An Open Letter to Allegiant Air and the NoCo Regional Airport

As I was planning for a December trip to Las Vegas, factors like only having to drive 20 minutes to the airport in the middle of winter and not having to struggle to find parking were just a few of the reasons I was so eager to book a flight through newly-returning Allegiant Air out of the Northern Colorado Regional Airport.

Unfortunately, almost exactly two months to the date before I would have been sitting on an airplane heading to Sin City, I received an email from Allegiant Air saying that their flight services would, in fact, not be coming to the airport in Northern Colorado after all. According to the email, circumstances beyond their control were unfulfilled by the airport, which left Allegiant with no other choice than to cancel their service. The end of the email essentially expressed apologies and stated that refunds would be happening shortly.

Although I did receive a refund on the day of the announcement, I also got on to the live web chat that they offered, just to see if they would be willing to provide any more credits due to the fact that I was now having to spend way more money on flights and travel plans. Their response was "Unfortunately not. When Allegiant announced service into Fort Collins we were promised that an FAA certified control tower would be in place by the time we began service. This has not happened and there is no solid date for when this may happen which forced us to cancel our flights out of that location. I truly and honestly apologize for the inconvenience but because this is something that was out of our control compensation is not being issued."

Because of the cancellation, I not only have to now pay way more for airline tickets, but  also have to drive much further to get to the airport, plus pay higher fees for parking. Because I couldn't get the same flight times, that required us to have to change other plans that were already set in place, such as pet care. We were also looking forward to being much closer to home and not having to drive as far upon returning from vacation.

From what I understand, it's more of the airport's fault as to why Allegiant had to back out, and that is frustrating. If they promised to Allegiant that the tower would be in place by a certain time, but cannot fulfill, then they probably shouldn't have made the claim to begin with.

I'm sure I'm not the only one dealing with the aftermath of this decision, and in the big scheme of things, it's by far not the worst problem in the world to be stuck with. It did make me really mad though, and definitely changed my opinions of both the airport and Allegiant Air. In the future, if they do end up deciding to bring the service back to Fort Collins, I will be leery to book through them again. And who knows, maybe luck will be in my favor in Vegas, and I'll make back what I lost on the tables...