Is spirit airlines as bad as the internet says?

[joelkfla]

Know their rules, can’t make changes, can’t reschedule etc. I think where a lot of people have issues with them is they don’t research the fare rules or pre pay baggage, or they don’t realize the seat doesn’t recline and they booked a 6 hr flight... or they don’t even get any water on board. Then the complaints start.

The biggest complaint I've seen is that if a flight is cancelled or overbooked, there may not be another flight for days.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

The biggest complaint I've seen is that if a flight is cancelled or overbooked, there may not be another flight for days.

Honestly, I’ve seen all of it...bottom line really is to do your research has know what to expect.

 

[gharter]

Used them twice. The first time, no problems.
The second time, 1 month before our flight, they cancelled the flight, said heres your refund, good luck finding another flight. With other carriers, if they cancelled a flight, they would find another flight for you and it didn't cost anymore. Spirit refused to do anything to help. Found another flight, but was more expensive as we were closer to the date. Never again.

 

[Gary2T]

Used them twice. The first time, no problems.
The second time, 1 month before our flight, they cancelled the flight, said heres your refund, good luck finding another flight. With other carriers, if they cancelled a flight, they would find another flight for you and it didn't cost anymore. Spirit refused to do anything to help. Found another flight, but was more expensive as we were closer to the date. Never again.

Similar experience here. 1st time, cancelled my nonstop from BWI. Put me on a conencting flight through Houston that left BWI 3 hours earlier and landed in MCO almost 3 hours later than my original flight. I cancelled that one and they refunded the cost back to my CC.

2nd time was December 2019. No problems this time. I was hesitant after my first experience, but the price was too good to pass up. Even sprung for the Big Front Seat for our party of 6. I did purchase flight disruption service ($34 RT/pp) from a 3rd party that would have automatically booked us onto another flight (regardless of airline) at no additional cost to us should our flight had been cancelled or delayed by a 4+ hours. Too bad that company was a victim of the Pandemic and isn't around anymore. It was cheap insurance to to take advantage of cheap fares from the likes of Spirit/Frontier/Allegiant.

 

[davper]

I flew once, never again. The seats are horrible and so close together. The aisle is wide compared to other airlines because the seats are so close together. It took me 2 days before I could stand up straight again.

 

[DVC-Don]

Flew them once. Paid for a seat up front with more room. Well someone booked the front row and boarded with a cat in a carrier. She was told she could not sit in the front row with the pet and the flight attendant made me move to accommodate her. I hate the front row, no tray.

 

[DVCKing]

For the last 10 years or so we have flown nothing but southwest. I know that some people don’t love the cattle call boarding process but I have A List which usually gets us a great boarding number. I love that we get 2 free checked bags, love that if the price goes down, we get a refund on the points we paid. Love that if there was an emergency and we have to cancel last minute. I can go on and on why I love SW.

We booked our direct SW flights for the end of January from BDL to MCO but SW changed our direct evening flight home to and early flight with a 3 hour layover. There are no other direct flights that would work for us and the idea of sitting in a connecting airport instead of enjoying our last morning at BLT in very unappealing.

I found a direct flight on spirit that leaves mco at 5:25 pm For $18.09 per person!!
Granted, that price includes absolutely nothing other than the flight. I can add 2 checked bags up to 50lbs and get our coveted exit row seats for $161 total for 2 of us. If we decide to try spirit, we would keep our direct flight to Mco on SW and fly home on spirit.

Everything I have read about spirit has been awful, has anyone had any good experiences?

Spirits not that bad...Your Spirit flight won’t be as enjoyable as Southwest, but it will be worth it to have extra time at BLT!

 

[Pumbaa_]

I would just stay another night

 

[Disneyfan754321]

Our last flight in October I found really good deal on AA tickets we were so excited cause I can never afford AA... when I looked at the ticket I noticed AA was flying the Airbus a321 it's the same plane Spirt was flying.
Aa let me take more onboarding for free other than that not much else was different

 

[jamescanuck2001]

Have flown Spirit 4x now (Pitt to Orl). No issues. The relatively cramped conditions tolerable for a two hr flight.

The 4 of us each had a backpack of the proper size and shared 2 checked bags to save $. It was more than enough since we prefer to pack rather light for Disney.

In your case, maybe you can get by with two backpacks and 1 checked bag.

