$9 *club* for Spirit Air

[3PrinceMom]

I'm also a fan of the Spirit $9 club. Most times it has worked for me. Unfortunately I booked a last minute Disney trip, hoping for a good airfare. Didn't happen....but even with all the fees Spirit charges, it was still cheaper than any other carrier. I could have saved $50 with Air Tran....but that meant stopping in Atlanta. Not worth it to me.

We frequent Disney twice a year...usually during free dining. This year I am trying a different approach. Annual passes bought for our February trip...then going to play the Spirit game for airfare. I might get there more than twice this year!

 

[Dallas_Lady]

We have been members of the $9 club for years now (since it first came out), only one member of the family needs the club. Sign up for the emails and then just start stalking the site.

Thank you for verifying this. This makes it worth it for us, the $59 membership fee will save us $240 off the already way lower than everyone else fare. I'll have my airfare money at the end of this month, and I'm going to go ahead and book with Spirit.

 

[autismgoesdisney]

I just found great prices through Spirit, but added in the hotel we'd need to stay in Atlantic City for the night to get the flight, the luggage fees, etc., it was ridiculous. Now I realize the hotel isn't Spirit's fault, but given the fact that they only have 9 am or 9 pm flights from AC, I think a hotel would work better for us.

 

[aubriee]

Thank you for verifying this. This makes it worth it for us, the $59 membership fee will save us $240 off the already way lower than everyone else fare. I'll have my airfare money at the end of this month, and I'm going to go ahead and book with Spirit.

With Air Tran leaving Dallas Nov 23rd, our options are alot more limited than they were just a few months ago. After reading all the negative reviews on Spirit and looking at all their fees, I swore I wouldn't use them when they started flying from DFW to MCO on March 22, 2012. However, I'm eating my words. I too am taking the plunge. I signed up on their site early last week and have been comparing their prices with the other airlines all week. I was pleasantly surprised yesterday to get an email offering $50.00 off flights April 18th-Sept 30th. I need flights for May, Sept, and Oct/Nov, so went online to check them out. I was surprised again to find the fares for both my May trip and my Sept trip had dropped slightly (about $20.00 each way) just since the few hours I had checked them the night before. (Flights for my Oct/Nov trips are not posted yet.) I decided to use the $19.95 for 60 days Trial $9.00 Club offer, not realizing I couldn't use it until after I had booked my first trip. Oh well, I was able to use the $50.00 off code on both my May and also my Sept trip, so saved a $100.00. Then I was able to use the $9.00 Membership to save $20.00 on carry ons for the the Sept trip. (None of the airfares themselves fell under a $9.00 Club discount.) I got my May ticket for $143.58 (plus the $19.95 fee to join the $9.00 Club for 60 days) and the Sept trip for $183.58 (paying for one carry on). I did not pay for any luggage for my May trip yet though, as I haven't decided if I'm going to check a bag or just do carry on. For the Sept trip, I'm doing carry on only. The $20.00 I saved on the Carry on fees for the Sept trip, paid for the $19.95 60 day $9.00 Club trial membership though, and I'm hoping fares for my Oct/Nov trip come out before the 60 day membership expires, so I can save a little more. Flying solo the $59.95 Annual Fee for the $9.00 Club isn't worth it.

Two things that makes me nervous about Spirit (beside the bad reviews) are the facts that they are new to Dallas (just adding the MCO and Boston flights March 22, 2012) and the fact that they have only one flight per day to and from MCO. I'm used to having several flights to choose from and flying out about 6:30am. Spirit's only flight doesn't leave DFW until 10:15am and then the return flight doesn't get back into Dallas until 10:05PM. |It feels like I'm losing half of my first day at WDW. I love that the flight is nonstop though. With Air Tran leaving, the only other airline that offers nonstop flights from DFW to MCO is American. The $143.53 (with no bags) and the $183.58 (with a carry on) I'm paying with Spirit sure beats the prices of the competitors (AA-$460.00, Delta $412.80, and Southwest $396.30).

Hope everything goes smooth with both of our flights. Glad they're opening up the DFW-MCO flight and hopefully they'll add more flights to it. Sure wish Air Tran was back though.

