BudgetAirlineFilter: Has anyone had any experience with Spirit Air?
March 8, 2010 9:17 PM   Subscribe

BudgetAirlineFilter: Has anyone had any experience with Spirit Air?

I just got home about 4 days ago from Thailand, Laos and Cambodia and I'm gearing up for my next overseas trip. I'm planning on going to South America in the fall. I was able to find some INCREDIBLY good deals with Spirit Airlines. So good, that they seem too good to be true.

I've been doing some Googling and I find that they aren't particularly forthcoming about their fees for baggage, booking online, etc. However, the next cheapest flight I found was about $300 more, so even if they tack on an extra $50 or so I'm still ahead by quite a bit. I've also found some stories about people being bumped from flights and having to wait until the next day to catch one, having to pay for a hotel room, and so on. And considering I spent last Tuesday on a 16 hour layover in Singapore, I really could care less about delays. Their CEO also seems to have a pretty bad reputation - which, in this day and age, doesn't mean a whole hell of a lot.

There are also a good amount of negative reviews here, but it seems like a lot of it just has to do with people not reading the fine print. I can't understand someone that gets outraged that a soda costs them money when their ticket is half the cost of how much it would be on another flight.

TL;DR: Have you flown on Spirit Air? Would you do it again?

P.S. If any travel tips for South America found their way into my inbox, I would not be offended :)
posted by sacrifix to Travel & Transportation (8 answers total)
 
I've flown Spirit at least twice a year for the last several years as they'll often have remarkably cheap domestic flights and I've gotten really lucky from time to time with their $9 Fare Club. Other than one ill-fated trip where a combination of weather and airport hours forced the cancellation of my flight (and in their defense Spirit did get me out on a flight the next morning), I've experienced no more problems with them than I have with any of the bigger airlines.

Yes, you get what you pay for in terms of amenities. Which is to say, pretty much none.

I'll admit I've never used them for an international flight.
posted by JaredSeth at 10:04 PM on March 8, 2010


I haven't flown on Spirit in the last 3 years but before that I had flown on them perhaps 60 times. I never had an issue. As a comparison I will tell you I have flown with Southwest about 5 times and I never ever will again.
posted by arse_hat at 10:37 PM on March 8, 2010


Best answer: I flew DC - Lima with them last year. It was about $400 cheaper than any of the other airlines, so even adding $30 for a checked backpack wasn't the end of the world. The experience itself was fine for me, and actually much better than Southwest back in the day. We had a six hour layover in Miami, but it was scheduled -- not a surprise. The planes themselves were all fine, the staff pleasant enough, and the seats were actually better than some of the US Air/united flights I've been on recently. I'd purchase tickets with them again in a heartbeat.
posted by barnone at 10:56 PM on March 8, 2010


Spirit's baggage fees are ridiculously high, they charge even for soft drinks, and the seats are teensy, but they do get you from point a to point b. I survived. We did have a 2 or 3 hour mechanical delay on the way back, but that can happen to anybody, so I can't begrudge them that.

I'd much rather fly on AA, or even Delta, who I consider one of the worst airlines flying, but they're not utterly terrible or anything.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that by flying on budget airlines and super cheap fares, you're contributing to the declining wages of pilots and flight attendants. There was a Frontline episode a week or two ago about how many pilots are now paid so little they have to take second jobs, live in crash pads with 10 other guys, and so on.

In my case, it was a significantly smaller discount compared to other airlines, but we were flying 6 people, so $120 a ticket became a significant difference. Most of the difference was eaten up by bag fees and drinks, though. (six bucks for a soft drink is ridiculous!)

Other airlines which have bag fees and other ridiculousness domestically don't do those things on international flights.
posted by wierdo at 11:00 PM on March 8, 2010


My wife flew Spirit Air from SF to Detroit, had a roundtrip ticket, and for some reason during her stay in Detroit they decided they were cancelling the route and refused to fund a ticket home on another airline. We had to pay for another ticket ourselves. Needless to say, we were pretty pissed.
posted by the dief at 5:09 AM on March 9, 2010


I flew Spirit a couple of times on domestic routes. No problems with the actual travel, but the plane interiors were dirty, like no one had cleaned them in a month, and worn out, with some seats that didn't work properly. This made me wonder what other maintenance they were skimping on. It made me uneasy enough that I don't fly them anymore.
posted by philokalia at 5:29 AM on March 9, 2010


Best answer: I've flown Spirit both domestically and internationally. I'd still use them for short domestic flights down to Florida, but after flying them to Lima I'd definitely never fly internationally with them again. However I'm getting to the point in life where I'm generally willing to pay a little extra to not suffer in miserable situations, so YMMV. If saving $300 on the fare is going to make a longer or better trip possible, it could be worth it.

If you're aware going in that they have a reputation for truly abysmal customer service (the only airline agent that has ever made me cry is one from Spirit, and I don't cry easily), and for the constant little drip-drip-drip of them trying to wring more money out of you (on my international flight, they searched all passenger's carry-on bags at the gate, threw out any water bottles people had bought once they had passed through security--then charged us $5 for a cup of water on a 6-hour flight), you'll probably cope better than someone who is expecting the usual level of service from U.S. carriers. It's not just the airline personnel, either--on my flight back from Lima, two customers got in a screaming match that nearly escalated to a fistfight about an hour into the flight. I think the general nastiness of the personnel and little indignities they put you through make all the passengers in a worse mood, and that has predictable results.

The one serious caution I would have for you is that unlike bigger airlines, Spirit doesn't have multiple flights per day to international locations, nor do they have any reciprocity relationships with other airlines, and they tend to book their flights as full as possible--which means if something goes wrong and your flight is cancelled, there's a real risk you'll be stuck for a few days before they can fit you on another flight. They won't put you on another carrier or help with any of your lodging fees; you'll just be SOL. If that happens on your outgoing flight, it has the potential to really ruin a vacation; if it happens on your incoming flight, it has the potential to really screw you financially. Pretty much the only people I think I'd actually recommend international Spirit flights to are students who have maximum flexibility on time and minimum flexibility on budget. Everyone else is really running a risk with their vacation.
posted by iminurmefi at 7:08 AM on March 9, 2010


Response by poster: Well, it sounds to me like a situation of "you get what you pay for".

iminurmefi: "Pretty much the only people I think I'd actually recommend international Spirit flights to are students who have maximum flexibility on time and minimum flexibility on budget."

Yeah, you're describing me. Unemployed, no intention of going back to the work force or school until 2011.

Spirit Air it is! I'll just have to stock up on Valium before I go.
posted by sacrifix at 1:49 PM on March 9, 2010


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