iahphx

Thanks. I happened to come across your post during a Sears "Midnight Madness" sale and the price of this bag was $8.09 with store pick-up (using a MrRebates link cuts another 5% off). I wish it were SLIGHTLY larger, but finding an exact match will be extremely difficult (especially for 8 bucks!). I'm not 100% sure I'm better off with this than a backpack, but it might be a little easier to pack and travel with (and less need to carry a tape measure around with you).

frugal_flyer

As several of us posters suspected, one cannot get the supercheap fares at the airport in an effort to avoid the passenger facility charge. This comes as no surprise...

What does surprise me is that, according to the gate agent I spoke with, you can't even get the $9 fare club discount ($9) even if you pay with the Free Spirit Mastercard at the gate. I find this a bit perplexing? Maybe I need to ask another gate agent and see if I get the same answer...

iahphx... That bag I bought worked perfectly, though I agree with you that it would be nice to have something with the *exact* Spirit dimensions. But for around 10 bucks, it is hard to beat.

Putting it under the seat in-flight, I was able to put each foot around the bag fairly comfortably. It was much more comfortable on the flight home since I was in row 9, which had more legroom. The originating flight was not so comfortable since I was in row 25, which of course has virtually no legroom whatsoever. I couldn't really move my feet around at all; would hate to think what a tall person would have to go through, as I am only 5'6.

FreeSpriritGuru stated on here awhile back that if there was space available that one could put the personal item in the overhead bin, but the flight attendants on both flights that I asked said that is not the case. Maybe some internal changes regarding this issue since FreeSpiritGuru posted?

iahphx

That's really troubling because -- given the crazy restricted legroom -- you really don't want to have anything by your feet on a Spirit flight.

On my summer flights, some pax were confused about using the overhead bins for their personal item, but there was no policy preventing it.

I'll be amazed if the airline really wants to be jerky about this, but I guess we'll see. Personally, I'd put the item up anyway and wait for the f/a to tell me to remove it. I'm sure they'd love doing that.

Skink

Found one for $16 that is 23.5 x 13.5 x 12.5 which looks to have squared off edges that should fit inside a sizer while providing maximum internal space. The length is still too long but the position of the straps for the carrying handle makes it look like I could somehow fold in and tape on the inside to bring the length down to 16 inches.

http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___63209

frugal_flyer

Skink... My dad has a bag that he tried to somehow pin and/or staple to "lose" 2 inches on the length, but the material was just too thick to make it work. Hopefully you are able to finagle your bag to fit.

The process of trying to outwit Spirit at their own game with the baggage is really the fun of it all; actually taking off on your flight is anticlimactic...

FWIW, I am considering emailing Spirit to see what the exact policy is on stowing personal items in the overhead bin. For short flights, one can put up with the restricted feet movement with the personal item stored underneath the seat. But for long flights --such as my trip from Detroit to Las Vegas next month-- that would be a real chore to put up with.

NK_Flyer

I am a Flight Attendant for Spirit and I can tell you that there is no policy about where to put your "personal item" F/As do not police the over head bins. IN fact we have no idea what or who pays for an actual carry on. That is on the gate agents 100%. If that happened, first of all I am very sorry and it should not have happened at all. Either it is a F/A who has no clue whats going on, or they just wanted to be an A##. My advise to you and all pax, is dont ask the F/A just go put your personal item in the overhead bin. No one will stop your(or they shouldnt at least!!! And if they do that would warrent a complain to the company!!!!) I am not one to say write in a complaint, trust me I've been in this industry a very long time and I know passengers will complain about anything...usually in hopes of getting a free ticket, or something free out of it, but this F/A cleary needs to be informed of the actual policy or an attitude adjustment!!!! It could be either or those LOL

I've had pax come on the plane and flat out aske me if their personal item must go under the seat and I flat out tell them where ever you want to put it....as long as its not in a bulkhead, where there is no floor storage. Some people want it under the seat in front of them, even when I suggest they place it in an overhead bin, so they have more leg room. Trust me I fly on these planes all the time as a pax, and I want as much leg room as possible. I alrady dont fit in the seats as it is!!! LOL So I do sympathize with our pax, I just want them to be as comfortable as possible!


Any other questions that a Spirit F/A can possible answer just let me know!!
I have been here a long time and Ive seen sooooooo many changes. Not all of them we like but we get by. And yes I still love my job, and we appreciate that you chose Spirit and to serve you!

iahphx

Thanks, NK Flyer. We appreciate the info because the company isn't always so good at clearly communicating their policies. I know my fellow pax have been very confused about where they're allowed to put their free "personal item." It usually falls upon me to explain to my seatmates that they can put it in the bins.

As far as other questions go, do you happen to know Spirit's on-time percentage? It seems somewhat low to me, but I don't think it's published. I haven't yet booked any connecting flights because I'm a little afraid I'd miss my connection. I assume I'm SOL if I do, right? I'm also a little afraid that my legs couldn't take much more than 2 hours on a Spirit flight, due to the legroom issue.

