I flew round trip on Spirit from LAX to O’Hare. I was able to get “first class” (I think all you get is a row with only two seats instead of three) for some ridiculous price like forty bucks, which made everything bearable.
I hate long trips so very much because of feeling confined, so that was worth it for me.
I know it’s a bump of an old thread, but I tried booking a flight on Spirit for a wedding in January. We tried to avoid using them, but they had the best times for flights by far. And their Go Comfy class meant we would get a row of three for just the two of us.
But 24 hours after booking they sent a message saying they were changing the times and basically making it impossible for us to make the flights. Fortunately they gave us the offer to cancel with full refund and that’s what we chose. Hopefully that goes smoothly.
Rebooked a flight on JetBlue - at least they typically keep their flights operating.
FWIW, Spirit is apparently hemorrhaging money.
They furloughed 186 pilots last month, and announced a furlough of an additional 330 for early next year; combined, that’s about 15% of the total number of pilots that they employed last year. They’re also trimming their flight schedule (which is probably why they changed the times on the flights you had booked), and selling some planes.
They had been planning a merger with JetBlue, but that fell through earlier this year when a judge blocked it. They’re now considering bankruptcy, and Frontier is considering taking them over. Spirit’s stock price is down 85% this year.
I’m 5’10” and 185lbs. I flew on Spirit once to Florida from New England (3.5 hour flight) a few years ago.
The seats were TIGHT! I just had a small laptop bag so no carry on bag fee. The flight was 100% booked. I bought breakfast from the airport and took it on board. A lot of people brought food with them. I mean like half the people that I could see. It was an early morning flight so there were lots of cranky children on board. They were selling snacks and drinks, but I did not see anyone purchase anything.
This was for a client visit, so the flight was booked by the client’s travel department. It was $200 cheaper than the lowest other fare I could find. The client has since gone bankrupt. Their employee engagement was in the toilet, and unsurprisingly so was customer engagement.
My current employer does not require us to fly on super-budget airlines on business trips. I’m sure we could figure out a way to avoid it even if the guidelines required it.
And Spirit has filed for bankruptcy.
Since this got bumped, I’ll share that my wife and I have flown Breeze several times in the last two years. This is mainly because they have inexpensive direct flights from Raleigh-Durham (RDU) to Hartford (BDL). Quick and convenient, with zero problems. We save enough over major airlines that we can afford the more premium seats and checking bags.
However, like many budget airlines, they don’t fly the route(s) every day. For example, if we fly up on Thursday, we can fly back on Monday…but not on Tuesday. If a flight is cancelled or you just plain miss it, it can be two days before you can fly again without switching to another carrier.