Spirit Air and Frontier Air Advice

[Pens Fan]

We live about an 45 minutes east of Pittsburgh which means we are about 75 minutes plus depending on traffic from the airport. We have a little local airport 10 minutes from our house. It's mostly for private jets, but Spirit does fly commercially from there. I have never flown them personally but my son has as well as many go our friends. Suffice it to say I have no desire to fly with them based on what I've been told. I'd much rather make the drive to the Burgh, pay for parking (our local airport has free parking) and have my choice of airlines. I've never never heard anything good about Spirit. One of the biggest complaints is that the flights get cancelled at an unusually high rate. They only fly once a day per location from our airport, so if your flight gets cancelled you are SOL. If your flight actually does happen everyone complains about the lack of leg room, the extra charges for everything (talk about nickel and diming!!) and the service. Nope. Not for us.

 

[Westcoastwild]

We live about an 45 minutes east of Pittsburgh which means we are about 75 minutes plus depending on traffic from the airport. We have a little local airport 10 minutes from our house. It's mostly for private jets, but Spirit does fly commercially from there. I have never flown them personally but my son has as well as many go our friends. Suffice it to say I have no desire to fly with them based on what I've been told. I'd much rather make the drive to the Burgh, pay for parking (our local airport has free parking) and have my choice of airlines. I've never never heard anything good about Spirit. One of the biggest complaints is that the flights get cancelled at an unusually high rate. They only fly once a day per location from our airport, so if your flight gets cancelled you are SOL. If your flight actually does happen everyone complains about the lack of leg room, the extra charges for everything (talk about nickel and diming!!) and the service. Nope. Not for us.

I'm no spirit fan, but other than the cancellations, I'm inclined to point out that your son and friends knew all of that before hand. No different from any other ULCC.

 

[mmouse37]

I've had two bad experiences with Spirit a few years and have not tried them again since but my friends just flew them last week with no issues.

I am flying United to Nashville tomorrow. I have the most miles with United so use them most of the time.

MJ

 

[Cackyschmackers]

Thank you everyone. I'm talking almost a $700 difference and that's WITH paying for assigned seats with both carriers. I'm wondering if trip insurance would cover a new flight if they cancel. I am cognizant of not choosing an airline that only flies once a day (like.Allegiant at another airport near us ). I know about the tighter legroom on Spirit, and thought since it's only a 2 hr flight, if we got aisle seats, it would be okay. I guess I just can't stomach the cost difference. Also, @Westcoastwild, we are only 27 mi away from PHL, and i do always check EWR and BWI.and it.never seems to make.sense.

 

[Westcoastwild]

Thank you everyone. I'm talking almost a $700 difference and that's WITH paying for assigned seats with both carriers. I'm wondering if trip insurance would cover a new flight if they cancel. I am cognizant of not choosing an airline that only flies once a day (like.Allegiant at another airport near us ). I know about the tighter legroom on Spirit, and thought since it's only a 2 hr flight, if we got aisle seats, it would be okay. I guess I just can't stomach the cost difference. Also, @Westcoastwild, we are only 27 mi away from PHL, and i do always check EWR and BWI.and it.never seems to make.sense.

$700 PER TICKET or 700 difference for all 5? Because the latter sounds about right- if you discount red eyes and want nonstops (which I usually do) it's probably $150 more than spirit usually is.

Have you played with your dates and tried leaving a day early or a day late? I'm assuming so but if not, that's what I would check.

Trip insurance is kind of risky b/c you'll still have to pay out of pocket IF you could even find 5 seats together on a different flight at the last moment.

 

[Cackyschmackers]

$700 PER TICKET or 700 difference for all 5? Because the latter sounds about right- if you discount red eyes and want nonstops (which I usually do) it's probably $150 more than spirit usually is.

Have you played with your dates and tried leaving a day early or a day late? I'm assuming so but if not, that's what I would check.

Trip insurance is kind of risky b/c you'll still have to pay out of pocket IF you could even find 5 seats together on a different flight at the last moment.

