Anyone fly Spirit Airlines?

[sniper7]

Don't even get me started on those assholes, after over 50 flights with them in 2014, all the perks I'd earned are out the fricken window as of next week. I'm done with them. Delta, American, and united from here on out.

They are taking your miles away or expiring? Or what are the perks you are talking about?

[sniper7]

F*** Indigo. Brilliant for their shareholders/profit, shitty for the consumer who take time to adjust their demand dynamics (ie not fly on airlines that suddenly aren't what they want in a flying experience). Sounds similar to what EA and various other video game giants did to the industry.

yeah they make some serious money, but a lot of it they are taking from the workers. Laying off 1300 ground support people isn't acceptable in my mind. All to get lower wages and people who won't care.
but as long as they have people just looking for the cheapest ticket price and not reading the fees and disclaimers, the planes will be full and Indigo will make big money.

[def90]

$10 for boarding pass? wtf...I'm on my first spirit flight this weekend but I'm well aware of the other dumb fees.

What do you need a boarding pass for? The idea is that you print your own out at home before you even leave for the airport.

Many of the other airlines are switching to cheap base tickets and then charging you for all the add ons as well.. I can't think of any airlines that I fly on these days that stand out as being better than any of the others.

[Great-Kazoo]

We drive. Then again If we have to travel it's because someone died, again. WE also call the airline vs on-line reservations. Tried the cheap fares 1x. After the airline dicking us around "because we didn't use normal airline booking" and were regulated to basic seating. Unfortunately for them, their OOPS gave us 2 fly anywhere in the continental U.S. tickets after the fact.
Spirit has one of the worst CS ratings. If you're flying Spirit, plan on being late, delayed or cancelled. Both ways.

[Monky]

When was the last time you could get a free beer on a plane?

You get what you pay for.. want a bargain basement seat.. You get one. It's no longer illustrious to fly..

You still get free drinks in 1st class.. Just sayin.

[clodhopper]

You think the front end charges are bad on Spirit? Just wait til you get on board. Advertising everywhere. All the overhead bins have advertising on them. The stewardesses make multiple passes down the aisle with a cart of crap to hawk, like credit card apps and stuff. Even the pilot gets on the intercom to convince you to participate in the wonderful deals offered on the plane. It will remind you of a timeshare offer weekend.

I used to fly Frontier, but the acquisition by Republic has killed them. Took a good basic middle of the road offering and crashed it to bottom basement. Sad really.

Generally fly United now as they go to the places I need to get to. Shows a little more on the ticket when searching fares, but much more reliable. And when things go wrong for them, they kick back rewards to apologize.

[ray1970]

I guess as long as they get me there in one piece and stay relatively close to schedule I'll just deal with it this time.

I know this whole thing is all on me for not checking into the airline before I booked.

Maybe I should read all of the fine print and see if I can cancel and get a refund. Then I can just book a flight on a normal flight. At least I'll gain a little leg room.

Glad I didn't book some sort of 4 1/2 hour flight.

[Madeinhb]

Close, but not exactly.

A group of investors called Indigo Partners bought Spirit some time ago as a "fix-and-flip" project. They "transformed" the airline to what the industry is calling an Ultra Low Cost Carrier. The whole idea of unbundling--paying extra for everything beyond the actual seat--is a key component of the ULCC concept.

In any case, profits increased significantly under the ULCC model and Indigo sold a large percentage of Spirit by way of an Initial Public Offering. As of just a little over a year ago, Indigo sold all its remaining shares in Spirit and purchased Frontier in hopes of doing the same thing.

So no, Spirit doesn't own Frontier, but they're headed down the same fix-and-flip ULCC transformation with hopes of a very profitable IPO by the same corporate raiders that previously invested in Spirit.

Time will tell if this ULCC concept is really viable as a long term business plan, but in the short term, it seems to be wildly successful from a financial standpoint. 2014 was Frontier's most profitable year in its 20+ year history. Personally, I hate the concept, but it's hard to argue with the objective financial performance numbers.

RWW

Makes sense. I heard the people who owned Spirit were buying frontier. Didn't know they sold Spirit though.

[The Norseman]

Just experienced all this same shit flying with the whole family on Norwegian Airlines. Pay to check bags, pay to reserve a seat, pay for anything on the plane. Wouldn't fly with a carrier like this ever again given a choice....

[CHA-LEE]

I usually fly out of state 15 - 20 times a year. If I can, I will try to leverage Southwest as much as possible. The main reason is that their "Add On" fee's are very minimal and you get two checked bags included in the fare. My second choice is a mixture of United, Frontier, or American. All three of those airlines play the "Additional Fee's" game on varying services so you need to take that into consideration when comparing fares between airlines. A good example is comparing a Southwest fare to one of the others. The Southwest fare includes checked bags so it is going to be more expensive than another carrier that lists their fare price WITHOUT the checked bags fees included. So you always need to put that into perspective when comparing fares.

Every time I have looked at Spirit Airlines fares + fee's, by the time you actually get where you want to go with a couple of checked bags the total cost is usually more than most other Airlines.

The reason why airlines are moving towards the "Additional Fee's" business model is mainly for tax reasons. They are taxed different on the air fare verses service fee's. The service fee's are taxed less so the more $$$ they can push into that bucket the better off they are from a tax perspective. How this negatively affects the customer I am sure they could give a shit less. Its all about making money for them with customer service way down on the priority list.