Flights Detroit to MCO in Sept

[CKMommaof3]

We are a family of 5 looking to fly from Detroit to Orlando in mid September. Spirit currently has flights at $69 each way or $39 with a $9 fare club membership. I am looking for any comments on Spirit as well as the $9 fare club. I can't seem to find much about it without registering first. This would likely be our only flight on Spirit in the 12 month period.

Should we book now or will a better deal be out closer to the trip?

We have driven every other time so the airport issue is new to us. We are looking at having a night in Orlando on each end of the trip to maximize our time at WDW. Are we still eligible for the ME?

TIA,
Amy

 

[DebbieB]

We are a family of 5 looking to fly from Detroit to Orlando in mid September. Spirit currently has flights at $69 each way or $39 with a $9 fare club membership. I am looking for any comments on Spirit as well as the $9 fare club. I can't seem to find much about it without registering first. This would likely be our only flight on Spirit in the 12 month period.

Should we book now or will a better deal be out closer to the trip?

We have driven every other time so the airport issue is new to us. We are looking at having a night in Orlando on each end of the trip to maximize our time at WDW. Are we still eligible for the ME?

TIA,
Amy

There was a post last week about Spirit. The seats are very close, there's only a 28" pitch, which is the distance between the rows. Most airlines are 31" or 32". Seats do not recline.

Anyone can use ME. Spirit is not eligible for Resort Luggage Check-in for the return.

 

[Nadjalu]

Amy, I am in the Detroit area and we fly out of Metro.
We are using Spirit at the end of the month and I have to say I am dreading it.

We are not "spirit club" members and usually fly Delta (northwest actually) however we couldn't get the times or the fares we wanted and went with Spirit.
From what I hear it was a mistake. Now we haven't done it yet, but Spirit charges for carry on bags (the only carrier to do so) as well as checked bags. So look into that before you book.
With a family of 5 if everyone has a carry on that will add up!

I can post the link for you below.

Also Spirit has the least amount of leg room of all the airlines. So if anyone tall is in your party they will be severely cramped (my husband is 6'3 and he is not happy about this).

Another thing, you have to pay to claim a seat together as they do not sit people together unless you pay for it. So if you want to sit together that is another fee.

As I said, we are very disappointed to have chosen Spirit for this vacation. It is actually costing us more $$ than if we had flown Delta at the high price. It wasn't a savings in the end!!!

http://www.spirit.com//Policiesbags.aspx

Have a great trip! Hope you find a cheap/comfortable way there.

 

[dunbarfamily]

Amy, I am in the Detroit area and we fly out of Metro.
We are using Spirit at the end of the month and I have to say I am dreading it.

We are not "spirit club" members and usually fly Delta (northwest actually) however we couldn't get the times or the fares we wanted and went with Spirit.
From what I hear it was a mistake. Now we haven't done it yet, but Spirit charges for carry on bags (the only carrier to do so) as well as checked bags. So look into that before you book.
With a family of 5 if everyone has a carry on that will add up!

I can post the link for you below.

Also Spirit has the least amount of leg room of all the airlines. So if anyone tall is in your party they will be severely cramped (my husband is 6'3 and he is not happy about this).

Another thing, you have to pay to claim a seat together as they do not sit people together unless you pay for it. So if you want to sit together that is another fee.

As I said, we are very disappointed to have chosen Spirit for this vacation. It is actually costing us more $$ than if we had flown Delta at the high price. It wasn't a savings in the end!!!

http://www.spirit.com//Policiesbags.aspx

Have a great trip! Hope you find a cheap/comfortable way there.

While the seats are very close together, my 6'7" husband said he wasn't any more cramped on Spirit than he is on any other airline.

We've only used Spirit once. We've done Northwest from DTW a few times, and Airtran from FNT. This time, we're doing AirTran from DTW. Direct flight....love it!!!

