Have never used this liner but we typically fly Frontier. Is it worth the discount?
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If you typically fly Frontier you’re used to taking chances. The biggest issue with Spirit is that they don’t fare-share with any other airlines. If your flight is cancelled that’s it. You’re out of luck until they can get you on another of their own flights. And depending on your market, that might be a long time; here in NH there is one flight a day out to MCO.
You should know that if you check a bag your weight limit for Spirit is 40lbs, not 50 like most other airlines.
The flights themselves have been fine. Their planes are bare bones, but the newer ones are a little bit nicer than the original fleet; on my first Spirit flight I had a tiny, maybe 4x6 metal tray that was spring loaded and so it only stayed down if something like your phone, which is all it could hold, was on it. On a more recent flight I had a newer plane that had a small, but still similar in design to your “normal” tray tables, and I didn’t feel like I could practically see the fusilage through the thin layer of fabric like that first flight.
I have always found the Spirit team to be really pleasant. The one at MHT was doing double duty, checking in our luggage before security and then checking us in onto the plane at the gate. They are friendly and get the job done.
All this said, given that it is a bit of a gamble, it’s not an airline I will fly with my whole family. Solo or with a single other adult who can roll with the punches if the punches should fall. But I don’t want to put a bunch of us up against chance. Some folks mitigate the risk by booking a more expensive refundable flight as a backup in case Spirit should fail them on the day.
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I’ve taken three Spirit flights to and from Disney. I like them for the super cheap fares. I’ve paid as much as $100 round trip to as little as $50 round trip. When I fly them I only take a personal item and they will make you put it in their bin to make sure it fits.
Of the six legs of the three round trip flights, all but one was on time. The one that was late was really late. We were supposed to leave MCO at 8:35pm and didn’t board the plane until after 3AM but we did get home. (That said, a lot of SW flights and other airlines were cancelling flights that night too.) After the second or third delay we went ahead and bought a ticket on SW for a flight home the next morning in case we did get cancelled. Because it was within 24 hrs of booking, I was able to get a full refund from SW.
I’ve only taken Spirit for friend trips to Disney and a quick 4 day trip with DD for her 20th birthday and Mother’s Day. These were trips I wanted to go on but would not have been devastated if we didn’t make it. When I’m heading down for long trips or cruises, I will only fly SW. The Spirit flight to and from MCO from Louisville only head out once and day so I won’t take that risk for somewhere I absolutely have to be.
I was surprised at how nice the planes were. The ones I’ve been on are way bigger than any SW plane I’ve flown. The Spirit staff are super nice as well. It’s definitely a no frills flight but I don’t need snack mix and a soda for a two hour flight.
Spirit Airlines is now a gateway drug for me. I find myself constantly checking prices. When I find a $40 round trip for a quick weekend, I have to reel it in to not hop on a plane and head to Disney once a month. My last trip I had a Saturday 6:00AM flight and was sitting at CBR by 9AM. Flight home Sunday night left MCO at 8:35.
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Um yes this
DH and I are flying them home in November. The cost of adding Saver Club plus the lower fare was almost equivalent to the higher fare. So I went ahead and did that and now I get Saver Club for a year. And I might be checking a little too much.
But I completely agree I would not use them for a “must get there” trip. Notice we are only flying them home in November; we are flying JetBlue to get there 
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We will be flying Spirit for the first time in a week, to Minnesota. We shall see how it goes. I was not happy with their ticket pricing trickery that took place when I tried to book (where they show you one price, but when you book it they charge you another price). They can literally change the price minute by minute…and when I called them a out it, the representative actually said as much.
We did pay for their Super Savers Club because it saved us more than the cost of it, with 3 of us flying.
Not sure how often we will use them, since flights to Orlando, Delta tends to be cheaper for us.
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What do you mean?
Oh - this isn’t unique to Spirit, FYI.
This is why I joined too
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I’ve considered purchasing the Saver Club. Do you remember how much it was? If you purchase it, can you buy everyone’s fare at the Savers price?
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It was ?$62 I think?
Once you’re a Saver you can purchase up to 8 fares at a time in addition to your own under your membership 
I’m still not sure I read it right, but I’ll never book that many anyway - I’m happy with one!
Just checked though - it’s accurate
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I mean, they showed the price to me. Then, 10 minutes later we decided to book it. I went through and booked it, but didn’t notice until after I paid that they raised the price by quite a bit.
So then I cancelled the flight. Waited until later, when the price dropped down, but not as low as the first price they quoted. Rebooked at that price…but it would take 5 days before they refunded the first booking that I cancelled
Next day…price was listed at the original lower price! Argh. I was quite furious about it. I was used to Delta, which doesn’t have those kind of pricing games. (They have pricing changes, but not like that!)
