I’ve never flown Spirit but someone in the restroom at ATL a couple months ago was ranting and raving on the phone about her cancelled flight and how unhelpful they were: “I am never flying Spirit Airlines again!” Seemed like good advice.

Anonymous wrote:When it works, it works. When it doesn’t, prepare for insane delays, zero information, possible rebooking days later, missing bags for weeks.

This right here.

When I was in my 20s, with no kids, it was fine, and made for funny stories. (Sometimes it was perfect, sometimes your bags disappeared, sometimes a flight was canceled while you were already at the airport and the alternative was something insane like a week later.)

I would never, ever do it now, but my time is more precious to me and any stress/uncertainty is made way worse with young kids involved.

Spirit’s business model is to offer the absolute cheapest base fares and then make money on gouging passengers with unexpected charges. The most common example is charging passengers for carry-ons—if you don’t pay in advance they’ll make you pay $100 or more at the gate.

I would consider a domestic flight with them but would never fly internationally, especially with my family.

The seats feel like the webbed stacking lawn chairs you can get at the grocery store.

OK I have to say-- I had to go to Las Vegas for work and my flight home was getting me back super later, and there was a Spirit that got in earlier. I decided I really wanted to get back earlier so I took a chance and booked one of the seats in the front of the plane where the middle seat it blocked so you are guaranteed to have no one sitting there. I kept my my other flight until the very last minute in case Spirit was delayed. Not only did it depart on time, it actually got in early, and the flight was lovely. The flight attendants came through multiple times to offer beverages and water, and were all very nice. It was the nicest flight I had in a long time. I realize this was one isolated experience, but I have to give credit when due.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Flight cancellations and delays aside, just know that on Spirit you have to pay for everything besides the air you breath. You pay to use a bin, drink their water/soda or eat their snacks, and watch in flight entertainment. Also there are bag fees. If your carryon is rejected as such, they charge you to gate check the item.

I have always LOVED Southwest (boo hiss on the bag policy). Spirit is a new level of hell.

They charge you to throw away trash?!

Lol...are you from UK? I think that means "overhead suitcase holding compartment". Those are "overhead bins".

They do not charge to use the overhead bins.

I took it recently and it was fine. But it was a direct flight so I didn’t have to worry about delays. They also have pretty affordable larger seats, their “business” class. Worth it to save thousands.

It is so bad that at one point Spirit actually employed a person at the airport to stand there and respond to incredulous passengers' complaints by saying things like: "Ma'am, you bought a ticket on Spirit Airlines. This is how our airline works."

Horrible nightmare...not worth the sress.

I fly them frequently for work between BWI and Atlanta or Orlando. Most of my travel is last minute and they are frequently at least $1000 cheaper than legacy carriers.

They are upfront about their a la cart fee structure. A lot of people either ignore or hope and pray it will not apply to them.

They are fine never had an issue. I pay extra for the “Big Seats” at front of plane. They are equal to business class seats on most domestic carrier.

They are also the only airline that I know of that gives discounts on alcohol based on how much you purchase. Their party packs are actually a decent deal if you have a few adults in your group.

Spirit is a {real} disaster waiting to happen.

I worked for them briefly and can tell you that their employee training is frightening. I will never fly with them after being on the inside and seeing it first-hand.

They hire ground people who have virtually no experience (even in customer service) AND many who cheat on the required examinations during training.

No lie - the first thing Spirit does in training sessions is to have everyone stand up and read aloud a brief sentence or two from some text. That is to make sure people have basic literacy. Some barely stumbled through it but were on-boarded anyway. They also cheated on tests knowing how to read labels for dangerous cargo packages and how to properly handle them.

This is the competency level of people who are responsible for shutting the aircraft's door properly, let alone responding to cancelled flights, then have at it.

My only suggestion is if a family is travelling using Spirit, please don't all go on the same flight. Have half your family on one flight and the other on another flight.

At least one parent will survive if something goes wrong.

Eh - it’s been fine whenever I’ve flown them but I have no doubt that if something goes wrong they’d be a disaster to deal with. I’ve only ever flown them for the BWI to Cancun run. Even after paying for a carry-on, the tix are much cheaper than other airlines. lol - I can’t imagine trusting Spirit with checked luggage. I also always take my own water, food and entertainment on flights. It’s like taking the bus - fine if you’re just trying to get from points A to B on a relatively short flight. Plus, it’s not like the flying experience with other airlines is exactly luxury these days either.

We flew Spirit about 10 years ago and it was a clusterf***. Both outbound and return flights were delayed. Missed 2 days of our vacation on the front end; several hours on the back end. I have refused to fly it since.

That said, DH and DS have flown it twice recently for DS's out-of-state sports tournaments and they have had no issues. Several hundred dollars were saved.

It is a little like riding a barebones bus that flies. I wouldn’t do it with my family but solo for a huge savings, maybe.

As everyone else has said, when everything goes right, it's fine. Barebones but fine. When $hit hits the fan you could be stuck for days.

You need to be ok with throwing money at the problem (another airline) or waiting for days for another flight in case things go wrong.