Growing up we almost always drove unless it was going to be more than 15 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 really wasn’t that bad, but my sister wasn’t able to get a free cup of water and that made a huge 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.
The impression lingered with me for a decade until I was in my early 20s. I was trying to boostrap a company and in pretty serious credit card debt and Spirit was sometimes less than half the price of the next best option. So I started flying Spirit out of necessity. I don’t think I’ll ever beat that $26 flight to Chicago.
Slowly 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. It felt like boarding was way faster on Spirit because fewer people were rolling suitcases on.
So I flew Spirit pretty consistently for the last ten years. I even got their credit card. 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 just from buying groceries and meals. With the card 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.
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.
Yeah, I did have a few classic Spirit moments. As recently as two months ago, my flight was delayed from 9pm to midnight; we showed up at 10pm to find out that the flight had been moved back up to 10:50pm without any sort of notification (the official flight monitor still said midnight). We were too late to use the checked bag we bought. I had to shell out $79 to buy a carry-on. 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 tagged with the crap brand. Norse had the same personal item check, except theirs is the size of a lunchbox.
Spirit taught me how hard it is to target the bottom of the market. I saw passengers try to get away with things that wouldn’t have flown anywhere. Like trying to sit in the exit row with a ticket that says 26B. Or listening to their phones, full volume and without headphones. Or on my last Spirit flight ever, someone pointed her baby - mid vomit - outwards towards the poor flight attendant. Spirit staff seemed harsh sometimes because they often had a short fuse, but understandably so.
My friend Tom would never ever fly Spirit. He’d been burned by them once. He always pointed to an interview with a Spirit exec who said “people expect steak at hamburger prices”. That really ticked my friend off. But I always found it pretty apt.