Spirit and Carry-On

[nkkilala]

Thoes of you who have used Spirit have you been able to take on 2 carry-ons? I swear when I made reservations it said I could have a carry on and then a personal item....... I just printed out my boarding passes for tomorrow and it says only one carryon and nothing about a purse/personal bag ( briefcase, computerbag ext.)
If you have any experiance with this please let me know.
If I do have an extra bag can they just gate check it for me? I really don't want to check any luggage and have everything already packed.
Any advice would be great!

 

[pplasky]

My family has flown with Spirit. I always have a carry-on and a purse. My husband brings a carry-on and his laptop. My children usually have a carry on as well, last trip my girls had a carry-on and a fanny pack. We have seen people with two carry-ons have trouble boarding, but these were both fairly large carry-on bags. In both instances they were made to check one of their bags.

 

[nkkilala]

When they had to check a bad was it gate check?? I'm ok with that......

 

[Pinnie]

Let me tell you what happened the last couple of times I flew SPIRIT. Coming home from Denver, (when they still flew into Denver) we were NOT allowed to carry on our roller bags. We didn't know why, all we were told when we checked in at the counter was they had to be checked because they didn't have enough room in the overheads. Our rollers are standard size and we have used them on NWA, SWA all the time.

This past June, I was flying SPIRIT from DTW to MCO and found out WHY. They were using an older DC-10 and the overheads were sloped and the bags do NOT fit in those compartments, so again I had to check the roller. Luckily I had a big enough purse that I could jam the meds and make up case into!!!

pinnie

 

[owtrbnks]

We flew Spirit . . . ONCE!
At check-in a "CSR" with ABSOLUTELY NO CUSTOMER SERVICE IN MIND, came out from behind the counter, pointed at certain people's bags and said quite loudly, "Check it!" He seemed to play the part of "God of the carry ons." His word was final and he visibly upset quite alot of CUSTOMERS! (We were not affected - as we carry small duffel bags for carry ons). But all of the roller people were mad! He just decided (based on his ability to measure bags in his head) what would be accepted as carry on and what had to be checked. WE WILL NOT FLY SPIRIT AGAIN BECAUSE OF THIS JERK! Even though he didn't say a word to us, we witnessed TERRIBLE CUSTOMER DIS-SERVICE!

 

[nkkilala]

thanks for the replies

 

[DisneyPhD]

We have flown spirt MANY times with no problems what so ever. Infact we like their policies and produres much better then other airlines.

We never have any problems with a carry on and a personal bag. Sometimes we even have more then 2 personal bags (small bags) and they don't have a problem with it. It is the really big carry ons they object too and will offer to check it for you if it is a duffel bag type and they are having trouble getting it to fit. Most of our stuff fits under the seats so there is never a problem.

Have a good flight. We love spirt and almost always have great service. (better then other airlines.) I would hardly write off an airline for one lossey person one time.

Side note, a women who I knew from the Detroit Area (I was her DD preschool teacher) works for Spirit in Orlando and I swear we see her every time on the flight home. It is pretty funny. Now my DD is the same age hers was 10 years ago when I was her teacher!

 

[Pinnie]

I like the new gate area that SPIRIT now has at MCO. They took over the old USAir ones in the B terminal and even added a coffee kiosk in the gate area, NOw NWA isn't down there by themselves!

pinnie

 

[DisneyPhD]

I like the new gate area that SPIRIT now has at MCO. They took over the old USAir ones in the B terminal and even added a coffee kiosk in the gate area, NOw NWA isn't down there by themselves!

pinnie

When did they do this? We flew normally fly Spirit, but took NW once last year because we had FFmiles. (I think May of 2004) We noticed we were in a different part of the airport. Then when we flew Spirit again the next trip (March 2005 I think) it was the same place as NW. I guess it all makes since now. I thought I had things turned around. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[Pinnie]

When did they do this? We flew normally fly Spirit, but took NW once last year because we had FFmiles. (I think May of 2004) We noticed we were in a different part of the airport. Then when we flew Spirit again the next trip (March 2005 I think) it was the same place as NW. I guess it all makes since now. I thought I had things turned around. Thanks for pointing it out.

I am not sure when it happened because I haven't flown NWA to MCO since last December, using SWA for my trips instead. When I came in June, that's when I noted SPIRIT had moved and were using the gates in the 20s and NWA was at the end of the concourse. It's much nicer down there now.

Now all that needs to happen is for DTW to get rid of that nasty SMITH terminal and build something decent for SPIRIT and SWA to fly out of!

pinnie

 

[DisneyPhD]

I am not sure when it happened because I haven't flown NWA to MCO since last December, using SWA for my trips instead. When I came in June, that's when I noted they were using the gaes in the 20s and NWA was at the end of the concourse. It's much nicer down there now.

Now all that needs to happen is for DTW to get rid of that nasty SMITH terminal and build something decent for SPIRIT and SWA to fly out of!

pinnie

I agree, and I guess something is in the works (DH is more up on the current events then me.) Smith is yucky and the elevator to the baggage claim is scary and sick!

However all things being equal it seemed much eaiser to fly Spirit out of smith and NW out of the new one. It look longer to take the monorail or people mover and it looked impressive, but was a long way to go. My elderly parents perfer not take it if possible.

We used to fly SW before. I rather have a personal rule against it now. Most of it is I perfer nonstop with kids, but I don't like many of SW other "rules" that Spirit doesn't. (like their bording policies, no fly list, we have rather common names, I am pretty sure I am not the only one around here with my name.) Spirit normally seems to have good prices. We always get it for under $100 each way, often $69 each way. Lately it seems their prices are really high over 6 months out though.