while claiming the optional nature of the fee.