A Spirited Defense
For my family, Spirit Airlines delivered
I honestly did not realize the risk I was apparently taking when I booked a flight with Spirit Airlines to see a long-lost relative. I just knew they were affordable, and I was trying to keep the cost of the flight down. Only later did I read about canceled flights, delayed flights and other operational problems that many have reported. I did know about the luggage restrictions, because I paid attention while booking. To me it seemed like a fair deal, because what I was really paying for was a seat in an aluminum tube that flies at over 500 miles per hour to whisk me and my brood away to Chicago for a family visit. It reminded me of Allegiant's tagline, “travel is our deal” — as in, we do one thing, and that is allow you to travel, and that needs to be good enough. As long as the plane arrived relatively on time and took me to my destination without incident, Spirit’s end of the bargain was kept in my eyes. I had spent enough time riding Greyhound Buses recreationally as a teen to appreciate commercial aviation. Money saved on the flight is money I could spend at the Mars Cheese Castle.
I spent 2,360 dollars on a flight from Los Angeles International (LAX) to Chicago O’Hare, for my family of 4, round trip. As you can see below, I could have taken just over 550 dollars off if I did not fly with travel protection (I don’t recommend this as I’ll explain below) and did not choose my seats.
The day of the flight arrived and we drove down to LAX. All of our luggage fit the required dimensions so there would be no surprise fees for us. The boarding process was painless. As we entered, my son needed to use the restroom, and so my daughter and I waited for him near the front of the Airbus A320neo medium-sized airliner, which was bright yellow. The cockpit door was open, and since I’ve spent more time than I’d like to admit flying the A320neo in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, I recognized the displays and the layout of the catbird seats up front. The pilots noticed my toddler looking at the flight deck and in a true surprise to me, invited her to visit. She was able to sit in the Captain’s seat and talk to the pilots. I took a quick picture or two and then headed to our seats. Speaking of seats, this is one area that I definitely think most airlines, including Spirit, could do better at. Families should be able to sit together, whenever possible, without spending extra money. The idea that a child could be forced to sit away for his or her parents seems like aggressively bad customer service. The flight departed on time and arrived in Chicago early. It was uneventful and the flight attendants were professional and kind; in other words, we got exactly what we paid for from Spirit.
None of what I have written is intended to take away from the experiences of those experienced customer service turbulence. I’ve heard stories of delayed, canceled and non-existent planes. Of rude staff and gate side luggage disasters. I felt like the hidden fees were made known and it is definitely true that the airline will take it’s pound of flesh and more from it’s flyers if given the chance; I wouldn’t go as far as calling it sneaky though. Spirit provided me with nothing to write this article, my purpose is to give credit where credit is due.
Taking a more macro view, Spirit has a surprisingly good on-time performance record, at least in 2023. According to Forbes, the carrier boasted a 71.6% showing, making it number six in the United States. Delta is first with 84.72%. Spirit was dead last however for customer satisfaction, according to Business Insider, with 64 points out of 100. The reddit thread for Spirit is full of horror stories, like this one: “They cancel flights at last minute and don’t put you on another airline. Then they say it’s 3–4 days until they can get you on another flight. Not worth it,” says user warrenslo. I’ve heard this before and it leads me to believe that you take a bit of a gamble booking with Spirit. I’ll close with this thought: if you really need to be somewhere on time, don’t book with them. If you have more flexibility, you can save money with Spirit. Fly at your own risk but enjoy counting your saved dollars if things go as well as they did for me. They also don’t fly Boeing aircraft, so there’s that. I’ve flown the major airlines in the past, including United, Delta, JetBlue and Hawaiian, and only JetBlue stood out for having an above-par onboard experience, mostly thanks to the free onboard cable TV. In any event, thanks for reading, and happy flying.
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