Budget Airlines

[tzolkin]

Any input on using or avoiding budget airlines would be appreciated. Planning to fly non-stop from Charlotte to Las Vegas. Spririt and Frontier are 1/3 of the price of American Airlines. If the difference was smaller, I wouldn't have even considered it but now I'm curious.

Is the risk that you may get stranded if your flight is delayed/cancelled because there are fewer flights each day?

I know that you have to pay for baggage and extras, but we are pretty low maintenance and would take 1 bag max for the both of us so it's still a huge savings even if you add on $50 for a bag.

 

[Babs Johnson]

Most flights on such airlines are fine, but yes, be aware that in case of irregular operations, your options are severely limited or even nonexistent. It could be days before they could accommodate you on another flight.

 

[soccerdad72]

Always cost out the full price of the ticket (including bags and seats) before you compare to the other airlines.

And I always try to have an early morning flight on those airlines (without connections, if possible). As the day goes on, any delay in their services tends to snowball into later on in the day.

 

[njcoach24]

I started flying on Frontier and absolutely love it. I love that sometimes kids fly free with the discount den. And for short trips we just do the free personal item with exactly what we need. On a longer stay I buy one checked bag that we can fit everything in + plus our two free personal items. I don't pay for the seats because they sit kids with adults in the party.

If its a longer flight, Alaska is my favorite. Frontier from NJ doesn't have many options for longer flights. I just use them for trips to Orlando.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

You Get what you pay for!

My wife and I had this argument.
She knows better….

Until spirit and frontier both cancel her flights hours after departure time ….

It took her 4 failed attempts over 2 years to realize it is just not worth it ….

Every time she got canceled on she had to buy walk up fairs for five…. Then fight to get her money back from the other airlines….



Btw my avatar might give you a hint of what I do for a living

 

[MamaMermaid]

I will never, ever fly with Spirit again. We've been stranded multiple times and they are useless.

We are trying Breeze next month. I'm a little nervous!

 

[EACarlson]

I wouldn't use them for anything that you'll be horribly upset if you miss. I won't use them for business trips but would for a weekend away, just know that you may have to make alternate plans if things go sideways while away from home. I have enough points on all the major airlines that I can get home, just may cost me more than I want to spend. Next June I have a business trip for my day job that is taking me to Denver for a week. My company is flying me United, my wife is going to join me flying Allegiant. If something happens and her flight down gets cancelled, not a big loss, if her flight home gets cancelled, she can either wait three days for the next one or I can fly her home on United.

 

[wdwnut]

I’ve flown both Spirit and Frontier. I don’t check a bag because I always have access to laundry. I agree that the earlier the flight, the less chance you have for delays.

 

[kdonnel]

I have found when there are no IROPS (irregular operations) Spirit, Frontier, Allegiant, are great for short (4 hours or less) non stop flights. I would fly them again as a family in these limited circumstances. I would never fly them if the flight I booked was anything other then non stop.

When weather brings IROPS they all fall way short of the major (Delta, United, American) domestic airlines.

Southwest and JetBlue kinda fall somewhere in between.

As a family we have flown Spirit and Frontier several times each without issue. The best flight being a Spirit flight that was $34.25 each round trip. You can't beat $34.25 when the flights take off and land on time.

My wife though has had a bad experience with Frontier when flying with a school group. IROPS with a group of 25 high schoolers is not fun. They got stranded overnight in Denver due to the plane breaking. They had issues getting food and hotel vouchers and had issues the next day flying out as the group had to be split across multiple flights while still sending an adult with each batch of kids which seemed to be something the Frontier agent had a hard time understanding.

 

[jimmymc]

I take them pretty often, with a few caveats.

Because they don't fly as often, you may get stranded for days. I once had a flight canceled and their next offer was 2 days out. Luckily I canceled, got a refund, and was able to buy a United flight for not much more. But now I usually only use them if I have a free place to stay at my destination, in case it happens again.

You already know that all the charges are extra, including carry-on bags.

I refuse to use Frontier any more after the recent incidents where they were charging for personal items which were clearly the correct size. The airline basically denied it was happening, despite videos showing it was. So now I just don't bother with them.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I have never flown Spirit and never will. My home airport is Philly and many news stories have come from that airport with spirit employees and customers. No thanks.

I have flown frontier a few times and luckily never had issues but this was to places that had multiple flights a day out of PHL to the destination and back and we only do nonstop. I felt if there was a cancellation I had a shot at being rescheduled quickly. It was also group friend trips so everyone wanted the cheapest flight so I went along with it and luckily it worked out well. You can’t beat $50 RT to Nashville.

I have never used it going to Disney and would never. I did use it once coming home because they had the latest flight out of MCO to PHL at 10:30 pm. And I figured if I’m stuck an extra day at Disney that’s not so bad.

Now that you can no longer speak to a live agent (like Spirit) and can only do a chat agent I probably won’t fly them anymore. I would rather pay more with another airline. It’s not worth the headache.

I recently had a trip to Savannah booked that was moved multiple times. Not small 15 minute moves either. 9 am arrival to 8 pm arrival. I ended up cancelling and it confirmed why I really don’t want to fly them anymore. Doing the chat agent to cancel wasn’t so bad but you can not get to a live agent at all. So if it was a bigger issue it’s not an option.

 

[tzolkin]

Additional info:
-- Just spouse and I
-- Nonstop flights-- only thing offered on Spirit is 8:00am going and 11pm returning
-- Price difference is around $850
-- We are planning to "do Vegas" for a few nights at the beginning of the trip, then rent a car and stay with family in town the remainder. So, it would be really disappointing if our departure flight was affected, but not a huge deal if we had to stay for an extra day or two on the return home.

