Has anyone every flown with Spirit Airlines

[vicnmickey]

We are getting ready to book are airfare soon. The best prices out of Chicago right now are on Spirit Airlines. Never flown with them before myself, was just wondering how they are.

 

[kel3420]

We flew with Spirit out of Chicago over Thanksgiving, and I would highly recommend them. There are several posts on the transportation board about this very airline.

 

[BethC1952]

I've flown Spirit several times out of Atlantic City (NJ) Airportn and have always been very pleased (and on time!).

Beth

 

[magyar2]

We just flew them in December to our cruise. I do not fly much, as I hate flying, but we arrived safely, so that is a definite plus!

The people I dealt with at the ticket counter and on the plane were pleasant enough. I flew ATA last year from Midway, and the employees for that airline were very cold and rude, so Spirit does have pleasant employees going for it.

The plane had seen better days on the interior. Some seats had rips or stains on them, some trim was missing in spots around the interior, the bathroom definitely needed some refurbishment, and the wallpaper-type stuff near my daughter's seat was missing in a small spot. However, the outside of the plane must have been perfect, as nothing fell off during the flight!

So, esthetically, ATA was nicer, as their planes are newer, but again, the employees were not nice.

For snacks, you get pretzels or animal crackers. I saw most people get the pretzels, but some requested the crackers for their children and they did receive them. Pop and other drinks are available, you are only charged for alcohol. If you are still thirsty later into the flight, there is no problem to bring you another drink (or an extra bag of pretzels).

In Chicago, people with children under 5 boarded first, while in Orlando, people with lap children only boarded first. I guess it depends on the gate agent?

The one main drawback I found with Spirit is that to get a seat you want, you need to get there early (like 3 hours early!), due to no seat reservations available at time of booking. There were 4 of us, DH, me, and 2 DD's. We wanted to be in front of the wings, each child by a window, sitting 2 and 2 (seats are 1, 2, aisle, 3, 4, 5). Even at 3 hours ahead of time, there was quite a line for seating assignments. Therefore, if you have the first flight (when we went, it was around 7:00 a.m.) you will need to get up very early if you want to sit in a particular spot! We went for the 10:15 (or so) flight for this reason.

I would fly Spirit again, because I like the employees. I do not like ATA, and as a travel agent, I have rarely heard good things about their customer service from my clients. Plus, Spirit is one of the very few airlines left that actually pays travel agents, so if you do fly with them and you happen to have an agent you like, it would be great if you would let her/him book your flight (shameless plug for my fellow agents, hope you don't mind ).

Oh, and one more thing - make sure your bags are not too heavy! Spirit's baggage allowances are not as lax as some other airlines, and they do weigh your bags and charge extra if your bag is heavier than it should be! My large Samsonite (heavy to begin with) was 4 pounds over the limit on the way home, which I attribute to the 8 swimsuits that did not dry before they were packed, so squeeze out those swimsuits and spread out the heavy items!.

 

[kel3420]

Regarding luggage weight... I had heard that Spirit is very stringent on the weight limit, but we had two huge suitcases that were 50+ pounds, I think 70 is more like it, and we didn't have a problem at all. They did put "heavy" tags on them but that was it. We were prepared to move items around it we were over the limit, but ended up not having to. This was at Thanksgiving though, and there have been some TSA (?) rule changes since then. IF possible, pack as lightly as you can, obviously. We had 8 people going and for whatever reason, the luggage ended up being heavy.

Had it been my husband who packed our bags, things would have been fine, but he was out of town until midnight the night before our flight so I had to pack. We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies on our trip down. You should have seen us with the airport luggage cart,bags tumbling off, plus all of us carrying stuff. We gave people many laughs. My mother refuses to walk with us, but of course we still had to carry HER luggage Hubbie repacked us for our trip home,and it was much more reasonable. Somehow we went from 12 bags to 8 (inlcuding carry on). LOL.

 

[lUVTOGO]

We always fly Spirit out of Atlantic City and only once the flight was delayed for 3 hrs. If you sign up for cyberfares on their website you can get some great fares emailed to you weekly.

 

[vicnmickey]

It sounds like they are a great company. We are booking tommorow! It makes it seem that much more real that we are actually going. Less than six months ago I had canceled the same cruise we are going on and had to rebook. I can't wait

You know I didn't even know there was a transportation board, I need to venture out more on the dis I am lost in the cruise boards

Happy New Year everyone