The new pros and cons of Spirit Airlines

By Susan Stellin
August 20, 2010

Miramar, FL — Spirit Airlines had just resolved its pilots’ strike in mid-June when I bought my first ticket on the à la carte carrier.

At the time, passengers were unhappy with the way Spirit handled the strike, forcing many customers to purchase tickets on other airlines or wait days until Spirit resumed flying. The company was also taking heat over its decision to charge for carry-on bags beginning Aug. 1.

But I was flying from Detroit to New York in late July, and the price for my one-way ticket was $112, including an $8 fee to choose my seat. The nonstop fare on American, Continental and Delta: nearly $600.

For that price difference ($500!), I was willing to make some sacrifices — which is the key to Spirit’s ultra-low-fare business model. Similar to Ryanair in Europe, it has been trying to bring cheap fares to the United States, especially on routes between its Fort Lauderdale hub and Latin America.

“At Spirit, the product is the fact that we can get you there at the lowest possible cost,” said Ben Baldanza, Spirit’s president and chief executive, explaining that passengers understand the trade-off: lower fares in exchange for no amenities, and fees for everything from carry-on bags to water.

“It’s a bit like Costco versus maybe J.C. Penney or Target,” he said. “When you go to Costco, you pay a fee just to walk in the building.”

The difference is, if something goes wrong at Costco, you can abandon your cart and drive home. If something goes wrong with your flight, you could be stuck far away with no help from your airline.
That problem is not limited to Spirit, though its bare-bones business model extends to its customer service — Spirit has a reputation for being particularly callous.

Still, Spirit has addressed some of these complaints, and its low fare/limited service model isn’t likely to change. So here’s what to expect if you’re willing to accept Spirit’s perhaps Faustian bargains.

Tricky Ticketing

Mr. Baldanza said Spirit had recently redesigned its Web site to make it easier for customers to know exactly what they’re buying. And Spirit does make fare searches easier by showing the lowest price on every day of the month you choose, so you can shift your plans to save money. But once you select a flight, you have to enter all your personal data before you see pricing options for your bags and seat choice. That’s a lot of typing before seeing a total price, and it’s annoying.

But the options and prices are now clear and the only thing that’s truly sneaky is that Spirit still automatically includes a $12 travel insurance policy in its fare quotes; you have to uncheck a box to remove that fee from your purchase. The government may soon ban that practice, but if Spirit is serious about clear pricing, it shouldn’t wait for that regulation.

The Baggage Business

I was traveling with two carry-ons — a roller bag and a backpack — before Spirit’s carry-on fees took effect. Now the backpack would be free (since it fits under the seat), but I’d have to pay $30 to carry on the other bag, or $25 to check it. Members of Spirit’s fare club, which costs $40 a year and gives members first dibs on discount fares, get $10 off those baggage prices.

That’s if you pay in advance, either online or before you go through security; at the gate, the carry-on charge is $45.

“We want that to be a punitive fee because we want people to take care of it early,” Mr. Baldanza said.

The goal is to discourage people from bringing everything on board, a side effect of checked-baggage fees that slows down the boarding process. It was painfully slow for my flight, and just as I approached the plane an agent started gate-checking big carry-ons (including mine), claiming the overhead bins were full. But they weren’t: two bins near my seat were entirely empty, as were others throughout the plane.

When I protested, I was simply told to “write a letter to Spirit.” But even Mr. Baldanza said the incident sounded bizarre. Although I was irritated about waiting for my luggage at the baggage carousel, we landed early and my bag came up quickly. Still, the crew lied and was rude — there’s no excuse for that, at any price.

Flight Mishaps

Aside from the limited legroom (Spirit packs more seats on each plane than its competitors), aggressive on-board sales, including ads inside the plane, and some nail-biting turbulence, my flight was fine. But Richard Rosichan, a formerly happy Spirit customer, shared a cautionary tale about a recent trip that changed his mind about the airline.

He was scheduled to fly back to Fort Lauderdale on July 26 after visiting his daughter in Atlanta when a creeping weather delay turned into a late-night cancellation. He said he was one of the last people to get back to the main terminal for rebooking, only to be told Spirit couldn’t get him on another flight for two days.

Mr. Rosichan said he was lucky he could return to his daughter’s house, but was disturbed by the scene he left behind.

“The last thing I saw was this mob at the counter and these agents who couldn’t have cared less no matter how desperate someone’s situation was,” he said. “They offered nothing, they didn’t even offer the appearance of caring.”

He paid $163 for a ticket home on Delta the next day, which he hopes to have reimbursed by Spirit. Although Mr. Baldanza agreed that a two-day delay was a “failure” on Spirit’s part, he referred me to the airline’s contract of carriage when I asked what passengers were due. (Nothing, since the cancellation was because of weather.)

But here’s the thing: Mr. Rosichan paid only $40 for his Spirit ticket, so I asked him how he would respond to critics who say, “What do you expect for that price?”

“I would say you have to expect a crowded plane, you have to expect to pay for everything, including water, you have to expect unusually little legroom,” Mr. Rosichan said. “But you do have a right to expect that if something happens and causes a delay, they will at least try to get you back, if not the same day then the following day. You have a right to expect human courtesy and caring.”

When Mr. Baldanza asked if I’d fly Spirit again, I told him I wasn’t sure. Spirit may not be more unreliable than other carriers (it doesn’t report cancellation or delay data to the government, so there’s no way to judge). But if something does go wrong, I’m not confident Spirit has the desire, or the resources, to fix the situation.

Budget Travel inc Airfare News Index
To continue shopping click here

Ask Budget Travel inc,