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I have flown Spirit Airlines at least a dozen times, because it s
unquestionably the cheapest US airline if you manage to avoid its plethora of
fees but my experiences have ranged from generally unpleasant to downright
infuriating.
The US s only two-star airline in a five-star ranking system, according to
airline ranking site Skytrax, Spirit is the exemplification of no-frills. There
is no in-flight entertainment, even for a fee; seats on the new Airbus 320s don
t recline despite having a button for this purpose (a particularly irritating
feature); and even a glass of water comes at a cost. With spring break quickly
approaching in the US, plenty of university students will likely be attracted
to the low initial price tag when booking their holiday but the cost of
flying cheap can be quantified in more than cash.
In number of flights and variety of destinations, Spirit dominates the US
ultra low-cost market, a model that was pioneered by Ireland s Ryanair and is
now booming throughout Asia. These airlines rely largely on and have been
successful in charging fees to turn a profit, something that can be extremely
tricky in the airline industry. But while operators such as Air Asia have
managed to strike a balance between extra fees and reasonable prices, Spirit
has followed Ryanair s business model of charging ludicrous fees for just about
everything but the use of the bathroom (something Ryanair actually considered).
While Spirit has yet to follow its Irish counterpart by charging ₤60 fees for
printing boarding passes, they have a price for pretty much everything else,
including storing bags overhead something even Ryanair has yet to do.
On a recent trip, I checked prices for nine of the 10 Latin American cities
that Spirit services (I did not consider going to Lima), and in seven of the
nine cases, Spirit offered the cheapest flight, with savings ranging from $49
to $289 round trip. I ended up selecting Cartagena, the cheapest destination
apart from San Salvador, and booked the flight exactly one month in advance for
$375. The second cheapest flight to Cartagena was $489 on the Colombian-airline
Avianca.
The $114 savings was worth it, but only because I m a frugal, stubborn
traveller. But many passengers don t realise that if you can t avoid the fees,
flying Spirit makes about as much sense as paying somebody to punch you in the
face.
Let s say I wanted to put a bag overhead, which is not unheard of for an
average passenger going abroad for eight days. That would cost an additional
$70 round trip (more than the $60 it would cost to check it), bringing my
ticket total to $445, saving only $44 from the Avianca flight. Virtually every
other airline worldwide offers free checked bags on international flights and
none charge to use the overheard bin.
And if I wanted to choose my seats instead of having Spirit select them at
random, I d have to pay anywhere from $10 to $25 per segment. Middle seats
cost more than window seats, by the way, because Spirit knows that passengers
flying together will want to book seats next to each other.
The cheapest window seat for all four segments, including a layover in Fort
Lauderdale, would have cost another $60, putting my total up to $505, $16 more
than the Avianca flight (which also would have included movies, free checked
bags, a free selection of seats that actually recline, a splash of water (or
even beer) and, perhaps, even a smile).
Like Ryanair, Spirit often only makes sense if you are a light packer. In a
recent Ryanair search, a ₤40 return ticket from Liverpool to Dublin turned into
₤102 after checking a bag (₤15 for 15kg), selecting seats (₤10 each segment)
and checking in online (₤6 each way). On a sample Air Asia fare from Kuala
Lumpur to Bangkok a 331 Malaysian ringgit flight went up to only 417 Malaysian
ringgit after checking in a bag (36 Malaysian ringgit) and selecting a window
seat (6 Malaysian ringgit) each way.
With all three airlines, though, it s best to pay for your bag in advance.
Spirit, for example, charges $50 for an overhead bag at the check-in counter
and $100 if you wait until the gate.
Flying Spirit does have a few upsides. Being friendly at the check-in counter
can get you a free window seat (as opposed to Ryanair which charges you more
for waiting to book a seat), and the website has an incredibly user-friendly
flight search. But my favourite thing about Spirit is that virtually every time
I fly with the airline, I end up making friends. There often seems to be a
sense of camaraderie among the passengers, a bonding over a common enemy.
I was once on a flight where the better part of the check-in line vocally
rooted for a man as he tried to stuff his bag into the carry-on measuring box.
When he succeeded in avoiding the fee, people cheered.
Yet, despite people s distaste for Spirit, they we keep flying it, either
because it s worth the cost of flying cheap or because people just haven t done
the maths to realise how little money they are actually saving.