DLdweeb

Pretty much my feeling as well, and I say that as a Spirit stockholder.

anon2k2

In SEA Delta mainly competes with AS. Discounted fares SEA-LAX on DL and AS are in the neighborhood of $130-$150 RT, and when NK entered the market with $90 fares, neither DL nor AS budged.

I'm fortunate that $50 per ticket or so in fare difference not an issue for me, even when traveling with my family. But I can definitely see how $200 for a family could be a major budget hit if they were trying to take a vacation together. NK is probably good for those situations.

HomerJay

With the LCC's you get what you pay for. Most of the time. Sometimes more. Sometimes less. When things go wrong, it's likely a nightmare and you vow you'll never fly them again.

Stick with Delta. What you save in antacids won't make a difference, but it's a lot easier on the digestion.

kop84

Flying NK point to point if it's for leisure and you understand you'll be wishing you were treated like a ham sandwich for a couple hours makes sense if your super price conscious.

But I would never fly them to something time critical or over a few hours or if the gods forbid I may have to try to connect on them.

I could easily see paying more for DL on the specified SAN/LAS route especially if it was part of a circle trip.

Often1

The problem is that if $200 is a budget issue for a family, when the aircraft goes belly up and the next flight isn't for 3 days, you are sc*e**d on NK, while a real carrier simply interlines your ticket to another carrier or at least the refund is sufficient to come close to getting you home.

On NK, you are stuck in a hotel for 3 days and that $200 in savings doesn't go far while you are on the phone to your employer explaining why "I'll be back on Monday" now means Friday.

Bowgie

This quote is about SEA, but it fits my original gripe about Delta pricing on SAN-LAS. Didn't Delta explain E fares as a way to complete with LCC's? So then why is Delta's lowest E fare on SAN-LAS a whopping $65 more than Spirit? Even when comparing nonstop to nonstop in January?

Delta's new E fare lowest pricing is now exactly equal to what very recently was their lowest regular coach low pricing. Which is specifically why I'm annoyed.

3furballs

Just as a data point (and because I was curious and am a geek like that).
I went and priced out tickets on both NK and DL SAN-LAS for a weekend in January.
As of today:
NK- $146
DL- $170 (E) $200(X)

But here's what I find interesting assume I want to take an actual carry-on so If I buy that when I buy the ticket, now its
NK - $216
DL - $170 (E) $200 (X)

Hmm.... let me think......I know which I'm gonna pick, and that's before we've gotten into selecting a seat or printing a boarding pass.

bubbashow

Paying to talk to have an agent check you in...one of the most ludicrous of all Spirit charges.

If you can travel with a small bookbag-sized backpack to LAS for the weekend, I guess you are fine. For the rest of us, DL is a better deal.

readywhenyouare

You might have an argument if you were talking about Allegiant that operates many non-daily flights. Spirit on the other hand offers pretty much daily service to the airport's they serve. Delta will leave you stranded for days just as much as any other carrier. We had one member here last year post about Delta stranding them in the Dominican Republic during irrops and not being able to get a seat for days.

rtpflyer

On occasion when Spirit has been exceptionally cheap, one of my spouse and me have flown Spirit while the other has flown another carrier with all of the checked/carry-on luggage. Once Spirit was even comfortable (in the extra charge "Big Front Seat"), and still cheaper than the other carrier (Southwest in that case).

flyerCO

Would any other airline had any better luck getting them out of Dominican Republic? It's not like it has multiple flights per day going to multiple destinations on any airline. To compare that to SAN which will have three nonstop to LAS per day, and many connecting options through LAX, SLC, heck even SEA if needed, is disingenuous.

readywhenyouare

I believe they eventually purchased a ticket on another airline so they could get home. Delta would not assign their ticket to another airline.

flyerCO

Curious what was the reason for them not flying the original? Also LCCs don't ever assign their ticket to another airline. You either get there on their metal, or you get a refund period.

Mr. Tickets

For the Dominican, this was likely due to the fact that the other major player in that market is AA and DL and AA do not have an interline agreement.

milesk

I have flown spirit multiple times and finally had my first 28" pitch experience msp-iah-msp (couldn't get BFS or ER). I'm 6' 220 so I was a little concerned. It was not as bad as I expected. I'd say about 1" less room from my knee to the seat in front of me (compared to delta). Manageable for a flight that distance and the huge cost savings over delta. I rarely recline so that was not an issue. Here is a link to some of my recent price comparisons for my trips.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...pirit-wow.html
Spirit is not always my choice but for last minute trips it often works well. Recently booked a last minute one way msp-iah at 11am, printed the boarding pass and headed to the airport for a 2:30ish flight. Spirit was ~$119 splurged and got an ER aisle for another $18 and didn't need anything more than the personal size item. Delta was almost $700. When it comes out of my pocket, it's hard to be loyal to delta when they keep tearing apart their loyalty program.