Spirit Air/Los Angeles to Detroit

[clifffaith]

We almost always fly American, but can't seem to find a non-stop flight to Detroit so we've been poking around looking at other options to get us to my cousin's wedding in Aoril. (Big family uproar because her parents will not attend because she is not getting married in the Catholic Church. Heck she "lived in sin" with her first partner for 35 years before marrying him just before he died of heart failure, I'd a thunk they'd be happy she was actually marrying in a timely manner this time!). We see a non-stop on Spirit, but figure something must be missing because they want us to spend $60 to join the "$9 Fare Club". We can't seem to find why we need this or what the downside is without it, and suspect it might have to do with luggage fees. Reading over Cliff's shoulder is hard, and I will look some more myself, but wondered if someone on TUG traveled on Spirit a lot. I don't know that we've ever even heard of it before, but then again American is always our carrier of choice.

 

[iwanttoflyaway]

We almost always fly American, but can't seem to find a non-stop flight to Detroit so we've been poking around looking at other options to get us to my cousin's wedding in Aoril. (Big family uproar because her parents will not attend because she is not getting married in the Catholic Church. Heck she "lived in sin" with her first partner for 35 years before marrying him just before he died of heart failure, I'd a thunk they'd be happy she was actually marrying in a timely manner this time!). We see a non-stop on Spirit, but figure something must be missing because they want us to spend $60 to join the "$9 Fare Club". We can't seem to find why we need this or what the downside is without it, and suspect it might have to do with luggage fees. Reading over Cliff's shoulder is hard, and I will look some more myself, but wondered if someone on TUG traveled on Spirit a lot. I don't know that we've ever even heard of it before, but then again American is always our carrier of choice.

We've traveled extensively with Spirit, but they're... hard to recommend. If you're willing to pay the extra to upgrade to their 'big front seats' it's worth every penny - they're the only truly comfortable seats on the plane. At the dirt cheap base price, you don't get to choose your seats, you don't know if you're going to sit together, and you don't have any legroom or shoulder room. We only do that for very short flights where the cost is incredibly low - I'm talking like $50 roundtrip low.

For a random weekend in April (I did Friday-Monday, there are cheaper prices for other days) I saw ~$320, plus $100 each way for the upgrade to the good seats - $511 a person is pretty steep, though I really do like the Spirit big front seats for longer trips. ZERO service, but a seat very similar to any domestic first class seat.

It didn't look like the $9 fare club was worth getting for the dates I saw - sometimes the discount is extreme and it's worth getting just for a single trip, and then you have it for a year. One cool thing about Spirit is that you can save ~$40 a person on a roundtrip by buying the tickets in the airport if you aren't using the $9 fare club - they charge a passenger use fee when you book online or over the phone, but for them to not have to pay excise taxes on that fee, there has to be a way for you to avoid it. Their solution is to make you buy them in the airport - again, something that is better for shorter/cheaper flights, but might be worth doing. Brings the 'upgraded' version down to $471 a head.


Anyway, this is what I'm good at in the world. If you want some help seeing what your options are, feel free to message me privately with the dates/times that you could work with. I'd be happy to see what's out there.

 

[Cropman]

I'll agree for the most part with iwanttoflyaway. Highly recommend? Probably not, but we really don't mind flying them, as long as we are in their 'big front seats'. Like iwant said, very similar to flying first class. Typically we can fly Spirit big seats for close to what we can fly Delta coach, except it is in much more comfortable. The downside of Spirit is, usually in a bad terminal, no in flight service or entertainment. We can live without that for the upgrade in seats. My wife, who is 5'4" and small, even remarked the last time we flew Delta, she missed the seats. I'm 6'1" and although not fluffy, I can afford to lose 10 lbs. I hate flying coach but can't afford first or business class. For me, the extra room is worth a lot. The flight for me, is much more enjoyable being comfortable.

It really depends on what you want. Comfort and no frills, fly Spirit 'big front seats'. Spirit has the newest fleet in the nation so the planes are normally clean and in good shape. If you want some amenities but not as comfortable seats, look for one of the traditional carriers.

And to get back to joining the $9 Fare Club, I'm guessing you will about break even or do a little better by joining it. Depending on how much luggage you are bringing, it could be a wash, or close to it, for the trip.

 

[bnoble]

I wouldn't fly Spirit on a bet.

Detroit is a Delta hub. They have several non-stops from LAX daily.

 

[clifffaith]

I wouldn't fly Spirit on a bet.

Detroit is a Delta hub. They have several non-stops from LAX daily.

I eventually figured that out by leaving Cliff to his pokings (hate trying to look over his shoulder) and finally googling non-stop LA to Detroit. Then I spent some more time looking over his shoulder at the Delta website before we decided we were both tired and we'd finalize things today. We've left tickets for April 19/22 this late because of my back issues and having had to cancel our Hawaii flights in January for same reason. But since some of my cousin's immediate family don't deign to be present on her special day, we are hoping to be able to support her.