Spirit Air continues to disappoint

[Ken555]

Forget to pay your for your bag in advance? Pay $100.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/06/travel/airline-fees-increasing/index.html

 

[Talent312]

One could not pay me to fly this low-rent, high-fee airline.
But if faced with this, trash your bag and buy what you need at your destination.

 

[persia]

10 years ago this would have been a horrible airline, but all the airlines services have declined so it just seems pretty much average. I flew from Boston to Chicago for $28, brought my own water and snaps and lived with their carry on restrictions. It worked great for me.

 

[kjsgrammy]

10 years ago this would have been a horrible airline, but all the airlines services have declined so it just seems pretty much average. I flew from Boston to Chicago for $28, brought my own water and snaps and lived with their carry on restrictions. It worked great for me.

Agree with above. We flew with our grandkids last July from Detroit to Tampa and then Orlando back to Detroit - had no problems flying Spirit. Couldn't beat the price - under $400 total for all four of us, and that included picking our seats, and 2 checked bags both ways.

Is it a "gamble" flying with Spirit - absolutely (in my opinion), but because of the price, I gambled and won (for a change - don't get me around slots though - totally different story :rofl

 

[Rent_Share]

The pricing model and program is about getting the plane turned around faster by penalizing behavior.
The market will vote with their feet, either by walking away or towards

Southwest turns their planes by all of the employees working together to "giterdone", IE Flight atendants cleaning the cabin while the plane is still unloading

 

[Ken555]

Glad to hear this works for some of you. I've never flown Spirit, and have absolutely no intention of flying them in future. Their pricing model just doesn't excite me.

 

[Rent_Share]

Glad to hear this works for some of you. I've never flown Spirit, and have absolutely no intention of flying them in future. Their pricing model just doesn't excite me.

Never have and Never will, just understand what they are trying to do.

As mainstream traditional airlines started charging for handling baggage, the amount of carryon luggage has increase delaying the loading and unloading. . . .

 

[persia]

The notion of what is or isn'ta mainstream airline doesn't really exist. Is Virgin America or Southwest or JetBlue a mainstream airline? Why or why not?

On the Tuesday after Sandy, when United, Delta, America and others had abandoned Logan airport to it's fate, Spirit still flew. And they got their passengers to their destinations safely.

There is no substitute for being an informed consumer. When you price your airline tickets add in the all the extras. A hundred dollar flight on American will cost you much more than a hundred dollar flight on Southwest if you have bags and less than a $100 flight on Spirit.

Always read the fine print.

 

[x3 skier]

Fortunately for me as an Elite on AA and DL, I don't pay extra for anything and usually (>50%) get upgraded to First even at a cheap fare.

Thankfully then, I don't have suffer Spirit, Aligient, Ryan Air, Easy Jet or any other who sell the ticket as a loss leader.

Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer choice.

Cheers

 

[Ken555]

Always read the fine print.

Of course. The problem is the lack of transparency that still exists when comparing some carriers. It's getting better, but still not great. For instance, I need several tickets to Denver in December and when I explored options Frontier looked the best - until I discovered they charge for everything, including seat assignments! We bought on Southwest and are saving significantly, yet the Frontier "flight price" is less.

I'm all for saving money when flying, but not at the expense of convenience and customer service. I do not define a potential $100 fee for a carry-on bag to be good customer service. While I doubt I would forget to buy a bag slot in advance, I wouldn't even want to be in the same terminal as others who get hit with that fee and have to witness the resulting meltdown. I'd rather have airlines charge a reasonable fee for their service, and have it include at least a minimum of carry-on baggage (more than just a briefcase or purse).

 

[persia]

Interestingly Spirit's website shows they have no tickets available to fly to or from Boston until 25 April 2013! A lot of destinations sold out for December, January too.

 

[x3 skier]

There will always be people who take Greyhound or Spirit and there will always be people who charter a jet or a limousine

If it meets your needs, go with it.

Cheers