psychtobe

If I do not buy preassigned seats when I purchase my tickets online, will Spirit really separate mommy, 2 year old, and 5 year old when randomly assigning seats at the airport? Each has his/her own ticket.

PaceLaw2012

Most likely, b/c they can get away with it and people will still pay them. What do you expect when their flight crews make minimum wage?

My opinion: Spirit exists only to break people into submitting to their policies and flying them, with no perks in return for your sheephood. Save your sanity and fly a real airline. B/w the fees and complete lack of customer service/seats with recline, fly a legacy carrier.

Exiled in Express

From my limited experience with the outsourced staff at MSP, they have the power to assign without fee, and are generally pleasant. The bigger concern I would have is 3 adjacent seats being available at airport check-in. If all 3 are on a single PNR I would try online check-in and followup at the airport if necessary.

HRDiva

How do you know they make minimum wage? The contracts for flight crews are public knowledge and they are not minimum wage or even close--in fact they are far! Thus, one can only discount whatever else you say!

Bttc

It's hyperbole. The point is Spirit is not a great airline. Though, I will agree Exile in Express was much more helpful.

HRDiva

Spirit delivers what's promised. In this day and age that's something new for some.

I can't count the number of last minute tickets I had to buy on legacies for >$1,000 for < 2 hour flights where there was zero customer service, had to pay for water, had to pay to check the bag, etc. So, I'm sorry if people are upset that Spirit charges a very low fare and charges for all those same things the legacies charge for while the legacies are charging huge fares!

PaceLaw2012

Ok, since you brought up how the legacies are "just as bad as Spirit" (I have a sense you're a Spirit employee, which is fine, but disclosure should be given), I"d like to poke holes in your rant, as you have done with mine.

1) There are NO legacies currently flying in the US that charge for soft drinks, especially water. IDK what "legacy" you flew and when, but that is certainly not the case today.

2) Spirit not only charges you for the bag (as every legacy airline does; SW is the only exception here) but for carry-ons as well, since they're that greedy.

and where is where the comparison gets HILARIOUS

3) According to seatguru (since I refuse to fly on an airline that gives you ZERO benefits for loyalty; the $9 fare club is a disingenuous scam) the Spirit A320 has the least amount of seat pitch @28 inches w/ a 17in. width, and none of the SEATS RECLINE! What a joke.

Reference: http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Spi...irbus_A320.php.

Comparing to the US A320, which I'm doing since that is the particular airline I have the most exposure with, US offers appx 35 less seats on the same aircraft, with a 31'' pitch and 18'' width, with a decent domestic F section. Reference: http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/US_...irbus_A320.php

So, although Spirit gives you very very low base fares, after the charges for carry-ons ($0 on US), checked bags (3 x $0 on US since they actually appreciate my loyalty along with UDUs, dedicated CS phone line, early boarding, priority security access...get the picture?), printing a boarding pass at the airport, breathing, and the physical discomfort of sitting in a sardine torture tube with 28 inches of pitch, I'd rather spend the $30-40 in marginal cost and fly an airline that actually gives a crap about the people who fly it.

Seat to Seat, outside of the occasional ridiculous low base fares, Spirit loses in every comparison. It's the airline of kettles and sheep who don't know any better or who are too cheap to see past their deceptive fare adverts http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/x...ceptive+Tweets

aarif1

While all you say is true, Spirit is clearly not for everyone, and it's especially not for frequent fliers. However, I'm taking my first Spirit flight later this year because I got tickets that would have been 3 times costlier on the next cheapest carrier. Multiply that over my family of four, and maybe you can get why I'm willing to give Spirit a chance.

Or, maybe all that is wishful thinking and I hope my flights don'tturn out to be nightmares.

PaceLaw2012

is that price difference inclusive of fees? For example, carry ons are $35-100 each per person, depending on when your purchase, + baggage is $30-45 per person for the first bag, depending on when you purchase. Then, you have to add $2 per person to print out boarding passes, + $1 to $50 each to select seats, +$2 per person "Unintended DOT consequences fee", + $10 "booking fee" per person. Reference: http://www.spirit.com/OptionalFees.aspx

So, assuming that each person in your family is taking on 1 carry-on and 1 checked bag, you're looking at additional fees of a minimum of $80 and as much as $209 per person depending on your circumstances. And that's just for the privilege of getting on the plane w/ a carry on + checking 1 bag.

What are your travel dates/route, b/c I hope that these extra fees wont eat away the "triple" difference b/w Spirit and the legacy fares. Oh, and you still have to sit in the plane w/ no recline and the tightest pitch in the United States. Enjoy!

psychtobe

To avoid any risks, we paid for the seats.

For a PDX-DFW flight in early August, our tickets are $472 on Sprint. Oh, that is for 3 pax - roundtrip. DL or AA wanted $447 or $472 per pax. Even with prepaid bag fees we are $662 all in instead of $1341 and the flights are nonstop rather than one-stop (DL). Also on AA we'd have had to pay bag fees anyway.

The outbound is a red-eye, no problem. The return is 11pm-12:40 am, kinda weird.

We shall see. Saving almost $700 is nothing to sneeze at.

aarif1

You're over estimating the fees (for us, anyway) quite a bit. We have two younger kids, so we avoid taking carry on luggage. I have a backpack, but that goes under the seat so no charge. We'll probably check 2 bags for all of us. So that's an extra $28 x4... but if traveling AA one usually would still have to pay for checked bags (although I have the AA card for now). We can print our boarding passes at home. All the booking fees are already included in the price I'm considering as my "base price." We usually pack a snack, and we'll just have to remember to bring a water bottle and fill it up at the airport.

I think as long as one is aware of all the potential fees, they can still save a ton of money on Spirit.

We're flying BOS-DFW in October. The price difference is similar to psychtobe's. I paid under $90 per person, while AA would have been $280 at the time I booked. I think the fare might be extra-low since it's a relatively new route for Spirit.

psychtobe

Flight was delayed but otherwise just fine. Wife reports seats are leather, and there is actually "a lot" of legroom in her opinion.

I agree this flight was extra cheap because they are trying to build up DFW. It worked for us - getting a nonstop for half the price of AA (no status for us there) was a pretty easy decision. It wasn't a nightmare; we'll certainly try them again.

HRDiva

First, I am not a Spirit employee, so I'm not sure what you want disclosed.

Now there may be no legacies charging for water, but US Airways did experiment with that failed concept. I had a short trip and paid nearly $1,000 for the ticket and they wanted $2 for water. And when I buy a short trip for $1,000 now, I still have to pay to check my bag. SWA doesn't "charge" but their fares surely do incorporate the cost into the fare. Everyone who follows the industry knows that Spirit started charging for carry-on's because their model is dependent upon quick turn arounds of the aircraft. When people bring the entire contents of their closet on board and delay the aircraft while they try to stuff it in the overhead, it costs the airline money and delays everyone else. On my last flight two weeks ago, I heard passengers talking about how at first they thought it was stupid. But now that they see how it eases operations, they like it.

Again, Spirit is not modeled after a legacy. They have their model and it's not for everyone. The seats don't recline. Big deal. I hate it when someone leans their seat back and now I have no room. I, on the other hand, also hate paying full price for a ticket and getting crappy service and less than stellar attention to the condition of the aircraft. My favorite was the Airbus with duct tape over an inoperable overhead on the last legacy flight I was on last week. That, along with the miserable attitudes of the FA's made for a great flight.

So, please enjoy your status elsewhere and stop calling the customers of Spirit ignorant and cheap. The airline is not for you. We get it. Now, please get over it! Surely there is more to life than ranting about an airline you don't want to fly!