HRDiva

I have had no issue just throwing my bag in the overhead. No one stopped me and no one knew whether or not I was entitled to a carry-on (I was).

My sister was annoyed recently because Spirit held their DLL-DTW flight because a large number of passengers were delayed in customs coming from CUN. I asked her how she would feel if she was left behind and she grumbled that Spirit did the right thing in waiting for the passengers!

frugal_flyer

NK_Flyer... Thank you for posting about your experience with the personal item policy; it is really appreciated.

As an aside, as a Free Spirit Mastercard holder, one could just board with the first group (priority boarding) and just lug the personal item in the bin since technically "everybody else" has paid for their carryon.

Thinking out loud, I really can not wait to hear what the new destinations will be. I have already asked friends/family when/where they might want to go depending on the destinations, so I can just buy tickets when I see them available.

As Axl Rose might say, I guess I "need a little patience"...

Skink

The last time I flew with them they were no longer letting Free Spirit Master Card holders board first, but were making them wait until after those who paid the fee for carry-on baggage.

NK_Flyer

OK Let me try to answer all you questions, let me know if I miss anything!!

**ON TIME PERFORMANCE**As far as on time performance goes, I have not seen anything published lately. Years back(before the whole ULCC concept was initiated) we used to get a daily "newsletter" type thing in the crew room that had on time performance, completion factor, load factor and all that good stuff.. Havent seen that in quite some time.

Howerver I do believe that our on time performance is pretty good... It did get bad a few years back when they started the 30 minutes turns but it has improved drastically since than and has gotten back on track to the way it used to be. And I believe it is about industry standard, if not better. But Again, that is just my experience lately. I really havent had a delayed flight in quite some time, any usually if its delayed its been less than 30 minutes, so not bad. I did have a cancelled flight a few weeks ago, but that is very rare around here.

**CONNECTIONS**I believe the minimum connect time for a "legal" connection is 30 minutes, but could vary depending on station, and of course wheter domestic or international. If you book a connecting flight, which many or our pax are connection in FLL, and you happen to miss your connecting flight.....you will be put on the next flight to your destination. At times CS may elect to put you on a different airline at the cost of Spirit Airlines. I have seen this happen many times , but usually when its to a destination that we do not serve daily(example, Aruba) but it does happen and they make this decision in the corporate office, not at the airport!!! For example I was working a flight one day coming out of DC and we took a mechanical delay and pax were missing connections.....they sent pax going to San Juan, PR down to Miami to take AA(this may have been do to lack of availability on NK flights, Im not sure why that decision was made...as I said this is made at corporate/dispatch)

**FLL-DTW waiting for Conx pax** I believe that flight is/was a thru flight, that may have something to do with it. Also factors that could have been involved in that decision are...lack of availibility on the later flight(if there was one that day) how long the delay would be, etc, if the aircraft is scheduled outbound at its destination(if the aircraft terminates for the day, they will probably wait...if theres is no flights with avail. on NK to put pax on)

**FREE SPIRIT MASTERCARD HOLDERS PREBOARDING ZONE 1** We never got a memo about it but when we check in for our flights we have "BRIEFING ROOMS" and they have a list of HOT TOPICS, it was listed on the HOT TOPICS that Free Spirit MasterCard holders are no longer preboarded This may have to do with the fact that some may have a carry on bad and didnt pre-pay for it Maybe they are allowing then to board in Zone 2??? I am not sure, as I am on the plane when this takes place and I dont recall hearing any announcements in the gate area while waiting for planes to come in...so I have no idea. If they are not allowing FSM holders to board in zone 1 or 2, I would go to the website and write comments to the company asking that you are at least allowed to board in zone 2 as a perk....BTW our onboard announcements still says a perk of being a FSM holder is pre-boarding Zone 1 on all of our flights...hmmm(and of course that is something I have no control over, as I am not a gate agent)

Maybe Skink has more info on this....did they allow FSM holders to board after zone 1?? Im curious now....

Anything else, please let me know...and as always thanks for flying with Spirit!!!!

NK_Flyer

Also NK has no control over what happens in immagration/customs. So sometimes inbound pax get sent to secondary screeing in immigration(or customs) this can be a very long process. So, I have been waiting for conx pax and the gate agent comes down to close out the flight and says we have....(example only) 4 pax in secondary immigration...we are not waiting for them! NK will have no idea how long this process will take, or even in CBP will let them in!! So they may make the decision to just send the flight out without them. There is always an NK agent in the Immigration and customs area, so they know when this happens

Skink

Yes, they allowed them to board right after zone 1.

NK_Flyer

GOOD TO HEAR!! The memo we saw upon check-in only says that they are "NO LONGER PRE-BOARDED"

Let me know you alls travel plans, I sure hope to have some of you on board my flights real soon...it sure would be a pleasure!!!!

iahphx

Thanks, NK Flyer. Very useful information.

Now we just need somebody in Yield Management to explain how/when the cheapo fares get loaded. It pays to search Spirit's fares often, because they load some really crazy stuff. And the best fares are usually not advertised in the emails.