I've only been on Spirit equipment once -- it was during the NW strike and I had to go to PHL for an important meeting -- booked Pro Air (now very much defunct) out of Detroit City -- one of their planes was out of service for maintenace -- wound up being bused to DTW and put on a Spirit MD80 or DC9 out of the International terminal..... to say the plane was in shabby shape is an understatement..... The flight back to Detroit City was on Pro Air equipment and I was in my car on the way home 10 minutes after the plane got to the gate.

Spirit started by not having their own gates, but had to beg them from NW depending on what was available from hour to hour.

Not exactly an airline I would want to take in a time critical situation.

Bob H