I am putting my wife and daughter on a flight to Chicago for a wedding this weekend..the website makes me feel a bit edgy about it's "no frills" advertising. Anyone flown Spirit? They have alot of interesting "costs" including charging $10 to print out your boarding pass, etc. They do have a great fare advertised to Chicago right now for the Northwestern game???

They charge for everything. It is no frills to the max. I'm surprised that they didn't charge to use the on plane restroom.

Not on a bet. Their business model is literally based on the concept that people are too dumb to figure out the true costs of the flight. A $100 ticket with $300 in supplemental costs may not be the bargain you think it is. Know people who have flown them, but never a second time.

I hope you're not planning to bring any carryon bags. $35 a pop (or $100 at the gate if you didn't realize they charge for carryons).

NYCGOBEARS;842321858 said:

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They charge for everything. It is no frills to the max. I'm surprised that they didn't charge to use the on plane restroom.

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Poop bags are $15, but I will see how it works out for my wife and daughter (if they still want to speak to me??)

72CalBear;842321871 said:

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Poop bags are $15, but I will see how it works out for my wife and daughter (if they still want to speak to me??)

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Serious question - Are they petite? The seats have the least amount of legroom I've ever experienced. They'll be fine. It isn't that long a flight.

Was gonna book with them one time until I saw their Yelp reviews 🙊.

As usual, The Onion has the best take:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/faa-report-spirit-airlines-is-the-fucking-worst,32371/

informative podcast on the company here by NPR's Planet Money team:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/02/14/276973956/episode-517-the-fastest-growing-least-popular-airline-in-america

What is the cost for cancellation?

I was able to make it work on a last minute trip to Dallas, spent $140 on baggage and maybe $400 on tickets for two. So it can be a pretty decent price point if you are smart about it.

Unfortunately, that's not really the bad. A couple of observations:
1. Seats are awful and didn't recline on the flight I was on... canned sardines to the max. The flight attendant actually quipped that Spirit Airlines knew what was best so they pre-reclined the seats in advance and to let them know at the end of the flight if that was true and it was indeed better. It wasn't, of course.
2. This is certainly not Virgin America or Southwest, customer service here is not the expectation; Nor is comfort.
3. The final kick to the crotch came at the end, when they proclaimed proudly on speaker that Spirit Airlines was the "most profitable airline in the US." I'm glad I could help them achieve their goal of price gouging at every turn.

It's an interesting business model from an observational perspective. Personally, I now live by this single guiding principle in my airline doctrine:
"Be better than Spirit Airlines."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/02/14/276973956/episode-517-the-fastest-growing-least-popular-airline-in-america

edit: Ack boothed!

They're been fine for short jaunts to Vegas bringing only a small duffel bag under the seat. For anything where you'd need an actual carryon or more I'd try to look elsewhere.

I hope you wife loves you. :p

I have flown Spirit twice - and only on short jaunts to Las Vegas where I literally brought my laptop bag where I could fit my Surface and one change of casual clothing for the next day.

You do pay for everything - so if you have ladies who will be packing all sorts of clothing, different shoes, and other stuff for a wedding and all the possible events surrounding it...

Hail2Calif;842322117 said:

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I hope you wife loves you. :p

I have flown Spirit twice - and only on short jaunts to Las Vegas where I literally brought my laptop bag where I could fit my Surface and one change of casual clothing for the next day.

You do pay for everything - so if you have ladies who will be packing all sorts of clothing, different shoes, and other stuff for a wedding and all the possible events surrounding it...

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Well, they fly out of LAX tomorrow and I just dropped off a "Spirit Airlines Supply bag" - including not just snacks, towelettes, gum, and some spare cash just to soften the blow I might get Friday night. One reviewer on Yelp called Spirit, "the Greyhound bus of the air" ..gulp. I guess I am just old enough to remember Freddie Laker and the discount flights to Europe in the early 70's..no seats!

There is a thin line between flying spirit and just not going to the destination for me. Non-reclining, shortest pitch (legroom) airlines in the US, fees for everything. Its rare that Spirit ends up being cheaper than another airline that does not charge for necessities (i'm saying a carry on and printing a boarding pass). And when it is, its not a big enough different to justify the crappy plane, service, and seats.

Hope you stuffed about $200 in that bag.

A couple of years back, I flew them a few times, as I was working on a project with a tight budget; here in the east, I flew them out of Atlantic City, so it was nice to use the small airport. Pre-paying the bag online then was no big deal, and it still was cheaper. The fact that they charged for carry-on made (same price at the time as checking) meant more people checked, and it wasn't the whole "jam it in the over-head" and bin fill-up dance.
I didn't remember the planes being particularly worse, but again, it was a couple of years ago.
On a side note: I now normally fly US Air, but had to fly Southwest the othe day. I had no clothes for day and a half, as they screwed up my bag. Last time I flew Soutwest: 3 years ago, non-stop flight, and they screwed up my bag then as well...I almost didn't have it for a cruise, but they barely got it there on the next flight. Right now, would fly Spirit over Southwest in a heart beat!!!