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I also think, that if you can get to the airport to buy your tickets, they are ~$20 cheaper. It doesn’t work out for me, but would be a great perk if you lived close! (Or you could book another trip on your way off the plane and going home!)
I fly cheapest, no matter, with my kids. Spirit, frontier and southwest. I think we’ve had delays and the worst was being stuck in bad weather in Denver trying to fly southwest who also doesn’t fare share. We eventually made it home!
My daughter once asked if she could use her bday money to upgrade to delta after grandma took her on the plane with TVs. 
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I’ve had zero issues with the flights themselves and they have never checked my personal item to see if it was small enough like someone else stated. I usually pay the $60 upgrade for the big wide seat and it’s very comfortable. I was not so content the one time I flew in the normal but that’s true of any airline in economy. The only issue I’ve had is moving my flight around they kept charging me more and I’d have to call to get refunded (the flights I was moving to were cheaper). I was fine with having a credit for the original change but they were actually charging me more in some weird bug. The woman on the chat was extremely rude but the phone attendant was nice as has always been the case with the crew. I’ve never had a delayed flight with them yet fortunately
Oh yeah the one other issue was it took 45 min to do bag drop at MCO once because they don’t have the computers like SWA does so you have to wait in the regular line.
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I am almost certain that I used a computer to tag my bag at MCO in December. Is it possible your experience was prior to that?
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Yes it was. Were you able to drop your bag quickly? I usually don’t check a bag with them but that time we did so it’s my only checked bag experience at MCO.
Yes, I tagged it myself and waited in a very brief line to hand it off
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Glad they worked on that!
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Jetblue was great once, but they’ve been ranked last three years in a row by the WSJ, worst in on time performance and extreme delays. Many of my Jetblue flights to FL from NYC were delayed. Although I still like their inflight experience we’re going to look at other carriers.
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No it sure if BOS is a hub but there are soooooo many flights each day that it feels pretty okay to use them, and so far they have served me well 
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I’ve only flow Spirit once and it was about a month a go. We flew Frontier to MCO and Spirit home. It’s hard to compare but I put a bid in for the big comfy chairs and won! The flight crew and gate crew were more cheerful and helpful than I found Frontier to be but I just have the 1 experience with each. I would say the economy seat exper looked to be about the same. We prefer SW but the fares for this trip would have been hundreds more for just 2 people. We just barely made it with only a personal bag each. We did not have to put it in the bin to check size but the gate agent did take a good look at everyones bag. I think he was visually measuring them up.
DH thought the Frontier seats were not comfortable. I’m guess the economy Spirit seats are the same. SW are a bit better with seats. He did say apple to apples cost wise he would rather the big seats on Spirit to SW.
Our Spirit flight was delayed. But I went in with the mindset that it would be. And there was a little bar to wait at. Only about 30 mins. I’ve had a SW flight delayed too so 
Spirit Big Comfy seats
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I’ve just had the worst customer service experience with Spirit.
Basically, they blatantly lied, and they when I contacted customer service, they claimed it was in order to save their customers money. I’m so furious.
Backing up…I got an email a few days ago from Spirit. It had our flight information and then pricing for adding a carry-on or checked back. It listed pricing for doing it BEFORE check-in, at check-in, and then at the airport. The carry-on price, for example, was listed as $35 for both PRIOR to check-in and AT check-in. But when I go into the app to add a carry-on, it is saying it will cost $81!!! I should point out that NO WHERE in the email does it say the price is “as low as” or anything like that. And, there is no fine print saying this price was for a limited time, etc. It is quite clearly the price as long as we do it before or at check-in.
I contact customer service, and they told me that the price changes. I provided them a copy of the email, and insisted the honor the price they told me. I pointed out that we EXPLICITLY waited to add a carry-on BASED ON THE EMAIL until we had packed and determined if we even needed a carry-on. We decided last night that it would make packing easier just to go ahead.
Anyhow, nope. He just kept saying that there is nothing to be done, that pricing fluctuates in order to save customers money. I pointed out that raising prices based on what you promised isn’t saving money, and in fact, rather than get the extra $35 each way, we simply aren’t going to add anything and make do with our personal item bags instead.
I went over the email, and even read the bag policy link he provided, and nothing there indicates that the price they claimed it would be would change.
I contacted them thinking this was just a glitch in their system. BUt nope. Spirit is legitimately and blatantly LYING to their customers, and then unwilling to do anything about it.
End result is…this is the first and LAST time we’ll ever fly Spirit. I don’t care if they want to up-charge everything…that’s their business model. But I DO CARE if they flat out lie to me, and they don’t care at all.
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That’s awful! I would be very angry. 
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