‘Let Us Off,’ Trapped Passengers Chanted After Allegiant Air Delayed Flight For Six Hours And Didn’t Even Offer Water

Passengers on an ill-fated Allegiant Air flight from Albany, New York, to Florida claim the low-cost carrier kept them onboard a cramped Airbus A320 for six hours on Monday without even offering them water before canceling the flight and sending them home.

For passengers on Flight 848, any hopes of escaping freezing wintery conditions in the Northeast for the balmy heat of Punta Gorda were dashed when their flight was hit by a slew of delays and issues that would have left even the calmest of travelers a little frazzled.

According to passengers who were onboard the flight on February 17, things got off to a bad start when the flight was already delayed due to intermittent power issues that had been affecting Albany Airport throughout the day.

Boarding started at around 3:30 pm, around three hours behind schedule, but the departure was then delayed due to an issue with the passenger count. It took more than two hours for this to be resolved, and then the aircraft was eventually pushed back from the agate.

When the aircraft did eventually leave the gate, it then had to go to be de-iced, but by the time this was completed, the aircrew had timed out and couldn’t legally operate the flight, so the plane had to head straight back to the gate.

Once back at the gate, the passengers were then made to wait while Allegiant worked out what to do next. In the end, however, the carrier decided to give up and scrapped the flight, finally allowing passengers to deplane at 10:15 pm.

As the flight was canceled, Allegiant has promised to refund passengers the cost of their ticket and provide a goodwill gesture payment of $200, plus a $150 future travel voucher.

That generous offer, however, may not exclude Allegiant from getting a wrap over the knuckles for a possible violation of Department of Transportation (DOT) tarmac delay rules which gives passengers certain rights in the even of extended ground delays when stuck on the airplane.

For example, airlines are generally expected to allow passengers the opportunity to deplane after three hours, although there are exceptions for various safety, security and air traffic control reasons.

Nonetheless, regardless of the reason for the tarmac delay, airlines are required to provide passengers with water and a light refreshment no later than two hours from the start of the tarmac delay (unless, of course, the pilot determines that it wouldn’t be safe for flight attendants to serve snacks).