$700 difference for the 5 tix. The cheapest scenario tix for this trip are already the very most we've ever paid to fly to Orlando. I am just guessing it's bc we've never flown in August before. We can't add anymore days since this trip is already 9 days long and we start school as soon.as we get back. I've pulled all my usual money saving rabbits out of my hat. .. this.is.all I got left.

 

[Westcoastwild]

$700 difference for the 5 tix. The cheapest scenario tix for this trip are already the very most we've ever paid to fly to Orlando. I am just guessing it's bc we've never flown in August before. We can't add anymore days since this trip is already 9 days long and we start school as soon.as we get back. I've pulled all my usual money saving rabbits out of my hat. .. this.is.all I got left.

Ah. Ok. The August thing makes sense. Sadly it's just a really expensive time to fly. It's one of the few times I can travel and you should see the cost of cross country flights that month. 4 times more money than I paid off season. That was 3 months ago and they've just gone up.

Just my opinion but given that you have unique needs (specific flights, 5 people) and you have to make the ship (this is a cruise right or did I misunderstand that) I would fork out that $700 dollars. You really, really can't afford to fly spirit if you can't build an extra day into your itinerary just in case of cancellation.

The only way I make spirit work is that I build in days to spare, and I make sure I'm flying on the earliest day of a consecutive day run for Spirit (out of my home airport, it only has flights wed/thurs/Friday, so I fly on wed.)

 

[Dug720]

Ah. Ok. The August thing makes sense. Sadly it's just a really expensive time to fly. It's one of the few times I can travel and you should see the cost of cross country flights that month. 4 times more money than I paid off season. That was 3 months ago and they've just gone up.

Just my opinion but given that you have unique needs (specific flights, 5 people) and you have to make the ship (this is a cruise right or did I misunderstand that) I would fork out that $700 dollars. You really, really can't afford to fly spirit if you can't build an extra day into your itinerary just in case of cancellation.

The only way I make spirit work is that I build in days to spare, and I make sure I'm flying on the earliest day of a consecutive day run for Spirit (out of my home airport, it only has flights wed/thurs/Friday, so I fly on wed.)

That was my thought as soon as the OP said they cannot extend because school starts as soon as they get back. I would not gamble on an airline known for cancelling flights (or, in their parlance "moving them by 24 hours"). Especially with 5 people, you'd be paying a lot more than $700 to get back on time IF there were even any other airlines with available flights.

Even on major airlines, getting FIVE people rescheduled onto the same plane can be an issue. I know the Christmas blizzard of 2010 was an exception to the normal life in that pretty much everything in the affected area was shut for multiple days, but I was around people at the counter who had larger families and were looking at a week or two to get all of them on the same flight. I was solo and gave them every NYC option plus Philly, Boston, or DC and it was STILL 1/1 that they were able to get me onto a flight (I was scheduled for 12/28) - and that only happened because the agent just grabbed it and then told me.

Given that August is firmly in hurricane season, there is the possibility that MCO and surrounding airports could be affected with closures and cancellations, and a major carrier would ultimately give you more options.

Just things to think about. (I'm not sure what you mean by EWR or BWI "never seems to make sense" but in this case it might since your schedule is so locked.)

 

[phinz]

Spirit is the only airline I've known in modern times to have pilots go on strike as well. My friends got stranded in FLL a few years ago for that exact reason, and then there was this not too long ago:

 

[Cackyschmackers]

So, there's my second question : Wouldn't trip insurance cover any changes to airfare? I think I'll look into that as well. When our cruise out of Galveston was fogged out of the port and we couldn't disembark for hours, we missed our flight and had to fly out the next day instead (this was on United ) and all the direct flights were already booked so we had to connect through Chicago (bc of course there was also a storm ). Our trip insurance paid for all that. Meaning, not just one airline will be affected in case of storm (or hurricane ) . In the "good ole days " pre 9/11, when we missed flights due to weather, i recall they would actually put you on a completely different airline, if that got you to where you needed to be. I will look into that today ( what trip insurance will cover). And honestly, coming back we would split up if it got us home, although not desirable. I didn't even think of a hurricane! But that would affect any carrier, i suppose.

