Spirit Airlines - anyone?

[zeke11]

I purchased our plane tickets last March for our trip this September. At the time, I thought I was smart because I got some great fares.

However, now with all the airline problems, I'm so worried that this airline will go out of business or something before we leave. Also, O'Hare is cutting back flights and that is where we are leaving from.

I think I might just be getting butterflies as our trip is finally within view (just over a month away), but was wondering if anyone has any experience with Spirit Airlines - pro or con?

Kris

 

[scottygirl]

We have flown Spirit and have had no problems. No frills. I think Spirit is relatively healthy, in fact most of the low cost carriers are doing well. The 6 "legacy" airlines are the ones having trouble. We are flying Spirit out of Detroit for our November cruise and I have no worries and a great deal too!

Now for O'Hare, well that's another story. Delays, delays, delays. When my DH travels for business he avoids O'Hare like the plague.

 

[zeke11]

We had a horrible experience at Midway last year with out of control lines and lack of any kind of order, so thought we'd be smart and give O'Hare a try this time.

I guess there is no real solution leaving from a big hub like Chicago.

Thanks for the reassurance about Spirit!

Kris

 

[macraven]

don't worry about spirit air lines.

i have used them for the last 5 trips and never a problem. they only cancel a flight due to mechanical problems.
i flew out of ohare on the first flight day that was allowed (17th) after 9-11. only 20 people on the flight. they said they never cancel or postpone flights due to low capacity onthe flight..........

ohare is trying to limit the flights out on american and united. they have too many it is said.
spirit only flies out at 7:30 and 11:00 each day with only two return flights from orlando to chgo daily. one afternoon and the other 6:30pm

spirit is not on the list to be cutting back on flights. i called them. they told me not to worry about that.
i booked my flights for oct back in april....great price $59 a way.......prices now on my flight have increased greatly.........wow....

also, spirit is one of the airlines that is not in a crunch money wise.......others are.

 

[bobsuzla]

I only fly Spirit Air (out of Atlantic City) AC is closer to me than Philly and Spirit is the best bargain around, I have only seen one problem of them overbooking a flight, but they were offering 2 tickets to any of their destinations to any one who was willing to be "bumped to the next available flight. I almost went for the deal, but I was flying to Orlando for my Sister's wedding, and was on a time crunch. Spirit always has wonderful specials, I am booked to fly to Tampa on their $39 flights over Columbus weekend right now!!! Don't worry about Spirit, my friend with Market watch commented a few months ago about how they are growing steadily.

 

[zeke11]

Hooray! I am so glad to find out it is thumbs up for Spirit!

Thanks a bunch!

Kris

 

[lUVTOGO]

Wew've been flying Spiirit out of Atlantic City for the past 5 years and have had only 1 delay. We love Spirt!

 

[bobsuzla]

luvtogo, I can't believe we're from the same area and we picked the same avatar too! Great minds... One more thing I like about Spirit: Snack boxes for $5-6 are great for my daughter, it keeps her occupied half of the flight!

 

[tevagirl]

We also fly with Spirit out of AC quite often and are booked to use them for our October trip. The only problem with Spirit is that if you don't book far enough in advance to get the good deals or rates they can be ridiculously expensive for being a "no frills" airline. When that happens I bite the bullet and head on up to Philly.

 

[pearlieq]

Spirit is wonderful! We have flown with them several times and they've always been on-time and hassle free. We're flying with them again on our Sept. trip.

I wouldn't worry about them going under--they are the largest privately held airline and are more than solvent.

Hope you have a great trip!

 

[dina7]

This is all good to know. We are flying Spirit for the 1st time at the end of October.

Thanks everyone

 

[tevagirl]

By the way....bobsuzla...been meaning to ask...how "extreme South Jersey" are you? We are in North Cape May. I'd take a guess that we are neighbors, right?

 

[Mahreeya]

We are a Spirit Airlines "family". My brother is a pilot for them. They are terrific!

 

[Lhargus]

We have always had a great experience with Spirit out of Detroit. We have had only one mechanical delay, which was from Orlando to Detroit. They were very helpful and had a replacement aircraft right away. I'm very pleased with them...

 

[BriarRosie]

Originally posted by zeke11
I purchased our plane tickets last March for our trip this September. At the time, I thought I was smart because I got some great fares.

