Spirit Airlines trip report

[JS]

If US Airways wants to be a cheapie carrier, they need to model themselves after Spirit.

Spirit charges for checked luggage and beverages on board, but their planes are clean, the employees are friendly, they have advance seat assignments at no charge, and run a good operation. They also fly out of ACY, just down the road from PineyBob.

They don't officially have a "first class" but the first two rows are called "Big Front Seat", because that's all it is, a bigger seat at the front of the plane (pretty much like US). I usually don't pay for F, but on this particular itinerary, F was only $40 more than coach, so that was an easy choice, and well worth it.

I fell asleep shortly after take-off and woke up on the decent into MCO. A wonderful flight, for $298 roundtrip!

The Spirit check-in counter is next to US in MCO. I walked up to the NK counter and used the kiosk to check in with no wait. I like machines, but if I didn't, they had agents available to check you in manually. The US check-in next door was a zoo, much like Northworst. Is there some rule that crummy airlines must add to the poor experience by having a long line for mandatory kiosk check-in?

 

[tadjr]

The US check-in next door was a zoo, much like Northworst. Is there some rule that crummy airlines must add to the poor experience by having a long line for mandatory kiosk check-in?

How many flights was US checking in for vs NK? We have "happy hour" ourselves every afternoon from 3pm-430pm where we are checking in for 5 5-6pm flights (about 950 people on the 5 flights). Looks like a zoo with the line out the door because this is the time frame everyone shows up at the airport for these flights. Before and after there is hardly ever a line in the afternoon.

 

[avion]

only an agent who works the station and know the inner workings of it know what is going on not some customer who flys a flight and everything goes well and compares it to some visual of other carriers. like in this example that has been given. NK is very small compared to other companies like MCO. Though NK is big in FLL that is of course thanks to the CEO who is Ben Baldanza ex US vp of sales who was not included in the US/HP merger. his dream was to build FLL as a hub well FLL is not made to be any way a hub to handle any amount of traffic and if you have flown NK out of FLL you do not want to do it again. the international terminal is a mess and you are forced to stand out on the sidewalk to check in. You are one of the lucky ones to fly an airline with no reroute agreement with other carriers because when you fly NK/WN you are delayed or cancelled you are at the mercy of them. NK has made no in roads in terms of other airlines traffic .. they are not ever mentioned and being a privatly held company you dont know of their finances they are never published .. Mr Baldanza tried to do nonstop PVD/RSW/FLL service and lasted a year guess he never learned from US. the MCO folks at US do the best they can with the tools given to them and they do it just fine. there is always room for improvement but US still fills those MCO flights up and makes money. Competition has always been good it give the customer choices and gives the competitor to improve their services. ACY and ILM in delaware which is being served by DL right now have made no big deal to the big picture of PHL. but its good for the consumer to have choices but have a flight cancel at any one of those cities and you have a problem .

 

[JS]

only an agent who works the station and know the inner workings of it know what is going on not some customer who flys a flight and everything goes well and compares it to some visual of other carriers. like in this example that has been given. NK is very small compared to other companies like MCO. Though NK is big in FLL that is of course thanks to the CEO who is Ben Baldanza ex US vp of sales who was not included in the US/HP merger. his dream was to build FLL as a hub well FLL is not made to be any way a hub to handle any amount of traffic and if you have flown NK out of FLL you do not want to do it again. the international terminal is a mess and you are forced to stand out on the sidewalk to check in. You are one of the lucky ones to fly an airline with no reroute agreement with other carriers because when you fly NK/WN you are delayed or cancelled you are at the mercy of them. NK has made no in roads in terms of other airlines traffic .. they are not ever mentioned and being a privatly held company you dont know of their finances they are never published .. Mr Baldanza tried to do nonstop PVD/RSW/FLL service and lasted a year guess he never learned from US. the MCO folks at US do the best they can with the tools given to them and they do it just fine. there is always room for improvement but US still fills those MCO flights up and makes money. Competition has always been good it give the customer choices and gives the competitor to improve their services. ACY and ILM in delaware which is being served by DL right now have made no big deal to the big picture of PHL. but its good for the consumer to have choices but have a flight cancel at any one of those cities and you have a problem .

huh?