Opinions on Spirit Airlines?

[swkmom]

I have been searching for flights for our trip in May. We live in the OKC area and for some reason flights from here are usually pricey. Dallas (DFW) airport is only a 3 hour drive from our house. I have found much better rates from DFW to MCO than OKC to MCO.

The best rates I have found are with Spirit. I've never flown with Spirit and noticed that there are fees for carry on luggage etc. I also noticed they don't participate in resort airline check in, that's not a big deal. I am assuming ME will still get our bags at MCO and deliver them to our resort?

If it helps 5 of us will be flying; myself, dh, ds (14), dd (17), and dd's bff (17). So, we don't all need to sit together because the kids are teens.

Any opinions on flying Spirit? If it helps the base price difference (no luggage fees included) is about $150 per ticket.

 

[debster812]

Have flown Spirit once, and will not do so again.

When there are no issues/problems/irregular ops they are fine. If there are delays, equipment issues, weather delays, you are truly on your own. Spirit's customer service is virtually non-existent, and they freely admit this.

They are a no-frills, a la carte airline, and you will pay for EVERYTHING. When we flew with them, we were delayed on both legs of our trip. In our 6 delay at BOS and our 6 delay at MYR, there was not a single Spirit employee at the gate to give us any updates or info. And when I called Spirit for our flight home, they insisted there were NO delays.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Do a search of this forum; Spirit has been discussed many, many times and you'll find plenty of information.

 

[aubriee]

Spirit came to DFW right after Air Tran got pulled out a few years ago. I've flown them a few times since that time and have never had a problem (flight crew friendly, planes clean, and flights on time). American Airlines and Spirit are the only two airlines to have nonstop flights from Dallas to Orlando now. Since we prefer nonstop flights we usually fly one or the other (although we did fly Delta with a layover in Atlanta once last year, because the price was too good to pass up). If it's just a few dollars difference we'd fly American, but if there is a big difference we'd have no problem flying Spirit. Just be aware of all the fees (we choose to purchase our seats because we want to sit together, also they charge just a little more for a carry on, than a checked bag but we like doing carry on only so pay it, they also do not serve any snacks, so be sure to bring your own).

 

[Brian Noble]

Do a search of this forum; Spirit has been discussed many, many times and you'll find plenty of information.

The summary: if everything goes well, it's not necessarily horrible, depending on what sort of room you expect to have on a plane. But, if something does go wrong, things can go south in a hurry, because they have next to no customer service staff, and won't fly you on anyone else.

Personally, I wouldn't fly them on a bet.

 

[amcnj]

Just be sure you are comparing apples to apples when comparing prices among various airlines. Many have charges above the inital ticket price, and Spirit is known for adding on charges for almsot everything. That said, if you don't need all those things that cost extra, Spirit can be really inexpensive compared to other airlines. Even with the extra fees for bags, seats, etc, they may still be cheaper or competitive.

 

[bcbmommy]

Have you checked Southwest? I'm considering driving 5 hours to fly out of there because they're a lot cheaper than Wichita or KC..

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Take a look at this recent DISboards thread about Spirit Airlines: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=50151139

 

[swkmom]

Thanks for the replies and thanks for the link to the other thread. I did check Southwest flying out of OKC and their rates are just as much if not more than United out of the OKC airport. After doing some research online I am leaning toward not using Spirit.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Thanks for the replies and thanks for the link to the other thread. I did check Southwest flying out of OKC and their rates are just as much if not more than United out of the OKC airport. After doing some research online I am leaning toward not using Spirit.

Southwest has two huge advantages over United:

1. Two free checked bags per passenger;
2. No change fee if you need to change your flight date and/or time because what you booked no longer works for you (you only pay the fare difference, if any).