Re: EWR and BWI, since we only live >30 miles from PHL, flying out of an airport that takes over two hrs to get to for a 2+ hr flight doesn't make any sense. However, when flying overseas or across country, i will check those plus JFK/LGA.

 

[Dug720]

Even if trip insurance covers it (I'm honestly not sure it would cover an airline changing anything unless you purchased the insurance through the airline), I'm pretty sure you have to pay out first and get reimbursed.

I've only known them to change to another airline if there is some kind of partnership like the OneWorld Alliance or something - and to my knowledge none of the bargain carriers participate in those.

 

[Cackyschmackers]

Spirit is the only airline I've known in modern times to have pilots go on strike as well. My friends got stranded in FLL a few years ago for that exact reason, and then there was this not too long ago:

I saw that in the news as well.....hmmmm...

 

[Dug720]

And I get the driving thing, BUT if it gives you cheaper flights and/or more options it might be worth it in this case.

 

[phinz]

I saw that in the news as well.....hmmmm...

Do a search for Spirit Canceled Flight on Youtube and you'll get all sorts of news from all over the place. When they have so few backup planes there is a very big chance of issues.

 

[Dug720]

Oh, (sorry, brain is kicking in slowly), and yes a hurricane would affect all carriers, but those with larger fleets can more quickly recover. As @phinz pointed out, Spirit has a tiny fleet so it is mich harder for them to recover when something goes wrong.

 

[Cackyschmackers]

Yeah. I just feel like a 2-hr flight from one hub to another should be painless and not cost $400 RT.

 

[mouselike-harrier]

I'm cruising in August and the prices to fly, even with Spirit and Frontier, are astronomical. When I add the costs of all the extras, it's still up there. Trying to calculate costs for us, but $1200 or more roundtrip for 3 of us to fly to Florida is over my limit of what I'm willing to pay. We may be driving to Port Canaveral for the first time.

 

[Westcoastwild]

Look. The main difference between Spirit and say, Alaskan is that if you get stranded by Alaskan, customer service will work their hineys off to find you the next flight out. They'll say oh, honey, we are so sorry that we have inconvenienced you by being unable to put you on a plane for 10 hours. Even if it was a blizzard and not anything Alaskan did. If it is their fault, they will walk you over to another airline, yank another plane from somewhere else to make up your flight, or at very least give you compensation willingly. And they don't cancel unless it is extreme weather or mechanical failure. The latter is so, so rare.

Spirit will say hey, look at us, we found you a seat in a flight in 72 hours! Yay! We're so great! Even though we can't actually tell you why we cancelled, because heck, we don't know why we cancelled. They aboslutely do not walk you over to another airline. They don't have any other planes they can yank. You'll be fighting them every step of the way for compensation.

I am NOT bashing spirit. I like them for what they are and what they are is a way to get somewhere much faster than greyhound. Seriously. That is their market right there. Desperate 20 somethings and hardcore cheapskates who think Amtrak's 10-40 hour delays are just part of travel. People upthread say they've got no customer service- well, they don't need customer service because their competition doesn't have it either. And their competition is not the big airlines. It's greyhound, bolt bus, Amtrak.

They'll get you where you're going. But relying on them when you stand to lose something expensive like a cruise and when you've got kids that need a schedule is a really, really terrible idea.

I get what you're saying about driving, but I frequently drive 2 hours to fly so I can save $150-200. It's super expensive to fly out of my home airport. So if money is the driving factor, I'd choose that over Spirit.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Unfortunately, for airlines with real "hubs," they tend to have dominance in that market and price as quasi-monopolies. Delta and United do a lot of this.

 

[Donna3271]

I'm cruising in August and the prices to fly, even with Spirit and Frontier, are astronomical. When I add the costs of all the extras, it's still up there. Trying to calculate costs for us, but $1200 or more roundtrip for 3 of us to fly to Florida is over my limit of what I'm willing to pay. We may be driving to Port Canaveral for the first time.

Hi,
we are cruising end of Aug. out of NYC area into MCO, and I found prices reasonable. Good luck getting a decent fare!