Any opionions on Spirit Airlines?

[4boys4me]

Just bought tickets Flint/MCO for $154.00 pp. I thought that was a great deal but after pulling up some old threads here on the DIS I'm concerned. Would love to hear feedback from anyone familiar with Spirit and/or the Flint, MI airport on their service. I believe it's a 717 plane.

Did I make a mistake?

 

[bcvprincesses]

Are you sure that you are flying out of Flint? I do not think that Spirit goes into Flint airport. We always fly Spirit out of Detroit and never have any problems. We usually leave and arrive early. You should have no problems

 

[jiminy14]

I flew Spirit with my family at Christmas and would think twice before using them again. The price was certainly right but the service was lacking. On both ends, there were not enough agents working and check-in took a long time. The Orlando check-in was a nightmare. No skycaps and extremely long lines with few agents. We nearly missed our flight even though we got to the airport two hours ahead of time. At one point, an agent came through the line pulling out passengers to Atlantic City (our stop) so that we could make the flight. When I asked about the lack of agents, I was told that some had called out "sick".
I also had a problem with luggage. They damaged two pieces of my luggage and refused to repair it. To begin with, it took me over 20 minutes just to find someone to file a complaint with. When I finally did, she took one look at the bags and said that "Spirit does not cover that kind of damage. If we did, then no one would be able to check any luggage."
The one suggestion I would make to you is to get there early!!!! I had selected seats online, only to find out at check-in that only one seat had registered. Good Luck.

 

[jaclark]

We flew them out of Chicago last August and had no problems... We are booked on them again for October..

I've had my luggage come through worse on other airlines so I guess that doesn't concern me though I don't recall having a problem.

Good luck!!
Annette

 

[Robinette]

I like Spirit. Never had any problems and I always get a great fare. Flint airport is small and convenient. I do know that Spirit doesn't have service out of Flint. They fly out of Detroit Metro.

 

[CAP Aircrew]

Never flew them so I can't comment on the service.
As far as equipment goes, I don't believe they fly the Boeing 717.
Spirit flies the older variant known as the MD-80. Now when I say older, I am not implying that it is not a good airplane. Quite the contrary. The MD-80 family of airplanes is very popular and a great plane to fly on. I would suggest though getting seats as far foward as possible. The engines on the MD-80 (and 717) are mounted on the rear of the fuselage. Sitting in the back of the plane can become rather noisy.

Check out www.seatguru.com
They may actually have the seat layout for Spirit.

 

[SyracuseWolvrine]

I flew on Spirit for one trip, and that was 1 trip too many. There were extremely long lines on both ends for check in, the plane on the outbound flight was seriously in need of a good interior refurb, and on returning to Detroit, we waited nearly 2 hours for our luggage. (For those who are familiar with Detroit, even Northwest can usually manage to make bags appear within 45 minutes)

Flint airport is a nice small airport. Very clean and attractive. Not a large selection in terms of food and beverage options, but what is available is reasonably priced. I'd fly out of Flint again with no hesitation.

CAP - I don't think the MD-80 is a variant of the 717. MD-80 is a McDonnell Douglas aircraft, the 717 is made by Boeing. Both, however, are pretty reasonable aircraft.

 

[Robinette]

Some thing else I just discovered about Spirit. If you booked online and need to change your reservation, they don't charge any fee's as long as you make the change online and within 30 days of departure. If the fare has gone up, you'll have to pay the difference.

Do all airlines do it this way?

 

[CAP Aircrew]

SyracuseWolvrine

CAP - I don't think the MD-80 is a variant of the 717. MD-80 is a McDonnell Douglas aircraft, the 717 is made by Boeing. Both, however, are pretty reasonable aircraft.

The 717 was actually a McDonnell Douglas product before Boeing took over McDonnell Douglas. I think it was called the MD-95 and when Boeing took over, it was changed to the 717.

McDonnell Douglas is no longer in operation as Boeing bought them out. Boeing discontinued most of McDonnell Douglas' product (MD-11, MD-80, etc) however they kept the MD-95 alive. They just changed the name to 717 to keep it in line with the way Boeing identifies their aircraft.

 

[MikeJ]

If the OP bought tickets for Flint/MCO, they were either purchased on NW or AirTran as I believe those are the only two airlines to fly nonstop. Or if the OP bought tickets on Spirit, they are flying out of DTW. Either way - we've flown both Spirit (DTW) and AirTran (FNT) to Orlando, and I preferred Airtran. Planes were newer, cleaner, and the service was generally better overall. Flint Bishop airport is a breeze to navigate - very clean and well laid out.

Having said that, though, we are flying Spirit on our next trip because AirTran could come nowhere close to matching Spirit's price.

- Mike

 

[4boys4me]

Thanks everyone...

I checked my tickets and they are on Air Tran., I bought them thru Travelocity and they billed it as a Spirit Airlines flight. It is out of Flint which sounds much more appealing to navigate than Detroit, and 1 hour closer to our hometown.

I'm a rookie flier and the tickets just say something about a 717 so I assumed that's the plane. Does anyone know where I can find out for sure what kind of plane it is?

How early should we be there to catch a 7:00 am flight?

 

[XStAnt]

If it's AirTran it's a Boeing 717, That's the only plane they fly. It's not a bad plane--2 seats on one side, three seats on the other. Go to www.seatguru.com for a seat map showing the configuration of the plane and what are good and bad seats on the plane.

Here's some friendly advice for the next plane ticket you buy: Use Travelocity, Expedia or Orbitz to see what airlines fly to/from a particular destination. Then go to that airlines website and book the ticket directly from the airline. This usually saves you the $5.00/ticket surcharge these sites impose. (Sometimes you'll find a site like Travelocity is actually lower than the airlines site, but it tends to be rare).

 

[SyracuseWolvrine]

Originally posted by CAP Aircrew

McDonnell Douglas is no longer in operation as Boeing bought them out. Boeing discontinued most of McDonnell Douglas' product (MD-11, MD-80, etc) however they kept the MD-95 alive. They just changed the name to 717 to keep it in line with the way Boeing identifies their aircraft.

Oops, I didn't realize that Boeing had bought McDonnell Douglas. My mistake.

 

[tinkerbell81284]

They are okay, just be prepared for delays!!!!! Almost every time I've flown on them (hey, we're cheap!) they've had a delay (probably about 15 times).

Tink

Any other questions or details PM me.