I haven't flown Spirit and hadn't even heard that much about them, until someone posted here on the DIS that starting midMarch they were going to start flying nonstop from Dallas to Orlando. I signed up on their site and got a $50.00 off code. I then found nonstop r/t flights from DFW to MCO for $143.00. Even with the bag fees, that was alot cheaper than the over $400.00 all the other airlines out of DFW or Dallas Lovefield were charging, so I joined their trial membership $9.00 Club to save on luggage and booked them for my upcoming May and Sept trips. However, about a month later I got an email saying they had changed the times for my May flight (moving departing flight back several hours and the returning flight up). I am now losing about 8 hours of my trip. I called to tell them the times did not work for me. They currently have only one flight/day in or out, so there are no other options and unlike Air Tran who will refund your money for a time change of just a few minutes, Spirit said there was nothing they could do. I could cancel the flight, but I'd lose my money. It looks like I'm losing 8 hours of my May trip and I'm hoping the flights don't change for my Sept trip. I'm still looking for airfare for my Oct/Nov trip, but will not be flying Spirit, even if they are $200.00 cheaper.
Most other airlines will refund your money if they make a time change that big. Losing eight hours of my vacation is ridiculous.
Well, my trip is over, but seeing this thread again I thought I'd post my opinion of my actual flight. Even though I wasn't pleased with the time changes, everything else went fine. I had a great flight with no problems. I waited until about 24 hours prior to my flight down, hoping those 'Big Front Seats' would go down in price. They didn't, so being afraid of what I had read about Spirit's small, nonreclining seats in Coach, I went ahead and paid the $50.00 each way to upgrade to those bigger reclining seats up front and sat in 2D both ways. I'm glad I did, because by the time we boarded all those big seats were full. From what I saw those smaller seats didn't really look that bad though. One thing that sort of irritated me, is that I also prepaid for my carry on. Those "Big Front Seats" and paying for a carryon guaranteed me Boarding Zone 1, which was nice. However, I saw people boarding much later that also had carryons (plus a personal item), every bit as big or bigger than the 21" one I used. As they were boarding the pilot made the announcement for everyone to put their carryons in the overhead bins and personal items at their feet. The man next to me gave me a sort of blank look for a minute then asked if I had paid for my carryon. I told him I had and he said he had too, because he thought you had to. After the plane took off, he asked the FA about it. She said that technically you do, but if the bins are not full they don't push it.
He asked then what was the point of charging the carry on fee then. She said it insured you had room in the overheads and also guaranteed you Boarding Zone 1.
The $60.00 r/t I paid for my carryon, alot of people didn't, yet they still carried on the exact same thing I did. A week later, I was waiting in the Orlando airport, when I got to talking to a lady next to me who had a carry on the same size as mine, plus a small duffel she was using as a personal item. I mentioned what had happened on the arriving flight and she told me she flys Spirit alot and never has paid the carry on fee. She said they never ask if you pay or not. She also laughed and said that she knows her luck may run out one of these days, but figured if it did, all the money she's saved will make up for that one time gate charge for a carry on.
I asked her what Boarding Zone she was in and she told me Zone 4. Since paying for a carry on guarantees Boarding Zone 1, then the FAs know that anyone boarding later did not pay for a carry on, yet they allow people to board with carryons in those later zones. Before I booked, my understanding was that if you put anything in that overhead, you had to pay, but on both flights the pilot was telling people who boarded later with carryons to put them up there.
The guy sitting next to me on that second flight also said something about it and the FA just shrugged her shoulders. I told him what the lady in the terminal told me and pointed her out to him when she finally got on with her big carry on. It didn't seem fair that we had paid and they hadn't. For some reason it just left a bad taste in my mouth (especially since it happened on both flights). Oh, one funny coincidence: we had the same flight crew coming back as we did going down there a week before, which I thought was funny, but when I mentioned it to the FA, she said they usually fly the same route down there, then as soon as the plane refueled flew the same route back. In fact, she was funny and said that they had put the pilot in time out, because they weren't supposed to deplane, but he and the copilot had and had gotten something to eat for the flight back, but hadn't brought the FAs anything back, so she had locked them in the cockpit and may leave them there indefinitely. lol
I guess it's all personal preference. To echo previous posters, you get what you pay for and sometimes everything is okay, but if something goes wrong, be prepared to be on your own.
Sure!
