Take this with a grain of salt, it's just the impression I've gotten over the last 5 months or so...

I think first and foremost Allegiant is looking for people that genuinely want to be here; and they have their methods of sniffing that out pretty accurately. Over the 4 months I was in training I had a handful of guys crash on the couch in my hotel room while they were in town for their interview. In most of the cases Allegiant interviewed 4-6 guys and took all but 1 or 2... And in the 5 or so stories I heard from these guys, it was pretty obvious why the 5th or 6th guy didn't make it (I realize this isn't the phone interview, but the same applies). APPARENTLY... one guy's log book was a total disaster, one guy showed up 15-20 minutes late and smelled like smoke, and two guys had a pretty nonchalant attitude (at least towards the other interviewees) and we're basically just interviewing because it's the first place that called.

That said... I've heard about the same on the phone interview. In two cases I had friends (guys at my former airline, express jet) who were just as qualified as me, if not more, and both significantly more intelligent guys than me not get a call back after the phone interview. I talked to them both before their phone interviews and neither one really wanted to be at allegiant... it was just a last best option to get out of the regionals. I told them that they better hide that pretty well on their phone call. So what sort of traits does a individual motivated for the job display... HE'S DONE HIS RESEARCH! go on yahoo finance and read the SEC filings from allegiant. Read the quarterly and annual reports. Understand their growth and fleet plan. Know their highlights and their downfalls. I mentioned plenty of times in my interview some of the very public challenges allegiant is facing; they were totally accepting to it and gave me candid (ish) responses. I'm not saying you have to know the airline inside and out, but if you spend one hour on the internet and do some digging, you'll know plenty.

The phone interview is more like a "get to know you" session, with one of the chief pilots. You'll get the obvious "why allegiant?" "do you plan to live in base?" "what will you do if you initially get based somewhere you don't want to be" "I see you interned at ______ , why don't you go there" "So you have a few different type ratings in ______ , are you gonna leave us for a great corporate gig if one comes along?" "What would you do if you're at an outstation and you noticed the nav light's out, but the captain wants to go anyway?"

Very obvious stuff. If you want to be here, you won't have a problem... if you don't... "fake it til you make it" :P It's no secret that the vast majority of our pilots are not happy with the current state of things, but it's also true that if we get a contract and the operation improves, attrition will basically stop overnight. Most of us want this to be a great place, if you do too, you'll be golden. I did say in my interview that if in a few years down the line things are still a mess here and not to my liking (no contract etc) that I would re-evaluate my options at that time... they're expecting you to act like a normal employable guy... this isn't one of those interviews where you need to go take the prep classes and recite to the panel exactly what you've been told.

Hope this helps a bit. If you want me to clarify anything... call/text @ 484-661-7716 - Alex -