Linda B., Rae H., Elden B. and I are all going to Vegas for close to 2 weeks.  We were told of this hot deal out of Belligham on Allegiant Air.  So Linda and I traveled over on Sunday and stayed at Rae’s so that we could get the flight out of Bellinghan supposedly at 2:30 pm on Monday.  Before going to bed on Friday I think or maybe it was when we got up, someone was notified that the flight was going to be delayed until 3:30.  Then sometime later we got another notice that the flight would be leaving at 1:30 and that the flight number was changed from 222 to ?222.  Okay then we got in a bit of a panic because we had better get going cuz you never know what the traffic is like at the border.  No problem.  We get there in plenty of time.  Well there are people in line….(no clerks on duty to check us in) that were supposed to have flown out yesterday but the airplane had a broken wing so they had been overnighted.  The flight that had been mentioned that was leaving at 1:30 was their replacement flight….hence the different number.  And so we wait.  The screens that display arrival, departures and gates, said our flight was on time but several people besides myself have alerts saying the flight was delayed til3:30. At our gate it says on time.  Even the ticket agent said the flight was on time.  Okay what is it?  The 1:30 people finally leave on their replacement and now our gate says it is delayed until 5:36 now but there are still other sources that are saying that it is on time.  Finally someone that works for Allegiant comes to the gate , gets on the microphone and says that “the 2:30 flight has been canceled. What!!!  That cannot be!  “But there s a flight leaving at 4:15 that they would try to get us on”.  Then a mad scramble happened to get in line ….. first.  Then they don’t seem to know what they have to do about the checked luggage, if everyone that has checked luggage on 222 have to go back through check-in and so also through security check (Linda and I only had carry-on but Rae and Elden had checked luggage).  The rigamarole that we had to go though including emptying so much of our stuff, shoes off, our bodies exrayed in that round-about-thingy….a first for me, patted down, yadda, yadda.  Guess I had too much bling on my top that it set the lights aflashing).  The plane is going to the same destination for God’s sake! Then they decided that we wouldn’t have to do that after all but then we were told we had to move to a different gate.  So…. We got a boarding pass that said flight 220 (for a flight that was supposed to have left at 8 am this morning plus an $8 food voucher for our trouble but we couldn’t use it on alcohol that we all wanted. Oh well!  I am telling you that this was a real circus run by a bunch of monkeys.  Personally I would never book with them again, not only because of this big screw up but also the fact that for our carry-on suitcase we were charged US$30 return and to print off a boarding pass at the airport is a $5 charge, etc., etc.  Talk about nickel and diming!  If we had done the math it probably would have been cheaper to fly out of Victoria at CAD$$$, save on the gas to and from Chilliwack, the ferry return, our share on the gas and parking in Bellingham for the duration plus food and drink at the airport (that was outrageous). And so another lesson learned.  

I would imagine that our dance buddies from Victoria that were to meet us at Gilley’s for line dancing lessons (not sure if I can dance though), are probably disappointed as will Judie, who is picking us up.  I am writing this while still on the flight.  Yes it did eventually go.  I am wondering if they were trying to fill two empty plane cuz there were more empty seats on this flight (so why did they say they would try to get us on this flight?) than I have ever seen before.