Lowdown on Spirit Airline?

[ninafeliz]

I was looking for alternative direct flights to Orlando from either Pittsburgh, Cleveland, or Buffalo to our usual Southwest, and found out that Spirit had direct flights from Pittsburgh at times that actually work perfect for us. But I'm having a hard time understanding their pricing! I get that the basic fare includes nothing but a small personal item, so everything else is additional. I used their FAQ but it still isn't clear to me what the $9 club gets you - are there some $9 flights, or what? I don't want to join for $59 a year and find out that it doesn't change the flight price, but then again maybe their are other benefits that would make it worthwhile, like baggage, etc? And does it cover all 4 of us if just I buy it for $59 or do we all have to? For some reason I just found their site confusing. Of course just the flight is extremely cheap without any fare club or add ons, but then we can't take anything and might not sit together - not an option for us .

Does anyone have experience with Spirit and the time to just give a basic rundown of how it works and their opinion? I've always shied away from the ultra low cost carriers for various reasons, but since there are so few direct flights left and SW is a bit more than I would like to spend for a long weekend trip and the times aren't great, I'm considering branching out.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

The $9 club gets you a discounted fare and discount baggage fee's.
Keep in mind if anything happens and your flight gets cancelled it could be days before you can be put on another flight. Spirit only has a small number of planes and if something happens they don't have a plane on stand by and you will have to take a seat on the next available plane with room. I watched the other day a flight to Vegas was cancelled and the passengers where mad because it was Friday and they we being told they could not get on another flight till Monday!

Yes it will cover everyone on your family as long as the person who has the membership is flying with them

Yes you will have to pay extra if you want to sit together. Seat prices are $11 to $54 a person.
Carry on bags are $35 and if you belong to the $9 you get $9 off the price of your bag

 

[ninafeliz]

The $9 club gets you a discounted fare and discount baggage fee's.
Keep in mind if anything happens and your flight gets cancelled it could be days before you can be put on another flight. Spirit only has a small number of planes and if something happens they don't have a plane on stand by and you will have to take a seat on the next available plane with room. I watched the other day a flight to Vegas was cancelled and the passengers where mad because it was Friday and they we being told they could not get on another flight till Monday!

Yes it will cover everyone on your family as long as the person who has the membership is flying with them

Yes you will have to pay extra if you want to sit together. Seat prices are $11 to $54 a person.

Thanks for replying!

Yeah, that's on of the main reasons I've always avoided the ultra low cost airlines like Spirit and Frontier, I was afraid of our flight getting cancelled and having no other options. It's just this trip their flight times are perfect for us, and SW times aren't great and cost a lot. But you writing that and reminding me of what I was always worried about is making me rethink it again. We're only going for 4 nights, so if our flight is cancelled and we can't go that day we practically shouldn't go, or will at least have a pretty short trip. We also have to have at least a couple of bags and carry ons, and not sitting together isn't an risk we're willing to take, so we keep adding on to the price. However, it's still cheaper, I just have to decide if it's enough cheaper...

I still think their site is confusing - I guess maybe it's because you have the option of adding so much stuff on!

 

[Grammy4Lizzy]

Are you sure that Spirit uses MCO? I thought that they flew into Sanford.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Are you sure that Spirit uses MCO? I thought that they flew into Sanford.

Yes they go to MCO.. Allegiant goes to Sanford

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Thanks for replying!

Yeah, that's on of the main reasons I've always avoided the ultra low cost airlines like Spirit and Frontier, I was afraid of our flight getting cancelled and having no other options. It's just this trip their flight times are perfect for us, and SW times aren't great and cost a lot. But you writing that and reminding me of what I was always worried about is making me rethink it again. We're only going for 4 nights, so if our flight is cancelled and we can't go that day we practically shouldn't go, or will at least have a pretty short trip. We also have to have at least a couple of bags and carry ons, and not sitting together isn't an risk we're willing to take, so we keep adding on to the price. However, it's still cheaper, I just have to decide if it's enough cheaper...

I still think their site is confusing - I guess maybe it's because you have the option of adding so much stuff on!

Well as a last resort if something goes wrong you could try and catch a flight to Akron Ohio and rent a car to get home which would be a 3 hr drive. Or look at SWA Columbus or Cleveland flights they have no plane change options for about $95 each way and the drive is 3 hr to both airports

 

[bianca]

We've been using Spirit for our FL trips for over 10 years. They fly direct to MCO (which nobody else does). They have always been on time or early and actually have cleaner planes than we've flown on Southwest or Delta. We've never had an instance where our flight has been cancelled ...... not to say it doesn't happen. We belong to the $9 Fare Club and use the Spirit MasterCard. Our flights in October on the way down (for 8 of us) are all paid for with points earned from prior flights and MasterCard spending. The $9 Fare club gets you cheaper bags if purchased when booking flights. You don't even have to pay for seats if you wait until 24 hours prior to boarding time. They open all the seats up for free at that time and there are always plenty to choose from. You can keep checking the status of your flight and watch the seats get booked up. I guess, if you get nervous about not having enough choice, you can purchase the seats. We actually prefer the $11 seats at the very back of the plane. The back seats are always left until the bitter end. It honestly only makes about 5 minutes difference time-wise for disembarking.