 

[kdonnel]

Additional info:
-- Just spouse and I
-- Nonstop flights-- only thing offered on Spirit is 8:00am going and 11pm returning
-- Price difference is around $850
-- We are planning to "do Vegas" for a few nights at the beginning of the trip, then rent a car and stay with family in town the remainder. So, it would be really disappointing if our departure flight was affected, but not a huge deal if we had to stay for an extra day or two on the return home.

I am guessing part of why it is that much cheaper is the red eye return. Have you done as close as possible a pricing comparison with flights at those same times with the bigger airlines?

I know when looking for flights from ATL to LAS or MCO that Spirit and Frontier are often way cheaper for the really inconvenient times but actually much closer to Delta in pricing during the times I really want to fly.

Have you looked at two one ways?

Go on a full fare airline and return on the Spirit redeye?

 

[Luthien Tinuviel]

We fly Frontier pretty much exclusively at this point, but we typically fly out of Denver and that is Frontier's base of operations. They do charge for everything, so by the time you add all that up, it's really not that much cheaper than United or the other big carriers.

We really haven't had an issue with Frontier (knock on wood as we fly out on Saturday to MCO), save a weather delay here and there. The 30 or so times I've flown on United throughout the course of my adult life, every... single... trip has been a problem, and not just a little delay, but a massive problem - flights canceled, stranded at connecting airports, flights delayed by 12 hours, lost luggage that wasn't returned for weeks. I have nothing good to say about United at this point (and I have family that works them!). Denver is also a hub for United, so why they can't seem to get it together, I don't know.

I've never flown on Spirit, so I can't speak to that.

 

[_19disnA]

I have never flown Spirit and never will. My home airport is Philly and many news stories have come from that airport with spirit employees and customers. No thanks.

I agree, the city where I used to live, Spirit was CONSTANTLY on the local news showing irate passengers stranded for days when their flight was unable to depart (or return) and the next scheduled flight was a few days away. Nope, not for me, will never choose to fly with Spirit.

Have flown on Frontier and never had any issues. With any of those 'shoe-string' airlines you need to compare the TOTAL cost of a ticket as others have also pointed out. Online sites comparing 'base' price of tickets is very misleading due to the add-ons for things like seat assignments, luggage, carry-ons/etc. I think many airlines purposely obscure the total cost of a ticket to try to APPEAR to be a lower cost option. By the time you add in all of those extras, you probably aren't saving nearly as much as you thought.

If they don't fly a route multiple times per day or only every so often, what happens when there is bad weather or a maintenance issue and no other flights are offered? I rarely need to call any airline since you can do virtually everything online. Not having a live person to talk with wouldn't cause me to avoid any airline.

 

[kdonnel]

If JetBlue is allowed to buy Spirit, what will that do for Allegiant and Frontier fares?

I assume JetBlue will want to operate as a single airline and not as JetBlue and Spirit.

I guess the argument is that a combined JetBlue/Spirit will be better able to compete with AA, United, and Delta, lowering their fares.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Flying seems like such a nightmare right now.

How is it that flying has gotten so much worse while getting more expensive when, presumably, we now have all these purported genius AI systems at the disposal of one of the most lucrative industries on the planet? As a society we have satellite weather data, monitors and cameras everywhere, self driving planes and atomic clocks and on the sales side every single flight that exists at the disposal of a system designed to make flying the best possible experience for humans. How are there any miscalculations at all now? Why are planes late? Why is weather disruption missed? Where is the money saved & why aren't flights more direct and cheaper? Maybe humans are just better and we need to get back to humans in air travel because if this is what advanced looks like it is a disaster.

Can't stand it, flying used to be so much fun.

 

[MillauFr]

I like Allegiant's marketing slogan.... "Why wait until you get to Las Vegas to start gambling? With Allegiant the gambling starts when you book a ticket with us."

 

[bcla]

Flew on Spirit (round-trip) once OAK-LAS and was worried about all the horror stories. But it was considerably cheaper than any other fare.

Paid for the "Really Big Seat" for $20 each outbound and that was nice. I also paid $7 for canned beer.

The only thing I was worried about was getting nickeled and died for everything. But their charge for carry-on (which is more than checked in) means there are few of them and that is a huge source of delay and hassle. They also won't allow anything in the overhead bins that doesn't have a paid carry-on tag, so any "personal items" has to go under the seat in front. But overall the boarding is quick because there are few people fiddling around with

And the one really big thing to consider is that the checked-in baggage standard weight is 40 lbs. For most airlines this is 50 lbs. However, I didn't carefully weight it on the way home and it was just over 40 lbs when it was weighed in Vegas and I was about to just take a heavier article of clothing out, but told not to worry about it.

I was worried that I might need to pay for boarding pass printing, but was probably off about that. I think they charge if one requests that an employee print one out, but I'm thinking that's free at a self-service kiosk. Even then I went to FedEx Office and speed printed the boarding passes for less than $2 and most of that was the print page cost.

OK - looked it up and it's expensive ($25) to have a human help print a boarding pass, but it's implied that self-service kiosks are free.

https://customersupport.spirit.com/en-us/category/article/KA-01236​

If you don’t check in online, our kiosks at the airport are self-serve and easy to use. Customer Service Agents are available at the airport; however, you may wait longer at our check-in counters and there is a charge of $25 to print each boarding pass.​

 

[Robbie Cottam]

Additional info:
-- Just spouse and I
-- Nonstop flights-- only thing offered on Spirit is 8:00am going and 11pm returning
-- Price difference is around $850
-- We are planning to "do Vegas" for a few nights at the beginning of the trip, then rent a car and stay with family in town the remainder. So, it would be really disappointing if our departure flight was affected, but not a huge deal if we had to stay for an extra day or two on the return home.

Just asking as you understand that if they cancel your 8 am flight, the next flight they offer you may well be after your return date…