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I understand that the ground staff at Oakland airport are independent contractors. I took a flight out of there with my parents on Jan 4th 2013. I had prepaid for one carry on bag and one check in bag. We had three personal items (1 each) in addition to the carry on and check in bag.

The woman at the counter checked all the travelers IDs (which I believe is not necessary for issuing a boarding pass) and weighed my check-in bag. It was over by 5 pounds and I removed some of the weight. She also weighed my carry on bag which was over by 2 pounds and she made me remove two pounds. Then she wanted to personally check my parents and my personal items. My mom and I had two small purses so she said- you can only take 3 things on board, not 5. So I said that the small purses it will fit in one of the other bags. She replies, "prove it", daring to fit a small bag into a bigger bag which wasn't even that full. So, I did. Then she wanted to see if my personal items would fit in the bag size contraption. After rearranging some of the items in the bags which they all fit in the size mold such that there would be just one item per passenger. Then this other agent decides to interfere. She sees that one of my personal item bags was a duffel bag. It fit easily in the sizer device, weighs less than 10 pounds and I have always carried that bag like a purse (even on previous Allegiant flights). She DECIDES that it does not count as a personal item and therefore HAS to be paid for. I could not believe it. Allegiant policy does not specify what make and type of bag is a personal item. It only specifies dimensions which CLEARLY fit my bag. Then she says that she would not issue any boarding passes unless I proved that I only had the required amount of baggage. I do not understand why the cannot issue a boarding pass, let me pass through and just pay $100 at the gate if needed. There is NO NEED to keep a whole line of passengers waiting while two inept agents try to force one passenger to pay for a carry on item.

I was so annoyed I requested that they call a supervisor. 20 minutes later a supervisor comes in and is also extremely rude. She wanted to see all the travelers ID's AGAIN, which is not necessary at all. The only ID they need to see is of the person checking in a bag because anyone with a boarding pass needs to clear security before getting on a place. Moreover, if you check in online, you don't need to show your ID to a computer, you can just walk through security.

After jumping through all the hoops, she finally printed out the boarding passes, but decided that it was not enough to harass me at the check-in counter and that she should FLAG all three boarding passes by using red stickers so that I am again harassed at the gate. I have since learned from an Allegiant lawyer that it is NOT Allegiant policy to flag boarding passes- so I do not understand WHY she would have done that. It is disrespectful and unnecessary. I flew on Allegiant with EXACTLY the same luggage just 12 days prior and I even let them know that but they refused to back down. The whole process took about 1 hour. It was at 7:50 am (for a flight at 9:35am) and it really ruined my morning. I felt discriminated against, singled out and humiliated in front of about 20 waiting passengers who were enjoying the SHOW while the three of them ganged up on me while trying to force me to purchase one extra carry-on. I have taken over 20 flights just in the last year and am a seasoned traveler. I read ALL the terms and conditions and am very good with making show I plan accordingly to avoid dealing with these kinds of situations. This was not normal and should never happen. The agents talked down to me, threatened that they would be moving to the gate area and making sure that I do not add any extra bags (as if I was going to buy a huge bunch of stuff from the gift shop just out of spite) and after issuing the boarding pass they talked to me as if I was a two year old child- pointing to the gate, the boarding time, my seat number and my boarding zone. I had to cut her off and thank her for being helpful while letting her know that this was not the first flight that I was getting on in my lifetime and she really did not need to waste my time.

Location: Oakland, California

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Guest

No offense, but if your bag sizes, number of items, and/or weights were off, then you brought this on yourself. They give that info up front, so choosing to NOT follow it is foolish and discourteous to your fellow flyers.

It doesn't matter if you got away with it a dozen times before. It's your responsibility to make sure you are within the stated guidelines. From what you've indicated in your own words, your bags DID NOT match the requirements at boarding in number and weight (and perhaps even size).

What did you think would happen? If you can't follow simple rules, save your fellow flyers the irritation and drive a car.

Guest

Just to let you know, it is a TSA protocol to check IDs for any airline after 9/11. You show your ID to a agent anytime that you are placing something on the aircraft.

Therefore everyone is responsible for there own luggage if something is found. You showing identificiation is a way of saying that YOU checked the luggage in so YOU are taking responsbility for it.

If you just print it at home and go straight to security, your not checking luggage so of course you wouldn't show it to the agent when checking in luggage or to the computer. Just silly, how people act like they know the reasons behind things someimes.

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