 

[ninafeliz]

Well as a last resort if something goes wrong you could try and catch a flight to Akron Ohio and rent a car to get home which would be a 3 hr drive. Or look at SWA Columbus or Cleveland flights they have no plane change options for about $95 each way and the drive is 3 hr to both airports

We are about equidistant, within 20 min, of airports in Buffalo/Niagara, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Akron/Canton, but over the years they have all been dropping direct flights and there aren't many left. I'm also being a bit picky about times, I'm trying to maximize the time we have for a short trip, so I'm not really considering flights that get us there late or leave early, even if they are cheaper. If it comes down to it we could consider that, but to me its worth more money to get 2 more half or 3/4 days at Disney! Columbus is way further than we will drive to take a flight to Florida! I would maybe consider a no plane change option, but there would have to be a pretty compelling reason - and $95 each way might be compelling enough! I don't recall seeing those from Pit and Buf, I discounted Cle when I saw no direct flights but I'll go check it out again to see what the no plane change options are. I briefly discussed this whole thing with my DH tonight, and he's reluctant to try Spirit but was't completely against it, I'll look into it a little more tomorrow when I have some time. The first time we had a plane cancellation and had to scramble to catch a flight to a different airport and rent a one way car to go get our vehicle at the first airport would be the last time we ever set foot on whatever airline that was! My DH would also take away my trip planning privileges

 

[ninafeliz]

We've been using Spirit for our FL trips for over 10 years. They fly direct to MCO (which nobody else does). They have always been on time or early and actually have cleaner planes than we've flown on Southwest or Delta. We've never had an instance where our flight has been cancelled ...... not to say it doesn't happen. We belong to the $9 Fare Club and use the Spirit MasterCard. Our flights in October on the way down (for 8 of us) are all paid for with points earned from prior flights and MasterCard spending. The $9 Fare club gets you cheaper bags if purchased when booking flights. You don't even have to pay for seats if you wait until 24 hours prior to boarding time. They open all the seats up for free at that time and there are always plenty to choose from. You can keep checking the status of your flight and watch the seats get booked up. I guess, if you get nervous about not having enough choice, you can purchase the seats. We actually prefer the $11 seats at the very back of the plane. The back seats are always left until the bitter end. It honestly only makes about 5 minutes difference time-wise for disembarking.

Thanks for the info. SO with the $9 fare club flights aren't $9? I kind of assumed they weren't, because then joining would be a no-brainer and that would be too good to be true, I was just wondering about the name. I wish there were an easier way to compare with and without joining the club. I will spend some more time tomorrow trying to compare a little more.

I know a lot of people don't pay for seats, or EBCI with SW, we just get too antsy and find it "worth it" mentally to us to pay to be sure we can sit together. I don't want to get ripped off, but I'll pay what I consider a reasonable fee to not have to stress about it when I check in, or board, or whenever the case may be. It just means I have to take that cost into consideration, and with 4 people it's that cost x4. All more variables, making me wish SW had just been the typical cost for us instead of $300-$500 more

 

[writerguyfl]

Keep in mind if anything happens and your flight gets cancelled it could be days before you can be put on another flight. Spirit only has a small number of planes and if something happens they don't have a plane on stand by and you will have to take a seat on the next available plane with room. I watched the other day a flight to Vegas was cancelled and the passengers where mad because it was Friday and they we being told they could not get on another flight till Monday!

To me, this is the most important factor to consider. Ultra-low-cost carriers like Spirit are fine when things go as planned. When something gets wonky and your flight gets canceled, whatever savings you had gets wiped out with the cost of buying a same-ticket ticket on another airline or paying for a hotel until the next Spirit flight.

It's also worth checking out Spirit's schedule. Although Orlando tends to get daily service on Spirit, other destinations only get 1 or 2 flights each week.

The only way I'd fly Spirit is if I had top-of-the-line travel insurance.

