Spirit Airlines is a lightning rod for bad media reports but their reputation is undeserved.
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Passenger Behavior Doesn’t Reflect the Airline
A lot of readers have made negative comments about the carrier and those that fly Spirit Airlines. Many deride the process for booking a Spirit Airlines ticket, smaller tray tables, they even complain about the flight attendants and the rest of the cabin crew. Many suggest that instead of saving money on the ticket price, they’d rather avoid what they have determined to be the worst airline in America. But they are so very wrong.
It’s important to avoid connecting the bad behavior of customers with the service provider. Spirit Airlines employees absorb a lot of abuse. Look no further than a recent post from Matthew that features a video of passengers throwing things and inflicting physical harm on Spirit employees. One “stooge” even stole a Spirit employee’s phone. That’s not Spirit’s fault.
Some will claim that these sorts of problems occur at Spirit because of the clientele that they draw, in the same way that fast food joints have more customer problems than five-star restaurants. There’s some merit to that argument, but unfortunately in the airline space, the disparity is less. Spirit competes on mostly domestic flights and while the company has an extensive network in Latin America, that’s not where the problems seem to be. It’s American customers flying domestically that cause disturbances. But if customer issues don’t happen on international routes, then it can’t be a Spirit problem, right?
Other airlines have problem customers too. American Airlines had this passenger removed for inappropriately touching another passenger. Delta passengers are guilty of attacking airline staff too. United, who hasn’t had a passenger physically dragged off a plane in a while now, has passengers that storm the cockpit door. Southwest passengers get in fights on airplanes too. Frontier has a problem with passengers committing sexual assault, but worse, some allege they don’t do enough about it. Alaska Airlines isn’t immune either. On JetBlue it’s not the Emotional Support Animals that bite, it’s the paying customers. Allegiant customers throw fists onboard like the others.
Did I leave anyone out?
Some are just walking through the airport causing problems. Like this guy in Dallas or this lady in Atlanta (NSFW.) Shall I go on?
Every carrier in the US has these problems and they are more frequent than they should be. And while one could consider this a distinctly US problem, here’s a case in China and another(there are many of these just like in the US.) It happens in Europe (Brussels, Portugal, the UK, and others.) These incidents happen on seemingly every carrier in every region of the world, the airline in which bad behavior occurs is moot.
There’s a Lot to Like
Spirit is more punctual than any other discount carrier in the US, good for fifth overall (Pre-COVID-19) and briefly took over as the country’s leader in on-time rankings in October of 2018. Spirit is also safe. In fact, the carrier has never had a fatality.
The airline has the youngest fleet in the US (until Breeze starts up with all-new A220 aircraft.) That could be one of the reasons why the airline is so punctual, as well as so safe. But there’s another benefit to Spirit’s “fit fleet” as they call it. The airline is able to take advantage of better fuel economy which makes aircraft cheaper to operate but also better for the environment than other carriers.
Spirit also unbundles their product, a feature some have come to loathe. But compare Spirit to Basic Economy on United Airlines for example. Both carriers will charge for carry-ons in excess of a personal item, checked luggage for domestic flights, and food onboard.
United gives its customers access to streaming content to customer devices and a water bottle (Spirit doesn’t) but it comes at a cost, even if the price is the same for the flights. United will likely require a connection for flights that do not originate or terminate in its hub, Spirit offers nonstop routes outside of hub stations. Basic economy customers cannot purchase faster boarding and will not earn miles nor status on tickets – Spirit passengers retain these abilities.
But unbundling allows passengers to pay for what they want and not what they don’t. For example, Southwest is more expensive than the competition 60% of the time but includes two free checked bags whether the customer needs it or not. Why would a customer prefer to pay more for something they don’t use?
In addition to low-priced flights, Spirit also builds in a convenience fee to its fares for those purchased online, however, if customers purchase tickets at the airport, they can save between $12-28/per passenger/flight. Customers can apply that savings to purchasing the same size seat as an American, Delta, or United first-class seat but for as little as $25 more – even the cheapest upgrades on the majors are more expensive.
Those that focus on the process to book a flight with Spirit may say that it seems like a constant upsell, but I would challenge them to try booking with United, American or Delta. Yes, your Spirit Airlines flight from Fort Lauderdale to Las Vegas will ask if you will prompt you to pay for a seat assignment, offer you an upgrade, book your luggage in advance and before it’s over, offer car rentals and hotels. But so do the others. In fact, the only thing that the others do not charge for that Spirit does is printing your boarding pass at the airport, but even that is often waived and who doesn’t use an app for that anyway? They are forgetting that all carriers have moved to this model, not just Spirit, and while they may not like the process, that process is nearly universal with the exception of Southwest.
For what it’s worth, the carrier has also been strict from the start regarding wearing masks on planes to fight COVID-19. The majors have faltered on this policy.
Spirit Customers Are Not Who Most Think They Are
I personally hold top tier status on two US flag carriers yet I fly Spirit 20-30 times annually. Why? Because I don’t want to fly a connection and double my transit time for the same or more money. It’s not just for those who are inexperienced or casual flyers, it’s for those who value their time as much as they do their money.
Some fly Spirit due to low costs, but some are there for convenience. While it’s anecdotal, certainly, my seatmates are often those with second homes in warm locations. A landlord with more than 20 properties in two cities has sat next to me on a few flights we both frequent. On one flight we were competing to buy an onboard upgrade.
Conclusion
Passengers behave poorly on every airline, in every country. Attributing poor customer behavior to the airline and its employees they attack is incorrectly applying blame. Spirit’s bad reputation is undeserved. The carrier flies the newest equipment, safely and on-time to its destinations for some of the best prices in the US. Unbundling allows upgrades for tens of dollars and the company has been safety conscious through the Coronavirus crisis when others have not.