However, now with all the airline problems, I'm so worried that this airline will go out of business or something before we leave. Also, O'Hare is cutting back flights and that is where we are leaving from.

I think I might just be getting butterflies as our trip is finally within view (just over a month away), but was wondering if anyone has any experience with Spirit Airlines - pro or con?

Kris

Oh good! I can relate to you my experience with Spirit, but
it just so happens to be the same round-trip out of ORD to MCO!

Ok, last November, I was able to get a great rate on Spirit.
I arrived early, and waited at the gate. The airline reps at
the gate were a little harried, because the flight was overbooked.

They first offered one free round-trip for any volunteers.
I suppose that nobody took them up on it, so they offered TWO
flights. Finally, they offered THREE flights. They also had some
problems, like airport switches. I think they were going to
send people to Tampa and pay for the transportation to
Orlando.

I was looking forward to the Party for the Senses I had paid for
at the Food and Wine Festival, so I didn't jump on the offer.
I know that three round-trips is worth a LOT more, but I
didn't want to have the hassle.

The plane itself seemed really old. The seats were configured
3 x 3, except for "Spirit Plus", the 2 x 2 seats in the front rows
of the plane.

I do recall that the overhead bins seemed much shallower than
planes I normally fly on United, so instead of storing my 22"
carryon vertically, I had to use more space and store it
horizontally. Luckily, I didn't put anyone else out in the storage
area.

The flight was uneventful, thank goodness. Oh, they had a nice
snack box for $4. I can't remember what was in it, but it seemed
to be nice for what $4 would get me with United's food buying
program.

For a cheap airline, they were ok. I usually fly United, and I'm
doing so for my next few trips.

 

[inkkognito]

For those in Chicago who are worried about Spirit, be sure to price ATA. They just had a MAJOR sale, matching Spirit's $39 each way. Even for peak departure days, they were really cheap. Of course, they (ATA) are having financial difficulties, but who isn't these days?
Barb

 

[JanDave]

Hi: We, too, are flying Spirit Airlines from Detroit for our 9/18 Magic cruise. Our flights are nonstop which is a bonus. Thanks for all the opinions on Spirit as I was a little concerned when we received a call that our return flight has changed to a 7pm departure from Orlando. This is going to give us the whole day to continue our vacation and acclimate ourselves to the real world after being on the Magic for a week.

Jan

 

[zeke11]

In regards to ATA -- that was the airline we took last year out of Midway. Its going to take me some time to use them again.

We arrived at the suggested 2.5 hours before flight time at Midway and found the largest, most unstructured crowd of people at the check-in for ATA. It was unbelievable. I took one look and realized that if we had to stand in that mess of a "line", we would never ever make our flight, which was 2.5 hours later. Seriously, it was that bad. People were all over the place.

I am not a frequent flyer, by any means, and had no clue about the paperless ticket thing. As I was winding my way through this crowd, attempting to find an employee so I could find out just where the line was ending, I came upon some computer screens which were basically hidden from view due to all the people around them. I then realized that if you had purchased tix online, you could use these for printing out your boarding passes and getting your luggage tags.

Hooray! I was able to do this and we were out of there.

Now, there were no signs, no personnel directing us to these computers -- I would have stood in that horrific line, perhaps missed our flight or come close to it and not found out about them until we reached the counter.

I was very unimpressed with ATA - they were such a mess. So this time, its Spirit out of O'Hare. Hopefully, it won't be the awful experience we had last year.

Kris

 

[Phyllisi]

We always book Sprit out of O'Hare. I do not think they will have to make much cuts because there schedule is very limited to begin with. The only problem we had with them in Feb was the 7:30 am plane on the day of the cruise was delayed for 2 hours due to bad weather in Las Vegas. We booked with Sprit for our upcoming Jan cruise. We originally booked the 7:30 am day of the cruise but I changed to the day before flight at 1:30. We were exhausted the first day of the cruise since we had to get up so early to catch the flight. By the way, if you book on-line at Spirit and want to change the dates or times, it is free as long as you do it on-line within 30 days of your flight. We always book the 10:50 am flight home and have had no problem. It is so nice to have a discount airline fly out of O'Hare, we live in Gurnee so Midway takes about two hours to get to vs. the 30 - 45 min drive to O'Hare.