 

[joelkfla]

Our last flight in October I found really good deal on AA tickets we were so excited cause I can never afford AA... when I looked at the ticket I noticed AA was flying the Airbus a321 it's the same plane Spirt was flying.
Aa let me take more onboarding for free other than that not much else was different

Planes of the same type are not the same among different airlines. Each line has their own seating configuration, seat design, and other interior design factors. A couple of added rows, a different seat back angle, or a different seat height can make a big difference in comfort

 

[Ross Kratter]

Planes of the same type are not the same among different airlines. Each line has their own seating configuration, seat design, and other interior design factors. A couple of added rows, a different seat back angle, or a different seat height can make a big difference in comfort

Not to mention that Spirit's seats do not recline and have no padding/upholstery on the back.

 

[BenandMorgsMom]

For the last 10 years or so we have flown nothing but southwest. I know that some people don’t love the cattle call boarding process but I have A List which usually gets us a great boarding number. I love that we get 2 free checked bags, love that if the price goes down, we get a refund on the points we paid. Love that if there was an emergency and we have to cancel last minute. I can go on and on why I love SW.

We booked our direct SW flights for the end of January from BDL to MCO but SW changed our direct evening flight home to and early flight with a 3 hour layover. There are no other direct flights that would work for us and the idea of sitting in a connecting airport instead of enjoying our last morning at BLT in very unappealing.

I found a direct flight on spirit that leaves mco at 5:25 pm For $18.09 per person!!
Granted, that price includes absolutely nothing other than the flight. I can add 2 checked bags up to 50lbs and get our coveted exit row seats for $161 total for 2 of us. If we decide to try spirit, we would keep our direct flight to Mco on SW and fly home on spirit.

Everything I have read about spirit has been awful, has anyone had any good experiences?

SWA changed both our flights in Jan as well. But I need to get there and get home. Spirit is unreliable and with fees you will end up paying the same. We are inconvenienced as well so we extended a day....but they have NEVER cancelled and left us scrambling. JetBlue has done this to our son...no thanks to JetBlue as well.

 

[mikehn]

Ive flown Spirit a handful of times on short nonstop flights. No complaints from me. The key here is Short and Nonstop.

 

[debster812]

Spirit is fine when things go smoothly, and you remember what it is. A no frills, low cost, minimal customer service airline. It’s when you run into any manner of irregular ops that things typically go sideways, and quickly. We flew them once, about 15 years ago, and I have yet to fly them again. Had delays/cancellations/re-routing on both legs of our trip, and very little information to be had from counter and non existent gate agents.

If you can avoid flying Spirit, I would do so.

 

[JenBush]

If you manage your expectations, you should be fine flying Spirit. Just make sure when you are comparing prices you look at all the added fees with flying spirit. Usually from my airport I can find flights on Delta for the same price or even cheaper than Spirit and other discount airlines once I factor in the price of a carry on and checked bag.

 

[Traveling on cc points]

Minor update- I just checked our spirit flight that was scheduled for has disappeared.

when I first booked there was 2 direct flights. a 5:25 & a 7:30pm
I took the 5:35 because it gave me comfort that there would be a possible 7:30 back up.

Spirit has cancelled both original flights and replaced them with a 6:30 direct flight.

it’s only an hour later so it is not a big deal BUT.... I didn’t receive any notification from spirit about the change. Not happy about that.

 

[DVCKing]

Minor update- I just checked our spirit flight that was scheduled for has disappeared.

when I first booked there was 2 direct flights. a 5:25 & a 7:30pm
I took the 5:35 because it gave me comfort that there would be a possible 7:30 back up.

Spirit has cancelled both original flights and replaced them with a 6:30 direct flight.

it’s only an hour later so it is not a big deal BUT.... I didn’t receive any notification from spirit about the change. Not happy about that.

You have to pay extra for notifications

but seriously, that does stink! Think of it an hour gained at the pool!

 

[Traveling on cc points]

You have to pay extra for notifications

but seriously, that does stink! Think of it an hour gained at the pool!

I should have thought of that!! I have no problem with the extra hour, I just hate that they couldn’t be bothered to email me to let me know.
Luckily, I was able to change my car rental to drop It off an hour later without penalty

 

[Denise W]

Minor update- I just checked our spirit flight that was scheduled for has disappeared.

when I first booked there was 2 direct flights. a 5:25 & a 7:30pm
I took the 5:35 because it gave me comfort that there would be a possible 7:30 back up.

Spirit has cancelled both original flights and replaced them with a 6:30 direct flight.

it’s only an hour later so it is not a big deal BUT.... I didn’t receive any notification from spirit about the change. Not happy about that.

That’s too bad you could only get a direct flight, rather then a nonstop one.
Denise