mbBear;842322408 said:

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A couple of years back, I flew them a few times, as I was working on a project with a tight budget; here in the east, I flew them out of Atlantic City, so it was nice to use the small airport. Pre-paying the bag online then was no big deal, and it still was cheaper. The fact that they charged for carry-on made (same price at the time as checking) meant more people checked, and it wasn't the whole "jam it in the over-head" and bin fill-up dance.
I didn't remember the planes being particularly worse, but again, it was a couple of years ago.
On a side note: I now normally fly US Air, but had to fly Southwest the othe day. I had no clothes for day and a half, as they screwed up my bag. Last time I flew Soutwest: 3 years ago, non-stop flight, and they screwed up my bag then as well...I almost didn't have it for a cruise, but they barely got it there on the next flight. Right now, would fly Spirit over Southwest in a heart beat!!!

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Be careful about the heart beat. They are thinking about charging for that too. But don't worry, it's only 1 cent per heart beat.

DangerBear;842321978 said:

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They're been fine for short jaunts to Vegas bringing only a small duffel bag under the seat.

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What are you, a stripper?

Duffel bag full of g strings?

Just kidding.

93gobears;842322457 said:

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What are you, a stripper?

Duffel bag full of g strings?

Just kidding.

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Hey can't knock the hustle, a good *dancer* can pull in more per hour than my day job.

So basically Spirit is good for strippers flying to Vegas from LA for a weekend of work. Legroom is not a big issue and a duffel bag is enough.

If they flew to hawaii, i'd take them. You only need a swimsuit, tee shirt and flip flops. When you get there, you can buy a tent at target and camp out on the beach for $10 a day. The problem with spirit, though, is the punctuality. In my experience, it's been a disaster. Don't even think about taking them if you need to make a connection, and expect a higher probability of a cancellation or at least an hour delay. time is worth more than the stupid frills they're taking away, to me, so if that falls under the category of "service," well...then their service is unacceptable. Southwest is WAY better, and their credit card is awesome. Still using the old one with a $39 annual fee. I get 4 free drink tickets a year, and two free round-trips on average, just putting everything on the card. They are pimping out a lot of the early boarding now, and sometimes you can't even get an A slip, even if you check in at the first possible minute (24 hours before departure), so that sucks. The only other beef with SW is the passengers who put all their crap on a neighboring seat to try and "save" it for someone, selfishly hoping to keep the space for themselves, and the ass-goblins who travel in pairs, with only one person buying early boarding and then trying to save a seat for their travel partner. I like to sit next to those people on purpose, and then crop dust them if they complain.


I'm still waiting for someone to invent the interchangeable cabin. Instead of lining up, you just climb into your cabin at the airport, and when the plane arrives, the top unhinges, a crane grabs the cabin from inside the plane and drops it into the gate, then grabs the new loaded cabin with you in it, and drops it into the plane.

DangerBear;842322475 said:

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Hey can't knock the hustle, a good *dancer* can pull in more per hour than my day job.

So basically Spirit is good for strippers flying to Vegas from LA for a weekend of work. Legroom is not a big issue and a duffel bag is enough.

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But what about chestroom?

:rimshot

LA girls heading off to Vegas with duffle bags full of G-strings complaining about not enough chest room, and guys crop dusting ass-goblins while dreaming up interchangeable aircraft cabins.

That's why I pay attention to OT's on BI in the off-season.

this thread..Okay, they boarded (on time) check in was EZ, printed out own boarding passes, sat together (pre-paid), checked luggage (pre-paid), said it was "clean" (even sent a photo of that), and said they were offered a "fun wine list" and other treat$...we will see.

Never flown Spirit, although they appear to most closely emulate the true European-style budget airline model, a la EasyJet or Ryan Air. If you think Southwest is really a budget airline, you've never flown either of those two.

my ex-wife would argue I would get away with no charge for that extra...

93gobears;842322527 said:

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la girls heading off to vegas with duffle bags full of g-strings complaining about not enough chest room, and guys crop dusting ass-goblins while dreaming up interchangeable aircraft cabins.

That's why i pay attention to ot's on bi in the off-season.

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lol

It reminds me of People Express Airlines, a no-frills airline that operated back in the 1980's. I flew it once between Oakland and NYC because of its low fares of around $149 each way. I remember that they bragged that they were a true people's airline and shifted their personnel around into different jobs to prove it. At the end of my flight into Oakland from NYC, we got stuck on the plane for almost two hours because the plane rammed the arrival gate. I assume the baggage handler was piloting the plane at the time. I would avoid cheap airlines because of my nagging suspicion that they might be cutting back on expensive safety features...plus my bad experience with PEA.

My wife and daughter returned from Chicago and said they would fly Spirit again. On time, clean, friendly staff, nice people on board, and they knew what they were paying for since they paid attention to the web site. Saved a few hundred dollars and we are going to Northwestern via Spirit! The wine and food list is standard for any airlines. The restrooms were free. It seemed to work in this case.