 

[aubriee]

I'm not sure how Spirit figure their fees though: The tickets were listed as $44.00 each way, but the totals at the end say:

$9 Fare Club Savings: $20.00
Flight: $138.00
Discounts: -$50.00 50OFF
Bags: $40.00
Taxes and Fees
Passenger Facility Fee: $9.00
Passenger Usage Fee: 33.98
Segment Fee: $7.60
Sept 11th Security fee: $5.00
Total $183.58

By my calculations: $44.00 x 2=$88.00, not $138.00

 

[Vickis3js]

I just found great prices through Spirit, but added in the hotel we'd need to stay in Atlantic City for the night to get the flight, the luggage fees, etc., it was ridiculous. Now I realize the hotel isn't Spirit's fault, but given the fact that they only have 9 am or 9 pm flights from AC, I think a hotel would work better for us.

Look for a hotel in Galloway or Pomona or even Egg Harbor Twp. The airport is actually 20 min from AC.

As far as savings. DH and I booked our flights for our March trip on Christmas day. RT for 2 of us after all the fees was less then $150. We did upgrade to the big front seats and our total was still under $300. We have never had a problem with Spirit. After doing the research Spirit saved us a ton of money. It also helps that we live 20 min from the airport. We could go to Philly which is over an hour and it the cheapest we found airfare out of there was $98 rt pp. So even with upgrading we still made out ahead.

 

[mickey2000]

Check out this site


http://www.consumeraffairs.com/travel/spirit.html

 

[aubriee]

Two things that makes me nervous about Spirit (beside the bad reviews) are the facts that they are new to Dallas (just adding the MCO and Boston flights March 22, 2012) and the fact that they have only one flight per day to and from MCO. I'm used to having several flights to choose from and flying out about 6:30am. Spirit's only flight doesn't leave DFW until 10:15am and then the return flight doesn't get back into Dallas until 10:05PM. |It feels like I'm losing half of my first day at WDW. I love that the flight is nonstop though.

Hope everything goes smooth with both of our flights. Glad they're opening up the DFW-MCO flight and hopefully they'll add more flights to it. Sure wish Air Tran was back though.

Well, I haven't even flown Spirit yet and I'm already unhappy with them. I just got back from WDW (flew American) Saturday night (2/11). I checked my email Sunday morning, just to find a notice from Spirit that they had changed both my May flights. They moved my arriving flight back several hours to 2:45pm. I am now not getting into MCO until 6:20pm Saturday, May 5th, plus will now be leaving to come home 1 1/2 hours earlier. I am used to arriving at MCO around 9:00am. I'm now losing about 8 hours of my trip. I called, but that's the only flight out and unlike Air Tran, who will refund your money if they make a change that doesn't work for you, Spirit refused to refund my money.

I also have my Sept trip booked with Spirit. I sure hope they don't change those flights. I would have booked my Oct 27th-Nov 3rd flights with them, but those flights aren't out yet. I'll probably be paying more and booking with either American or Southwest now, just to make sure I can get those early morning flights out and late flights back home.

 

[Keegansmommy]

Well, I haven't even flown Spirit yet and I'm already unhappy with them. I just got back from WDW (flew American) Saturday night (2/11). I checked my email Sunday morning, just to find a notice from Spirit that they had changed both my May flights. They moved my arriving flight back several hours to 2:45pm. I am now not getting into MCO until 6:20pm Saturday, May 5th, plus will now be leaving to come home 1 1/2 hours earlier. I am used to arriving at MCO around 9:00am. I'm now losing about 8 hours of my trip. I called, but that's the only flight out and unlike Air Tran, who will refund your money if they make a change that doesn't work for you, Spirit refused to refund my money.

I also have my Sept trip booked with Spirit. I sure hope they don't change those flights. I would have booked my Oct 27th-Nov 3rd flights with them, but those flights aren't out yet. I'll probably be paying more and booking with either American or Southwest now, just to make sure I can get those early morning flights out and late flights back home.

This exact thing happened to us last June. We lost a whole day between our incoming out outgoing flight times changing. I was so ticked!

As for $9 fare club, yep only one family member has to join, but that family member has to be purchasing a ticket. For example, I joined, but I couldn't use it to buy my mom's plane ticket when she went to Atlantic City because *I* wasn't going too.

For many trips Spirit has been considerably cheaper than any other airline...even with all their goofy fees. Yes, we always pay for seating because my children are little and I'm afraid of not being seated by them. This is our first trip in awhile we will not be flying Spirit because they weren't the cheapest. I am also not impressed that they lowered the weight limit on their suitcases to 40 pounds.

 

[judypriv]

In the game late but I would agree before recently that Spirit was the cheapest and I never had too much issue with them. Once or twice we had a short delay but everyone at the airport is respectful and helpful. I have the $ 9.00 fare club but in the last three months I have been looking for a flight for our September trip there is no club savings and the prices are sky high (for Spirit).