 

[Pmlocke]

Way to go Bianca. My wife and I travel to wdw every year and have flown Spirit every year since 2009. My son flies to WDW twice every year and flies Spirit and my brother flies Spirit every year to WDW as well. None of us has ever had a cancellation, ever. Two years ago we had a 20 minute delay. There was a fire at the boarding area so they had to move the plane down from that area. Not exactly Spirits fault. Always left on time, always arrived ahead of time, never had any baggage lost. The best part, always a direct flight to MCO and then home again to Detroit. I have checked fares as well. Spirit is always cheaper. No, we don't get peanuts, an in-flight movie, warm towels, etc. I get to Disney and then back home, non-stop, safely and cheaper. Maybe in my case you could say we were lucky but don't forget the rest of my family as well. Maybe we are all blessed. Of course, this is only my experiance with Spirit. I cannot relate any others experiances with Spirit or other airlines. I have only reported my families personal experiances.

 

[tnolan]

DON'T TAKE SPIRIT! A friend took them when we visited DW 2 years ago, and 30 minutes before we were to check out and head for the airport she got a text saying her flight had been cancelled, with no suggestions as to help, just that the flight had been cancelled. I had my hands full because she was in tears and I was busy trying to find a Delta flight to get her back home, which luckily I did. A few months after that, there was a riot at Ft. Lauderdale airport because they cancelled 9 flights at once and left 1000 people stranded. Don't use that airline, they are tied with Frontier as the worst airline in terms of customer satisfaction.

 

[bianca]

Way to go Bianca. My wife and I travel to wdw every year and have flown Spirit every year since 2009. My son flies to WDW twice every year and flies Spirit and my brother flies Spirit every year to WDW as well. None of us has ever had a cancellation, ever. Two years ago we had a 20 minute delay. There was a fire at the boarding area so they had to move the plane down from that area. Not exactly Spirits fault. Always left on time, always arrived ahead of time, never had any baggage lost. The best part, always a direct flight to MCO and then home again to Detroit. I have checked fares as well. Spirit is always cheaper. No, we don't get peanuts, an in-flight movie, warm towels, etc. I get to Disney and then back home, non-stop, safely and cheaper. Maybe in my case you could say we were lucky but don't forget the rest of my family as well. Maybe we are all blessed. Of course, this is only my experiance with Spirit. I cannot relate any others experiances with Spirit or other airlines. I have only reported my families personal experiances.

We fly out of Detroit, too. We always take flight #801 down. Since it's direct and only a 2 1/2 hour flight, we are on Disney property between 12-1 pm. Breakfast at Hockeytown Cafe holds us until we eat later in the day, so this whole food on the plane thing seems like a non-issue. Southwest can keep their peanuts (although someone earlier stated that they had discontinued them.) We usually take #892 back, but on occasion, take the earlier flight. Like you stated, have never lost luggage, Magical Express works great and we are always on time or early.

 

[bianca]

Thanks for the info. SO with the $9 fare club flights aren't $9? I kind of assumed they weren't, because then joining would be a no-brainer and that would be too good to be true, I was just wondering about the name. I wish there were an easier way to compare with and without joining the club. I will spend some more time tomorrow trying to compare a little more.

The $9 Fare club doesn't have $9 fares, but most of the sale fares they offer end in the number "9". In addition, you only have access to these sale fares if you are a member of the $9 club. A little known fact is that you can purchase your tickets at the airport for $17 less PER LEG OF TRIP per person. We've gotten many flights for $49 to $79. I have also talked to someone that told me about Spirit's "Penny Fares". They described them as last minute tickets available for .01 plus all the usual transportation fees to random locations. I have not tried this yet, but if this program is still available when I retire, I'll be showing up at the airport with my suitcase ready to Roll!

 

[ninafeliz]

Thanks everyone for the input, I appreciate it!

Spirit and Frontier seem to be very polarizing - people either love them or hate them! I assume those that love them have not had a disaster happen, and those that hate them either have had something pretty bad happen, or know someone who did. We are not gambling type people, and in actuality I really don't want to use them now either, but in order to get flights with times that work that aren't over $400 each round trip for us it's looking like we might have to give them a try this trip! Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Latrobe all have flights that are around $150 RT bare fare, but even adding 2 total checked bags, 2 total carry ons, and the cheapest seats I think it will still come out a lot cheaper with better times. I'm still not decided, though. If we take a non direct flight home on United we can go from Cle for $331 RT, but we still have to pay for bags, and possibly seats, so it ends up close to or the same as SW by then.

I actually have a new question, just to complicate things. If we do end up taking spirit, I checked out their packages with hotel and we could get the Swan for a total of around $2500 for flights and 4 nights, which is very reasonable compared to what's available on the Disney site. I would pay $1125 for POR for 4 nights, plus airfare, which ends up making the Swan in the Epcot resort area during F&W about the same price as a moderate. But I have the same hesitations with Spirit, as well as I was wondering if I could add the reservation to MDE to get 60 day FPs. Does anyone know if I can? I wouldn't even know who to call to ask - Spirit? Disney? The Swan?