 

[CKMommaof3]

I think with the baggage fees that Spirit charges we will be planning on doing the drive. If cheap flights become available closer to the day, we may surprise the kids with the flights. We have only ever driven up to this point so they know no different and we try to make the travel part of the trip too by stopping and seeing things along the way.

Amy

 

[bcvprincesses]

We have flown Spirit from Detroit at least 50 times and love it. The cheap rates make up for everything else. Our family of four has never paid for seats and have always sat together. We just check in online 24 hours before the flight and Spirit assigns you seats for free. My dh is 6 ft 5 in and says that he has about the same amount of room as any other airline. I would much rather be cramped in a small space then in a car for 24 hours. Carry on bags are free as long as they fit under your seat. My girls always bring a backpack.

We are members of the $9 club and have never paid more then $100 RT including taxes in years. Thanks to Spirit we can go to Disney every few months.

 

[budbeerlady]

The spirit carry on charge is for the HUGE carryons, if its small enough for under the seats like a backpack its still free. http://www.spirit.com/Policiesbags.aspx

We have flown with Spirit in the past from DTW, it was fine. They got us to Disney safely and with no other issues than anyone else. If they are the cheapest I will fly with them again.

 

[Colleen27]

I'm not a fan of Spirit at all, having flowng them out of DTW to MCO twice. Not that we've had bad experiences, but with all the upcharges they just don't usually save us any money. But their fare sales out of DTW have been pretty spectacular, so we're flying them in March for the first time in 4 years. At $36 each way, it is a pretty huge savings that even the bag fees can't negate.

The fare club offers $10 per bag savings on luggage fees, so depending on how much luggage you expect to have it might pay for itself in that alone. We've never found it necessary to be members to get good fares, but did sign up for the trial to save on our bags for our March trip.

I do like that they charge for carry-ons rather than just for checked bags. On our last Delta flight it took forever to get off the plane because everyone was carry-on only (most using their kids' carry-on allowances too, and then trying to juggle kids too young to pull suitcases and the carry-on bags, and the personal items, and coats, and gate-checked strollers... You get the picture.). I'm hoping that with Spirit charging for carry-ons we won't have quite so much of that to contend with because there's no big incentive to drag everything through the airport instead of checking it.

 

[Disneyforus]

My 2 cents.
I joined the $9 fare club, and ended up not booking....because it ended up being more money than delta. This was for a trip we took last Sept.

So, now I am looking for May 2011 airfare, and for crying out loud I paid for the stupid $9 fare club....but guess what? It's not cheaper yet...To get the times I wanted I was paying $39 one way and $69 back....by the time I paid for 3 checked bags (for 7 of us) and chose the cheapest seats it came out to be around $100 more than a delta flight that had better times.

I wrote down the fees to keep and compare:
3 checked bags both ways $108
7, $10 seats both ways (cheapest you can get) $140
Taxes for 7 tickets $261
So, that is $509 more than the actual price I would pay for the ticket.


I will watch and see what happens.

 

[sweetdana]

I fly DTW to MCo 4-5 times a year. I have flown Spirit twice, and split airtran and delta all the other times. I AM ALL ABOUT saving 49$ here and 25$ there.. I do not believe you get this with spirit.

I did not notice the smaller seat room, but the fees I did. I feel cheaped when they seem to have a better deal and charge for CARRYONS, seats, bags, next what toilet paper? R U kidding me? I did pay for the trial of the 9$ fair club, booked a flight (NOT A 9$ flight couldn't get one), and cancelled within the 90 days.

Delta's 2 big pros are price is competitve, no charge for seats, and (with the delta credit card) no charge for bags, and either way no charge for carry-ons. and 2) they have like 5 flights a day, so if there is a delay or cancel it is cake to get home.

Air tran is often within 10 - 20$ of Delta, free carry ons, pay for bags and seats are cheaper than with Spirit. I check between Delta and Air tran usually pick one of those.
I would not pay the 9$ again, as I have had no luck getting what I wanted, I would probably not fly spirit, unless with the added 75$ -100$ for extras it was still cheaper.