I’ve been a frequent critic of Spirit Airlines. This screed of an editorial from Sunshine State News even closes with my admonition about the airline,
Can you blame Gary Leff, who runs the popular frequent flier blog View From the Wing for saying of Spirit, “This is the airline that’s famous for hating their customers”?
But I think it’s possible to take things too far.
Spirit goes gonzo with marketing antics positioning itself as a low cost carrier, driving down price. It should come as no surprise that you get less for paying less, and Spirit has even trumpeted the fact that they charge for carryon bags above a certain size rather than hiding it.
You get what’s often (though not always) low cost transportation, and you pay for every conceivable ‘extra’ like water.
But that’s a reasonable business model, and even a beneficial one, if it makes travel on net more affordable for people who value extras below the price being charged and get where they’re going less expensively.
It’s hard for me to imagine that the biggest criticism of the airline, as the article’s offer seems to claim by virtue of making it her lead-in, is that they have the gall to buy aircraft from Airbus.
The Miramar-based “discount carrier” signed a $6.7 billion agreement Tuesday to buy 45 A320neo planes and 30 A320 aircraft from Airbus. And all of a sudden it came flooding back just how bad these guys are, never mind that they’re a Florida company.
That’s right, Airbus is a German planemaker.
And Spirit Chief Executive Officer Ben Baldanza announced the deal not in Florida, but at the Dubai Air Show, halfway around the world.
Given how much there is to possibly use for mocking purposes, jingoism hardly ranks up there with the airline CEO’s attitude towards customers.
Rather, I do think their online booking fees (charging more for the convenience of buying online versus at the airport) stretches credulity. But hey, these aren’t secret charges and you get what you pay for. I certainly don’t look forward to flying Spirit and will pay more to avoid doing so (I’d hate to experience irregular operations). Nonetheless, there’s absolutely a place for Spirit in the marketplace, and many of their passengers are measurably better off for choosing them.
I like Spirit, Ryanair, Easyjet, et al. for all the reasons every seems to hate them. I don’t want to subsidize other passengers; I want to pay for exactly what I want to pay for, and nothing else. I loved that they charged for carryons, and wished it would spread to other carriers. Then maybe we wouldn’t have people try to swing ridiculous amounts of luggage into the overhead bins and make every flight late. Spirit has $9 flights to South America, and as long as they continue to do that they can do whatever they want. If you don’t like it, don’t fly with them.
I also like cheap flights, and I understand why some airlines don’t provide food, pillows, etc, but Spirit goes way too far. I was charged for WATER on a 6-hour international flight from JFK to CLO. This is health hazard, not a price cutting strategy. I’ll never fly Spirit again, not even for “$9 flights” (I REALLY wonder if anyone has been able to purchase one of those).
I despise Spirit Airlines.
I believe their ‘nickle and dime’ model works well, charging peeople for what they use. What I don’t appreciate is rude customer service and cruelly uncomfortable seats. I have flown with them a total of 3 times – a recent round trip to Vegas and a one way from San Juan. Both flights in my Vegas trip had seats that did not recline at all. No, they weren’t broken. Not a single chair reclined on the flight. On a red eye, theres no other way to describe that as just flat out cruel. On my one way flight from San Juan an overhead call was made for a medical professional. As a physician, I responded, spending well over an hour kneeling in the aisle at the side of a patient/passenger, assisting until we landed. There as never a ‘thank you’ or ‘we appreciate it’ from the flight crew. I provide my assistance because its the right thing to do, without expecting any compensation. That said, a smile and ‘thanks’ would have been nice. I will never fly with them again.
This “journalist” sounds like an idiot. Airlines are the first business I would expect to buy their airplanes from another country. No one seems to realize that when you can fly across the ocean in less than a day, that opens up opportunities to buy from other companies that might make a better or more useful product.
For what it is worth, I fly Spirit at least once per month from FLL to DCA. I have found their operations to be relatively smooth and at least 90% on time or early. It is definitely not for everyone, but for my family of 3, $65RT/each/ai is very hard to pass up! It also serves to help me appreciate my last minute BA redemption on CX first class JFK-HKG next October 😉
I’ve flown Spirit a few times. I try to avoid them when possible. I wish they were more like Ryanair, where a 9 euro fare is easy to come by. But I guess that’s more difficult in the US considering all the various taxes.
El-Al has a Boeing-only fleet. When they need a new order they always consider Airbus for bargaining, but at decision time, Israel’s friends on Capitol Hill and in the White House always make sure the contract goes to an American company. It’s a good thing that these good friends are prohibited from meddling in the purchasing decisions of U.S. airlines (as I’m sure they would love to), leaving at least a minimal amount of competition among manufacturers of large airplanes.
I flew Spirit once (well, twice, since it was a round-trip) and had no problems at all. The seats were uncomfortable and my wife and I had to share a bag to minimize carry-on fees, but the staff was friendly and we got to where we were going safely. True, it seems that service recovery is where they have issues, but we didn’t experience any problems, so I can’t comment on it.
Bottom line: Two people got to go to ACY for under $100pp RT on a non-stop.