I purchased a seat for my 9 month old's carseat. I was able to travel to our vacation spot with the carseat, no problems, on Allegiant Air. Upon attempting to return (again, with a paid seat for the 9 month old) the flight attendant asked if the car seat was authorized for use by the FAA.
Disclaimer: I have been a flight attendant for 15 years. I am aware that it is required that a carseat be authorized for use by the FAA. In my 15 years and 3 airlines (one regional, one major U.S. carrier, one corporate) I have NEVER been trained to physically check car seats for labels. Anyone with common sense knows that it is safer to fly a baby/child in a carseat than as a lap child. In fact, as a flight attendant, I regard flying the same as driving...car seat, or don't go.
I told the flight attendant that is was authorized (it is Graco...of course it is). She physically took the car seat from my hands and would not return it as she started looking for the label. Apparently the label had fallen off, a fact which I was unaware of. She told me to sit down while boarding finished and we would resolve it at the end of boarding and that I would have to talk to the captain because she could not find a sticker.
At the end of boarding I spoke with the captain and the lead flight attendant who had confiscated our baby carrier. The captain told me he
knew that the seat was okay because he owns the same one, but without the sticker they had no choice. At this point I admitted to being in aviation for 15 years, told them I understood the FARs. But at the same time, come on...
I asked if we could hold the baby during taxi, takeoff and landing (the most dangerous segments of flight) and use the carrier in-flight. Again, we had PAID for the seat! I asked to speak to an FAA rep. I was just searching for solutions, but the flight attendant refused to budge on her single-mindedness, and of course the captain got out of there as soon as he could! Yes, I have known plenty of Flight Attendants like her in my career
They would not return OUR carrier to us. Eventually we had our 9 month old ride forward-facing (a BIG no-no) in our 4 year-olds car seat, and the 4 year old went without.
My argument is this: okay, technically they are correct about the sticker. However, obviously not all flight attendants at Allegiant are trained the same, as we had no such problem on our first flight. They basically allowed me to become stranded without a safe way to return home. BAD customer service. On top of this it is always the Captain's right to authorize something for safety purposes.
BOO ALLEGIANT AIR!