I am trying to get to Tampa for a long weekend to attend a baby shower for the daughter of my best friend. Spirit is offering a $280RT ticket. I realize I am going to get sacked with $25 each way carry on luggage fees and had plans to get some food/beverage prior to getting on plane. With all this said, is there any reason not to jump on this ticket? (there are layovers in Dallas one way and Detroit the other direction).
How significant is the savings? I think carry-on is more than $25 each way on Spirit now, unless you are in their club or something. I have flown Spirit before with no problems but the r/t flight was usually super cheap, like $30-$60 so it was worth it to me.
I'd also be wary of Spirit for such a short trip since they're notorious for severely delaying/canceling flights and they have rather sparse schedules.
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. Mark Twain
Post by definitelyO on Aug 6, 2013 17:09:18 GMT -5
$280 doesn't sound that cheap - but I guess it depends on where you're flying from. if it were a direct flight I'd be more inclined but with layovers - I wouldn't trust them....
kcbmarek I love spirit. I have been flying them since 07 and never had a prob. If you know the rules it works out just fine. I have never had a canceled flight on them. It's the cheapest way from the US to the VI so that's what we take. Just note you pay for a carry on if it is not a personal item and that the weight limit is 40 lbs not 50
Thank you all ... for the extra costs and such, I will stick with the Delta and United flights. Prices are not reasonable for a 3 day trip especially when 1.5 days is spent traveling to/from (total travel time) Las Vegas to Tampa. I can say for strong certainty, Spirit is NOT in my future to fly with.
You might be interested in this excerpt from an article posted on MM:
At the other end of the economic spectrum, low-cost airlines that re-create the thrill of traveling in steerage are thriving, too. The new business model, apparently, is to shrink the seats, charge extra for everything and offer nothing for free that might be construed as an amenity. That’s certainly the credo of Spirit Airlines, which charges its benumbed passengers a fee for their carry-on bags, $3 for water and $10 for printing out boarding passes and whose seats don’t recline. Spirit boasts one of the highest profit margins in the industry and plans to expand by 15 percent to 20 percent every year for the next eight years, according to the Los Angeles Times. It also ranks dead last in customer satisfaction — indeed, in last year’s Consumer Reports survey, it had one of the lowest overall customer satisfaction scores of any company in any industry that the magazine had ever surveyed.
That article is highly skewed. Well at least the portion you posted. They do charge a fee for drinks and snacks but I bring my own. There is no charge for printing your boarding passes out. They is only a fee if you wait until you get to the ticket counter to have them print it. All their seats recline just as much as SW, AA, Delta etc. There are premium seats that they do charge extra for that recline more b/c they are further apart (front to back) from the others. I love their no frills business model. They don't trick you. All of this info is right on the website. If people dont pay attention and then show up and want/expect something different that isn't the airlines fault.
You might be interested in this excerpt from an article posted on MM:
At the other end of the economic spectrum, low-cost airlines that re-create the thrill of traveling in steerage are thriving, too. The new business model, apparently, is to shrink the seats, charge extra for everything and offer nothing for free that might be construed as an amenity. That’s certainly the credo of Spirit Airlines, which charges its benumbed passengers a fee for their carry-on bags, $3 for water and $10 for printing out boarding passes and whose seats don’t recline. Spirit boasts one of the highest profit margins in the industry and plans to expand by 15 percent to 20 percent every year for the next eight years, according to the Los Angeles Times. It also ranks dead last in customer satisfaction — indeed, in last year’s Consumer Reports survey, it had one of the lowest overall customer satisfaction scores of any company in any industry that the magazine had ever surveyed.
That article is highly skewed. Well at least the portion you posted. They do charge a fee for drinks and snacks but I bring my own. There is no charge for printing your boarding passes out. They is only a fee if you wait until you get to the ticket counter to have them print it. All their seats recline just as much as SW, AA, Delta etc. There are premium seats that they do charge extra for that recline more b/c they are further apart (front to back) from the others. I love their no frills business model. They don't trick you. All of this info is right on the website. If people dont pay attention and then show up and want/expect something different that isn't the airlines fault.
Most of the time I agree that people need to do their research and be prepared , but in this case, I do think the company is trying to trick customers and I blame them NOT the customer. People who aren't as travel savvy but do have experience would never expect to pay to carry on their bags or pay to print a boarding pass at the airport. Checked baggage fees are common enough now that people have come to expect them, and rarely would you think you are getting food on a flight, but most wouldn't expect to pay for drinks! I think they do their best to make money any way they can, regardless of the outcome. If they were 100% straightforward with their customers and didn't charge these insane amounts that no other airline does, maybe their satisfaction ratings would be higher.
I fly Southwest almost exclusively. They have the low cost business model down to a science and their customer satisfaction numbers are proof of that.