How many boarding zones are there on Allegiant?

Allegiant Air uses 6 boarding zones in the general boarding process for its flights. In addition, it has 4 groups that are allowed to board prior to the beginning of general boarding.

Are Allegiant flights assigned seating?

Yes, Allegiant Air uses assigned seating for all of its flights. If you would like to reserve a specific seat ahead of time, you need to pay a fee to do so. If you do not want to pay to reserve a seat, one will be randomly assigned to you when you check in for your flight.

Who has preboarding on Allegiant?

Anyone needing additional time or assistance for getting onto the plane can preboard on Allegiant Air flights. The boarding process may be paused to give this first group a little extra time to get situated before resuming with the next group.

Who has priority boarding on Allegiant?

Passengers who have purchased priority access and passengers who hold an Allways Reward card are eligible to board the aircraft when priority boarding is called.

Can military board early on Allegiant?

Yes, active military personnel and their dependents are allowed to board after priority boarding and before family boarding on all Allegiant flights.

When can families board on Allegiant?

On Allegiant Air flights, families who are boarding with car seats or strollers are allowed to board right after active military members and their dependents and before the start of general boarding.

Allegiant Air Boarding Zones and Process: Everything You Need To Know

Updated: June 26, 2025, 4:21pm CDT

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Table of Contents

Key Takeaways
Allegiant Air Boarding Zones
How To Earn Allegiant Air Allway Rewards Points
Final Thoughts

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Key Takeaways

Allegiant Air has a fairly limited route network compared to larger carriers, flying to mostly smaller and less busy airports in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, but it does cover some 117 destinations at least a couple of times per week.
Allegiant Air uses a zone-based boarding process starting with preboarding, priority boarding, military boarding, and family boarding.
Zones 1 to 6 board based on your seat location and whether you have a carry-on bag.

Allegiant Air is what’s known as an ultra-low-cost carrier, meaning it prices its tickets as low as possible and then charges passengers for absolutely everything else besides the seat. The fares may be well under $50 one-way, but your flight could cost significantly more when all is said and done.

Want water or soda on board? You will pay for that. Want to have a seat assigned before check-in? That can cost up to $80 for premium seat locations on longer flights. Need to take a carry-on bag? That will run you up to another $75 for your flight.

The nice part about this pricing model is that you never have to pay for something you don’t need. If you don’t care where you sit, are just taking a small backpack for a weekend trip, and don’t need any food or drinks while on board, you truly can fly for a really low price.

Once you’ve taken a look at the overall cost and decided to fly with Allegiant Air, you want to be prepared for your flight. That starts with boarding.

Rather than being one of those confused passengers wandering around the gate area not knowing where to go, you should take a few minutes now to learn how boarding with Allegiant works. Let’s take a quick look at the details of its boarding process.

Allegiant Air Boarding Zones

Allegiant Air begins the boarding process with 4 named zones. Once those are all taken care of, it moves to 6 numbered zones of general boarding.

For general boarding, passengers are placed into zones based on whether they have a carry-on bag or not and what row they are seated in.

Passengers without bags that need to go in the overhead bins board first, from the back to the front of the plane. Then passengers who need to stow bags board, again from back to front.

Even if you don’t purchase a seat assignment in advance, the airline staff will place you in a specific seat when you check in for your flight. Once you’re assigned your seat and row, you will be placed in the corresponding boarding zone.

Here’s an overview of exactly who gets to board with each group on Allegiant:

Preboarding

This includes anyone needing additional time or assistance. The boarding process may be paused to give this first group a little extra time to get situated before resuming with the next group.

Priority Boarding

This includes passengers who have purchased Priority Access.
Allways Rewards Visa^® card holders

Military Boarding

Current U.S. service members, U.S. military veterans, their spouses, domestic partners, children, and dependents traveling on the same itinerary board the aircraft before general boarding.

Family Boarding

This group includes passengers boarding with car seats and strollers.

Zone 1

Passengers seated in the exit rows are the first numbered zone.

Zone 2

Passengers without carry-on bags seated in rows 25 to 40

Zone 3

Passengers without carry-on bags seated in rows 1 to 24

Zone 4

Passengers with carry-on bags seated in rows 25 to 40

Zone 5

Passengers with carry-on bags seated in rows 10 to 24

Zone 6

Passengers with carry-on bags seated in rows 1 to 9

Boarding Notes

If you want to sit with the people you are traveling with on your flight, you should pay to select seats ahead of time. Allegiant Air does not guarantee that your party will be seated together if you wait until check-in to get free seat assignments.

Unlike Frontier, which gives passengers who have purchased carry-on bags priority boarding, Allegiant boards passengers with carry-on bags in the last 3 groups. Though the airlines are both low-cost carriers, they do the exact opposite when boarding passengers with carry-on bags. This is a great example of why you should be familiar with the boarding procedures for the airline you are flying!

Hot Tip: Like Spirit Airlines, Allegiant Air charges you to have an agent print your boarding pass at the airport. For Allegiant, the fee is a little lower, at $5 for each pass. To avoid paying this, either check in and print your boarding pass at home or use the Allegiant app to check in and pull up your boarding pass on your smartphone.

How To Earn Allegiant Air Allway Rewards Points

We include this section here since we’re all about using points for travel, and we always try to include sections on how to earn points for each airline in our boarding procedures series.

However, when it comes right down to it, Allway Rewards points aren’t really something you want to go out of your way to collect.

On the redemption side, the points are only worth a single penny each — there is no way to increase their value. Also, they can only be redeemed for a discount on Allegiant flights or other travel booked through Allegiant’s travel partners.

If you fly with Allegiant regularly, its Allways Rewards card might be worth getting, but more for the flight benefits than the points.

Allegiant Mastercard Earning — At first glance, the earning structure on the Allways Rewards card looks pretty good, but earning isn’t the only thing you need to pay attention to. Image Credit: Allegiant

The Allways Rewards card earns 3x points on Allegiant purchases and 2x points on dining, but at the fixed 1-cent redemption level, you’d be better off spending on one of the many cash-back cards that earn the same or more.

There are also several cards that reward generously for dining and purchases at restaurants, offering a far superior alternative to Allegiant’s card.

As we mentioned, the Allways Rewards card does come with a couple of useful benefits if you fly on a lot of Allegiant flights. All cardholders get complimentary priority boarding, and if you show your card on the flight, you get 1 free beverage.

But with an annual fee of $59, you would have to take a whole lot of flights to make holding the card worth it (though it would theoretically be possible to use these benefits to your advantage and come out ahead).

Bottom Line: Although it is possible to earn 2x Allway Rewards points on your dining purchases with the Allways Rewards card, it will never be your best option for spending. The points you earn can only be redeemed for a fixed penny per point for travel booked through Allegiant. Because of that, even a 2% cash-back card would be better because of the added flexibility.

Final Thoughts

As an ultra-low-cost carrier that focuses on leisure travel, Allegiant Air is sure to have plenty of passengers who are not regulars when it comes to air travel. Those people may be less familiar with check-in, going through airport security, and certainly with boarding the airplane.

By learning the details of the Allegiant boarding procedures ahead of time, you can be sure that you won’t add to the airport confusion and might even be able to point someone else in the right direction!

Being comfortable with the process from the moment you get to the gate will start your travel day off right and make your whole trip a little bit better. Next time you fly with Allegiant Air, you’ll be ready to go!