Spirit/Frontier and such airlines. What are the issues?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The main issue is cancellations and or maintenance. Since BWI is both a crew base and a mx base, you should be good.

Agreed- when Spirit was much smaller, maintenance was a huge issue because if your plane went down, it might be literal days before a replacement was available. With a much larger fleet now, that's a smaller concern. If it's the only nonstop option to where you need to go, I would do it, especially out of a base like BWI, as PP said.

[Anonymous]

I flew Spirit once - the flight to my destination was fine, but then they canceled my return flight and didn't have another for a few days. I vowed never to fly them again.

But I had to make a last minute trip for a funeral last week, and Sprit was the only airline with direct flights to the tiny airport. Reluctantly, I bought my ticket, paid my bag fee, all that - and the flight to the destination was delayed by about an hour, but flight back was easy peasy.

Seats aren't great, no free movies, no free drinks or snacks or whatever. But it was a pretty unremarkable flight, that said. I'm now open to flying them again if they are the best price or most convenient option.

I'm five feet tall so take that into consideration - not struggling to fit into an airline seat - but the seats were fine, I thought. A little smaller than other airlines, and the trays were bad - but meh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The main issue is cancellations and or maintenance. Since BWI is both a crew base and a mx base, you should be good.

Agreed- when Spirit was much smaller, maintenance was a huge issue because if your plane went down, it might be literal days before a replacement was available. With a much larger fleet now, that's a smaller concern. If it's the only nonstop option to where you need to go, I would do it, especially out of a base like BWI, as PP said.

This is why I don’t like airlines like Iceland Air or Play. Not much flexibility if there is a disruption.

[Anonymous]

When going to Denver I use frontier. I always pay for everything for frontier - seat assignments, carry on, etc. and it’s a lot more expensive than the sticker price but is still cheaper than other airlines. I’ve never had an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The main issue is cancellations and or maintenance. Since BWI is both a crew base and a mx base, you should be good.

Agreed- when Spirit was much smaller, maintenance was a huge issue because if your plane went down, it might be literal days before a replacement was available. With a much larger fleet now, that's a smaller concern. If it's the only nonstop option to where you need to go, I would do it, especially out of a base like BWI, as PP said.

Most of Spirit's support/infrastructure jobs are contracted out to Swissport USA. Consistently rated as one of the worst for training employees properly and adhering to safety standards. Dozens of citations from OSHA. They hire cheap labor, oftentimes those who have limited English skills, and thus don't understand on-line training modules nor written safety instructions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The main issue is cancellations and or maintenance. Since BWI is both a crew base and a mx base, you should be good.

I’m a FA and this is accurate.

9/10, when there is a delay or issue with an aircraft and there is the same equipment (plane) at the airport or headed there, they’ll put you on that plane to get you out and then work on the issue, and they’ll keep doing this until they can’t anymore. That’s when they “cancel” a flight. (I hope that makes sense!) This is why gates change!

Similarly, if a crew is missing but the plane is there, there will be reserve crew at a crew base. Not the case at an outstation.

[Anonymous]

I've heard stories of people with carry ons that fit in the sizer at the gate but the gate agent insists it's too big and they need to check it. If that happens, the cost to check the bag is much more than it would have been if they paid for it when they booked the flight. I'm sure a lot of people say they got swindled with the bag but had a way-too-big bag, but I assume that some of these people are telling the truth. The possibility of this bait-and-switch makes me hesitant to fly Frontier and Spirit, although I'll consider them if they have the best itinerary.

I flew Frontier recently and no one bothered me about my carry on, FWIW.

[Anonymous]

We flew to LA from BWI on Spirit and it was awful. They only had one person handling the checked bag line, and even though we got to the airport 2 hours in advance, I was sure we were going to miss our flight. And the seats are very uncomfortable. Next time I'll spend more to fly a decent airline!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We flew to LA from BWI on Spirit and it was awful. They only had one person handling the checked bag line, and even though we got to the airport 2 hours in advance, I was sure we were going to miss our flight. And the seats are very uncomfortable. Next time I'll spend more to fly a decent airline!

That's a good point- the issues with seat comfort are such that I wouldn't fly them beyond probably 3 hours. Definitely not on a cross country flight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spirit had horrible delays...first an hour, then 2, then 6. No explanation.

I mean…isn’t this every airline? Southwest and American have both done this to me.
We will take frontier/spirit if the cost savings are worth it (this may depend on where we’re going. Skiing to Denver the luggage fees may not make it worth it). I pack snacks in advance no matter what airline we’re on. Its fine.

I’ve flown Frontier to Denver and it has been fine.

[Anonymous]

I booked a Frontier flight last year and my return flight was cancelled and rebooked on a flight that was very different and not feasible. I could not find an email or communication about this anywhere, and I am convinced it never came.

I needed a refund, which was technically allowed per their terms given the situation, but when I tried to contact them there was literally no way to reach them.

It took hours of my time and basically a whole social media campaign to get my money back.

Never again!