Trying to research flights for Marathon weekend.
Sister is suggesting Spirit, which flies out of BOS but is also coming to my home market (MHT) any second now
It’s cheap.
But is it reliable?? I’m skeert to have my marathon dreams riding (flying?) on a questionable airline but before I say a firm no I wanted feedback from here.
I refuse to fly them because they don’t run enough flights out of my airport. They have a high cancellation rate even before Covid, and with only 1 or 2 flights a day you could be stranded for days because they don’t have interline agreements with other carriers. Same with Frontier.
That’s what I thought, about the infrequent flights and being stranded. I can never remember if I am mixing them up with Frontier, but it sounds like they are one and the same that way.
Not worth my anxiety
I’ve flown them once and it was actually a good experience. Another friend has flown them many times out of Ft Lauderdale too. They do have a limited schedule, but Orlando is a hub so I think reliability in and out of MCO is pretty high. Their scores and ratings have been significantly increasing over the years as their footprint has grown too. The seats are actually better than the last couple AA flights I’ve been on.
Someone did complain about people acting a fool on there recently and I think it was regarding mask wearing which is honestly and unfortunately happening on all airlines these days.
Ok… someone reported (which airline???) that they had to stop the plane at beginning and end to yell at passengers to sit down and get buckled.
Spirit has good prices (aka, cheap!), but my son flew with them as part of a mission trip to Puerto Rico a couple years back, and he said that the seats seem to be much tighter/smaller. He was uncomfortable for the entire flight.
Now, he hasn’t flown much, so I can’t compare, but it would definitely be one concern.
They also seem to like to nickle and dime you to death.
I think it was a Spirit flight, but I’m saying that’s not a Spirit issue that’s a some people suck issue.
That’s funny he said they were small. The spacing between rows is tight, but it’s only an inch or 2 tighter than American’s new modified layout. Also I am quite obese and found the seats roomier and comfier than American as well.
They do charge you for every little thing which is annoying, but it also allows you to save quite a bit of cash by not paying for services you don’t need. Even with the added fees it can still be significantly less than major carriers.
My parents flew with them from Boston to Fort Myers this spring. Flight from Boston to Fort Myers was great, no issues! Flight home was cancelled an hour before take off and they were not able to get rebooked for 5 days through Spirit! It was a mess! With that being said. The flight was $39:)
I would say Spirit and Frontier are almost identical. Lawn chairs for seats, little room, charge for carry ons and anything else they can, but I have used both airlines and I would say they are as reliable as most other airlines.
A friends of mine just had a Spirit flight from MCO to BOS cancelled 2 weeks ago. She ended up having to shell out a lot of money to get a ticket from another airline to get home as another flight wasn’t open for a couple o days. I’d pass on them.
Spirits seats are much more uncomfortable than frontier. I always fly frontier. Never doing spirit again.
I’ve flown them 3 times out of Logan, to Vegas, Chicago, and Orlando. When they’re on schedule, it’s fine. The worst was going to Chicago, someone on my flight stole my wallet (which could happen anywhere but doesn’t help my view of Spirit). Then when we were in Chicago flying home, our flight got cancelled and that was the only flight of the day with the next one leaving in 24 hours, so that sucked and we had to get on a JetBlue flight last minute instead.
I’ve also always paid for a seat because I don’t want to get stuck in the middle, so the extra charges add up. Plus I hate that for a checked bag the max weight is 40lbs instead of the normal 50lbs. I need the extra weight for my overpacking!
As frustrating as Southwest has been recently with moving things around and cancelling flights, I am grateful that they work with you to reschedule. It also helps that I live near a major airport with a lot of flight options.
I’m flying Allegiant today since they are the only airline that flies the route I need to get to a family reunion. But I generally avoid the smaller airlines because they’re so unreliable. But you can’t beat the price, if that’s all that matters.
Agree. Spirits only option for her was a refund. super frustrating.
Spirit was a once in a lifetime experience for me. Literally. Flew once and will never fly again.
I think it’s so funny people commenting on how bad the seats are when I think they are better than AA 
Maybe I was on a new plane? Frontier is like cheap plastic lawn furniture. Even the little ‘armrests’ are sad.
Planes can vary a lot. When I flew down to Florida a couple years ago to help my parents move, we used United because my bother had vouchers.
Anyhow, United, we had to fly first to Chicago, and then MCO. Both legs if the trip were supposedly the same kind of plane…but the flight to Chicago, the seats were orders of magnitude more comfortable than the seats on the flight to MCO!