I definitely want to make this quick trip to do MNSSHP, F&W, and the Epcot passholder evening, but I'm finding this harder to plan and book than the 2 week trip we just took in June that was a 3 way split

 

[ninafeliz]

The $9 Fare club doesn't have $9 fares, but most of the sale fares they offer end in the number "9". In addition, you only have access to these sale fares if you are a member of the $9 club. A little known fact is that you can purchase your tickets at the airport for $17 less PER LEG OF TRIP per person. We've gotten many flights for $49 to $79. I have also talked to someone that told me about Spirit's "Penny Fares". They described them as last minute tickets available for .01 plus all the usual transportation fees to random locations. I have not tried this yet, but if this program is still available when I retire, I'll be showing up at the airport with my suitcase ready to Roll!

Ok, so here's my conundrum - I don't want to join the club if the fares are't better, but I'm not seeing a way to compare unless i join. Maybe the fares aren't cheaper on my dates, it would just be cheaper bags. The dates and prices for all airports I check have the $9 rate box empty and then the next box has the standard fare with a price. One of the legs is $51, so i can't imagine it being much cheaper I guess.

I think I'm just going to have to decide based on times and approximate prices, and then just bite the bullet and book and to some degree trust the website when it tells me I would actually save money buy joining the $9 club, and make sure to remember to cancel it before it auto renews unless we find ourselves loving the experience and wanting to continue. I just like to see every option priced out in front of me, and Spirits site and booking method are making that crazy hard for me!

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

We are about equidistant, within 20 min, of airports in Buffalo/Niagara, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Akron/Canton, but over the years they have all been dropping direct flights and there aren't many left. I'm also being a bit picky about times, I'm trying to maximize the time we have for a short trip, so I'm not really considering flights that get us there late or leave early, even if they are cheaper. If it comes down to it we could consider that, but to me its worth more money to get 2 more half or 3/4 days at Disney! Columbus is way further than we will drive to take a flight to Florida! I would maybe consider a no plane change option, but there would have to be a pretty compelling reason - and $95 each way might be compelling enough! I don't recall seeing those from Pit and Buf, I discounted Cle when I saw no direct flights but I'll go check it out again to see what the no plane change options are. I briefly discussed this whole thing with my DH tonight, and he's reluctant to try Spirit but was't completely against it, I'll look into it a little more tomorrow when I have some time. The first time we had a plane cancellation and had to scramble to catch a flight to a different airport and rent a one way car to go get our vehicle at the first airport would be the last time we ever set foot on whatever airline that was! My DH would also take away my trip planning privileges

Although SWA has no non stop flights they do offer direct flights (ones that make a stop but you do not get off the plane) for Cleveland to MCO flight and for MCO to CLE

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Do a search on 'cancelling the $9 club'. (Assume you will have to jump through LOTS of hoops and may not be successful..... there are people who have tried for years to cancel this and if they didn't jump through all the hoops were charged again. And if you don't cancel in time too bad you just agreed to another year!) As for trusting the website when it says you will save money.. Thanks for the laugh! You might save money, but then again all the $9 fares could easily be sold out for you dates. This is one of those things where you have to be flexible and fast! WHen they release the sale fare move quick

Remember this is an airline where the CEO said "we don't do customer service" (AND he meant that!) so assume that (A) they will strictly enforce all their rules, (B) they will charge for everything but air and bathroom (and they are probably working on that) and (C) when something happens they don't care. (See the Las Vegas plane cancellation earlier in this thread)

 

[writerguyfl]

Ok, so here's my conundrum - I don't want to join the club if the fares are't better, but I'm not seeing a way to compare unless i join.

This is the perfect example of why I won't fly on Spirit, even though I'm based in Fort Lauderdale (where they are headquartered). Spirit is a company that purposely makes things difficult in order to make a buck. Here, they are essentially tricking people into agreeing to a recurring credit card charge. And as OrangeCountyCommuter notes, they make it difficult to cancel that recurring charge.

It might be legal, but it's also unethical.

(Sorry that none of that really helps answer your questions about the package offer.)

 

[sjlogghe]

I refuse to fly Spirit - regardless of how cheap their fares are. I'll gladly pay more to make sure I get to my destination, with minimal issues along the way! I have had many family/friends with horror stories.

A Thursday flight cancelled, couldn't get on another flight until Sunday - was supposed to come home Monday. Had to cancel her trip.

My sister was stuck on the tarmac for over 2 hours, and had major flight delays on both legs of trip.

Another whose flight was cancelled, they supposedly found them another flight on a different airline. Her and her husband took their 2 small children, trekked to the other airport (MSP has 2 airports), only to find out Spirit failed to tell the other airline there were 4 people - not 1. So they didn't have room for them. She had to trek back to the other airport again, to finally get out late in the evening - they spent 12+ hours waiting and transferring between airports to get to Orlando.

Those are just the ones that stand out in my mind right now - I've heard many more!!