2globalnomads

Thanks for sharing and saving us the trouble of trying spirit airways. They sound like Ryanair and Air Europa.

Palal

What's wrong with AirEuropa?

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

Spirit is very upfront with its fees and the type of airline it runs. Never, ever would I consider Spirit for long haul or overnight flight. Other than the double charges the OP got what he paid for. No rant is justified.

littlemookie

Give the OP some sympathy. Everyone who posted about the lack of research and preparation is completely correct. Spirit is an airline that not only thrives, but survives, on providing a specific type of service. They unbundle everything possible and throw out all industry standards. They have fees for having a agent print a boarding pass, basically anything that they can charge a fee for, they will.

Sometimes you need to fly Spirit to put into perspective how decent flying United/US/AA/Delta actually is. OP should call it a learning experience and move on. Anytime you fly a discount airline, research is key.

tvl4free

And what is the name of that full service carrier you were thinking about?

2globalnomads

Had a really bad experience with AirEuropa back in 2007. They broke our backpack and it took over a year to get them pay the compensation they had promised.

Dieuwer

Penny wise, pound foolish.

As Spirit, UX nickle and dime everything. Even a cup of water you have to pay for.

Becky55110

I live in MSP and have flown Spirit to ORD three times round trip. For a short trip, the petty inconveniences are worth it. In fact, I pretty much rave about Spirit airlines. At my urging a co-worker, her husband and two kids flew Spirit for a 5-day, 4-night trip to Chicago (they were going to drive). I talked to her, she did her homework and no complaints at all. Their RT cost (including one checked back each way) for all four of them was $199 (tickets purchased at the airport). For short flights and day trips, I don't think I will fly any other airline.

sonofzeus

One short person's petty is a tall person's significant.

Bon Voyage and welcome to FT.

sonofzeus

FT isn't the place for goosh.

Thanks for playing.

RustyC

(bolding mine). I think the bolded sentence is key. How much research is reasonable to expect? You could do a total "caveat emptor" system and say that it's buyer-beware when it comes to safety (which is basically what happened with ValuJet), but we've decided - correctly - that that aspect should be out of bounds.

Spirit has basically been taking every possible advantage they can due to lack of regulation in other areas, and with no consideration whatsoever for the passenger experience. They'll basically provide the negative experience and reason that more regulations are needed, as they have already done when it comes to airfare advertising and quoted prices (they used to "hide" even mandatory fees before the DOT reined them in somewhat).

They're a great example of why deregulation and self-regulation just don't work...there will always be someone trying to take maximum advantage and then it'll be a race to the bottom as others see bad behavior rewarded. It's a proper and legitimate function of government to level the playing field and rule certain practices out-of-bounds if necessary, but with airlines in the old days there was reluctance to codify things that as long as airlines behaved voluntarily.

Part of Spirit's business model depends on X% of people assuming it'll be similar to other airlines and buying based on price. RyanAir is like that as well...many people find their total after all the fees is worse than the major carriers.

Some things are fair game for competition, but we also need industry standards. We'll get new things needing to be regulations rather than gentlemen's agreements because airlines like Spirit will show there's the need.

littlemookie

I don't really see industry standards happening anytime soon. For the first time in a very long time, airlines are finally making money. Not that long ago, airlines decided to charge to check a bag, make a seat assignment online, remove meal service, etc. and there was an outrage. At the end of the day when the outrage died down, those fees were here to stay and consumers adapted. Those fees enabled airlines to collect billions in fees for performing the same service they were previously providing and become profitable. You might say that the industry standard was lowered.

Spirit, Ryanair, and the others are taking that standard down to a whole new level. However, those airlines have a reputation for charging for everything and hopefully consumers are willing to understand that when you find those carriers you need to be extra cautious. I would say that anytime you fly an airline that is not one of the majors (speaking of US only at this point) you will need to take a look at their fee schedule.

I highly doubt you will ever see industry standards being set, as airlines have no incentive to do so and it will complicate matters when airlines attempt to try additional fees. The airline industry starts with a single airline that imposes a new fee and then a few weeks/months later, depending on the consumer backlash, the other airlines impose that same fee. It's a copycat industry that has enormous fixed costs and a huge unknown in fuel costs, unless they hedge their fuel costs significantly. IMHO, basic airfare to most major cities are down when compared to several years ago (I'm based in NYC which has very competitive pricing, but only fly to certain cities, so I may be dead wrong on this). There are many happy Spirit flyers, and Spirit fills a niche and does it well.

bigbuy

A "cup" of water?
I've flown about 30 legs on Spirit and they have always sold a whole bottle, not a cup,,,, unless something has changed very recently.

jmgriffin

Just flew Spirit the other day and found it to be...interesting. They got me from point A to B for a (relatively) low price but the aircraft was rather dirty.

Again, an interesting experience but nothing terribly wrong with it when the price is right.

TR Posted on FlyerTalk here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...6-myr-bos.html

Check out full post with pictures here:Weekend Blitz - SPIRIT AIRLINES REVIEW – NK #126 MYRTLE BEACH-BOSTON

EmailKid

Only if you are uninformed

You can prepay for "checked carryon" that exceeds Spirit Air's less than industry standard for much, much less than that @:-)

But thanks, nice job on the report ^

Oh, and given the type of clientele Spirit is after, I'm not surprised their a/c get dirty in a hurry, even on their rather new fleet

EmailKid