Spirit Airlines — Will we regret this?

[Anonymous]

We've discussed this. It's fine when everything is on time/not cancelled. Its a disaster when your flight is cancelled because they have no partners.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1179734.page#26609371
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/30/1147908.page#25500916
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1056529.page#22582746

[Anonymous]

I’ve flown Spirit exactly twice: Boston to Ft. Myers and back. The flights were both on-time and totally unremarkable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As long as you know what you are getting, they aren't any worse than other airlines. We've flown them several times and it's fine.

Agree, with above. Tips though: Print a boarding pass at home, or download at home or they will charge you a fee. Also, bring water on board since they will likely give you nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've discussed this. It's fine when everything is on time/not cancelled. Its a disaster when your flight is cancelled because they have no partners.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1179734.page#26609371
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/30/1147908.page#25500916
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1056529.page#22582746

Isn't that true of every airline?
I haven't found it worse with Spirit TBH. Most airlines won't rebook you on a partner. They just tell you to wait until there is one available. It's been this way for American, United and Southwest for me.

[Anonymous]

The passengers will be people with a need to fly low cost carriers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've discussed this. It's fine when everything is on time/not cancelled. Its a disaster when your flight is cancelled because they have no partners.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1179734.page#26609371
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/30/1147908.page#25500916
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1056529.page#22582746

Isn't that true of every airline?
I haven't found it worse with Spirit TBH. Most airlines won't rebook you on a partner. They just tell you to wait until there is one available. It's been this way for American, United and Southwest for me.

No, the "Big 3" (Delta, United, American) have what are called "Interline Agreements" with each other, whereby in "Irregular Operations" aka IROPS, when flights are cancelled/heavily delayed due to weather or mechanical issues, they will rebook you on one of the others. Southwest and Spirit have no such agreements, nor do airlines like Frontier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Booking a last-minute trip. Spirit will be $200-$500 cheaper (depending on the time we leave) than the mainline carriers (price is INCLUDING carry-on and seat selection on Spirit), with better flight times. We’ve flown them before but got spoiled by the bigger brands. I know they are no frills, and I guess for this spontaneous trip that’s fine. It’s just been 5-ish years since we’ve flown them and I just wonder if they’ve gotten worse.

FWIW, if we choose to fly Spirit, we could parlay our savings into an extra day, leaving after work the day before, waking up at our destination for essentially an extra day.

I’d you’ve flown them recently, what are your thoughts?

I’m loyal to United and fly them regularly, but they’ve never “spoiled” me. Sure, Economy Plus is decent, but if you’re in regular coach on United, it’s not that great. Seats are uncomfortable, legroom doesn’t exist, but hey on a domestic flight you get a Stroop Waffle and a soda- you even get the whole can! I haven’t flown Spirit. Maybe I need to? Might make me appreciate United more.

[Anonymous]

I’d charge to a credit Card that has great travel interruption/delay coverage, in case a flight gets canceled and the next one isn’t available for days

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've discussed this. It's fine when everything is on time/not cancelled. Its a disaster when your flight is cancelled because they have no partners.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1179734.page#26609371
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/30/1147908.page#25500916
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1056529.page#22582746

Isn't that true of every airline?
I haven't found it worse with Spirit TBH. Most airlines won't rebook you on a partner. They just tell you to wait until there is one available. It's been this way for American, United and Southwest for me.

No, the "Big 3" (Delta, United, American) have what are called "Interline Agreements" with each other, whereby in "Irregular Operations" aka IROPS, when flights are cancelled/heavily delayed due to weather or mechanical issues, they will rebook you on one of the others. Southwest and Spirit have no such agreements, nor do airlines like Frontier.

Can you refer me to where it says that the big 3 have an interline agreement and will rebook you on the other airline. Sure hasn’t happened for me on United where I have “status”

[Anonymous]

I literally was just coming here to post 'how can i set all my search engines to filter out spirit forever and never mention its name to me again'.

I get it but it's not worth it. they are truly corrupt

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've discussed this. It's fine when everything is on time/not cancelled. Its a disaster when your flight is cancelled because they have no partners.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1179734.page#26609371
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/30/1147908.page#25500916
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1056529.page#22582746

Isn't that true of every airline?
I haven't found it worse with Spirit TBH. Most airlines won't rebook you on a partner. They just tell you to wait until there is one available. It's been this way for American, United and Southwest for me.

No, the "Big 3" (Delta, United, American) have what are called "Interline Agreements" with each other, whereby in "Irregular Operations" aka IROPS, when flights are cancelled/heavily delayed due to weather or mechanical issues, they will rebook you on one of the others. Southwest and Spirit have no such agreements, nor do airlines like Frontier.

Can you refer me to where it says that the big 3 have an interline agreement and will rebook you on the other airline. Sure hasn’t happened for me on United where I have “status”

https://pro.delta.com/content/agency/us/en/policy-library/reservations-and-ticketing/interline-electronic-ticketing-agreements--iet-.html

That's the Delta ones. It's not something they will generally proactively do. You have to push for it, and they will only do it if there is no way to get you to your destination on their airline/partners.

[Anonymous]

Out of 100 flights Spirit has 5 fewer on time than southwest and 13 fewer than the best, which is Delta.

https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/4387840-these-were-the-most-on-time-us-airlines-airports-of-2023-report/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've discussed this. It's fine when everything is on time/not cancelled. Its a disaster when your flight is cancelled because they have no partners.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1179734.page#26609371
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/30/1147908.page#25500916
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1056529.page#22582746

Isn't that true of every airline?
I haven't found it worse with Spirit TBH. Most airlines won't rebook you on a partner. They just tell you to wait until there is one available. It's been this way for American, United and Southwest for me.

No, the "Big 3" (Delta, United, American) have what are called "Interline Agreements" with each other, whereby in "Irregular Operations" aka IROPS, when flights are cancelled/heavily delayed due to weather or mechanical issues, they will rebook you on one of the others. Southwest and Spirit have no such agreements, nor do airlines like Frontier.

Can you refer me to where it says that the big 3 have an interline agreement and will rebook you on the other airline. Sure hasn’t happened for me on United where I have “status”

https://pro.delta.com/content/agency/us/en/policy-library/reservations-and-ticketing/interline-electronic-ticketing-agreements--iet-.html

That's the Delta ones. It's not something they will generally proactively do. You have to push for it, and they will only do it if there is no way to get you to your destination on their airline/partners.

Yeah. They generally make me wait for the next one available on their airline. This isn’t a reason to use them (for me).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The passengers will be people with a need to fly low cost carriers.

DD and I flew all over the US the past few years doing college tours and also because she wanted to watch high ranked college teams she followed in her 2 sports play in person.

Spirit was great for us because we did a lot of last minute or one-way flights for multi-city visits and usually only had a backpack each. And although we’re able to spend $1000 a weekend, I didn’t want to spend more than necessary for the flight. Upgrade the seats and take snacks and water on board. And be flexible. Out of the close to 12 flights, only 1-2 were delayed.

At first we joked about us needing to get comfortable hanging with fellow passengers, but actually realized if we’re on the flight, we are these passengers – not any better or worse than them.

[Anonymous]

You can choose to view the cost of travel as a budget item for the long term. If you get stranded and desperate, you buy on any airline just to get home. That offsets the great deals you got the year before. The question is never really: was the trip "worth it", was a particular decision worth it? There will always be unknowns and events out of your control.