As a family of 8, we’d usually drive unless it was more than 12 hours.
“That Spirit Airlines has great prices, maybe we should fly this time?” said my Mom 20 years ago.
That was the first and only time we’d fly Spirit as a family. It wasn’t a total nightmare, but my sister wasn’t able to get that free cup of water and that really made an impression on everyone. And so it was always kind of a joke about how they were going to nickel-and-dime you to use the bathroom etc.
That impression lingered with me for a decade until I was in my early 20s. I was coming out of college trying to start the precursor to Getcho and building up a sizable cc debt. I started flying Spirit out of necessity. It was sometimes less than half the price of the next best option. I don’t think I’ll ever beat that $26 flight to Chicago.
I started to like some of their quirks. The seats didn’t recline. Since I was always on my computer, that meant that the person in front of me wasn’t going to stop me from getting anything done. As far as the baggage goes, it was like they were paying me to travel out of a backpack which I enjoyed. It always felt like boarding was way faster on Spirit because fewer people were rolling suitcases on.
I got their credit card 3 years ago. I’ve been dunked on many times for having the Spirit card. I don’t care - best airline credit card ever. So far did Spirit points go, that every six months I’d find I had a free flight from just living costs. I got cheap ($25) upgrades to the big seat in front. I’d build in the bottomless coffee purchase into the cost of the ticket and it felt like I was flying in luxury for cheap.
We flew Spirit on my honeymoon last year. We sat next to this dead-heading pilot. He told us that some Spirit pilots meow over the radio and that his dad piloted for AA and he was trying to make moves. I hope he did.
Of course I had a few Spirit moments. As recently as two months ago, they delayed my flight from 9pm to midnight; when we showed up at 10pm they said that they had moved the flight back up to 10:50pm (no email or status update) and we were too late to use the checked bag we bought. I had to shell out $79 to get a carry-on which felt egregious. They can be forgiven though. They allowed me to fly cheaply for ten years.
They allowed everyone to fly cheaply. Even people who never flew Spirit. On Google Flights, Spirit always pushed that floor price down. I think it’s pretty much consensus that they had a broad impact on the cost of flying. Other airlines free-rode on Spirit’s pay-for-what-you-use model. It felt a little unjust to me that United and Delta came out with super economy options of their own and Spirit was stuck with the crap brand.
I learned from Spirit how hard it is to target the bottom of the market. On my flights with Spirit over the years, I saw many passengers incredulous that they couldn’t get away with things that wouldn’t have flown on any other airline except maybe old Southwest. Like trying to sit in the exit row with a ticket that says 26B etc. It goes to show that success and impact are not always the same.
My friend Tom would never ever fly Spirit. He’d been burned by them once and quoted an executive saying something like “people expect steak at hamburger prices”. That really ticked him off. I always loved that quote.
Hoping that everyone from Spirit lands on their feet. Meow.