What do you think? Should passenger behavior be attributed to the carrier? Does Spirit have materially more incidents on a per seat basis than other carriers? At what point are passengers held accountable for their own behavior?
Couldn’t agree more. I’ve been very happy flying my family all over on Spirit at terrific prices. The great majority of the staff have been friendly, and the non-reclining seats guarantee the person in front won’t crush your knees. I’m not exaggerating when I say I now prefer Spirit to the larger carriers.
Of course these kind of stories is a small minority of passsengers, but it’s no coincidence that they happen more often on Spirit. An airline is partly defined by their customer base, and Spirit’s customer base is more likely to be low class degenerates who don’t know how to behave in public. This is the side effect of democratizing travel.
I was treated VERY poorly as a Spirit customer several years ago. The process of getting on the plane was too difficult. Long lines made me miss the flight even though I got to FLL 2 hours early and they did nothing to help me from there so I skipped the trip to Nassau. I do believe they have improved and their flight attendants have gotten better.
Spirit hasn’t flown to Nassau in over a decade so it might not be fair to judge today’s Spirit based on your experience so long ago?
@Kyle Steward:
First, I do not want to judge Spirit Airlines because I never flew with it before. However, I just wanted to discuss a few points you wrote in the article.
1. “Spirit is more punctual than any other discount carrier in the US, good for fifth overall (Pre-COVID-19) and briefly took over as the country’s leader in on-time rankings in October of 2018.”
As a statistician by training, this is something I don’t understand. How would you rank punctuality when the numbers of flights operated by each carrier are different. Let’s say Spirit operates 1,000 flights (or whatever the real number is) a day and AA, DL, each operates 10,000 flights a day. Furthermore, does Spirit have hubs at ORD, EWR, DEN, IAD as UA or JFK, ORD as AA where the winter storms force cancellations? Therefore, is it a fair comparison to claim that Spirit is “the country’s leader in on-time rankings”?
2. The airline has the youngest fleet in the US (until Breeze starts up with all-new A220 aircraft.) That could be one of the reasons why the airline is so punctual, as well as so safe.
Youngest fleet does not necessary results in safe. Aren’t the two crashed 737MAX’s very new?
3. You stated “I personally hold top tier status on two US flag carriers yet I fly Spirit 20-30 times annually. Why? Because I don’t want to fly a connection and double my transit time for the same or more money. It’s not just for those who are inexperienced or casual flyers, it’s for those who value their time as much as they do their money.”
Really? If UA, for example, did not change the new elite qualification rules from distance flown to $$$ spent on the ticket, would you fly with UA even if it connected you 2-3 times? I don’t know about you, but I would. In the past, when UA Elite qualification based on distance flown, when purchasing the tickets, I (and I am sure many readers here also) intentionally chose the longer connection even it might take more time.
These are just a few points in your article that I want to address.
@T – Thank you for your comments. I have some corrections and some responses to the questions you’ve posed.
It’s “Stewart”, not “Steward.” Pedantic, yes, but I feel like we are both into details.
1) Carriers are measured (by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics) by the percentage of flights that arrive within 15 minutes of their scheduled time. There are a number of issues with the manner by which the BTS calculates these figures. For example, many major carriers pad the numbers to account for traffic, weather, and tarmac delays yet still (surprisingly) fail to hit their marks. Hawaiian has been one of the most timely airlines due to this measurement because the carrier consistently operates in good weather with limited traffic (though mainland destinations can post challenges.) However, these are the way the statistics are compiled and Spirit ranks first among discount carriers and fifth overall. The distinction is important because it shows that (as you cite) network carriers have different challenges than discounters. However, it’s also worthwhile noting that while Spirit operates many flights to and from sunny states like Florida and Nevada for example, unlike Allegiant, and to a lesser degree, Frontier, Spirit flies into major market airports. Any traffic delays for Allegiant at Punta Gorda (in between Tampa and Fort Myers, FL) where they are the only carrier is on them. But Spirit, who fly into airports like DFW and are headquartered in Detroit face the same struggles as the majors. As a statistician, surely you’d recognize that with fewer flights, delays affect an outcome far more for Spirit than they would at United or American so in that regard it should elevate the achievement.
2) The 737 MAX tragedies are a rare case where new equipment is less safe than older equipment. However, Spirit has an all-Airbus fleet so they were unaffected by the 737 MAX issues.
3) In some cases you may be right, however, there are two flaws with this logic. First, I instead typically went on long-haul mileage runs to knock out the requirement shortfalls in one or two weekend trips, sometimes to Asia (on a three-day weekend) rather than eat up vacation time every time I fly. It’s a better use of time to spend one three-day weekend accruing 25,000 EQMs on a Hong Kong turn than to add 2-3x transit time when I want to pop down to Florida for a weekend all year long to make up the same shortfall. Second, we can’t go back and make any of the carriers switch back to mileage-based earnings so I have switched my thought process to what’s available now and going forward. We haven’t had distance-based earnings (outside of Alaska) in some time, though, for what it’s worth, Spirit miles are still earned based on distance flown.
Kyle: I sincerely apologize for making a mistake of your last name. Thank you for your explanation about the way the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) does calculations.
Hi Kyle. Spirit is headquartered in Miramar, FL, soon to be Dania Point, FL.
You’re right. I should have said, “began in Detroit, now headquartered in South Florida.” However, the distinction between Miramar, Dania Beach or FLL is probably a little too exact for most readers.
Kyle, thank you for the support. I work for Spirit airlines at TPA and we bust our butts to board guest in a timely fashion so that the pilot ✈️ can wheels in the air based on departure time. But unfortunately, when you have guest arriving 15/20mins before departure trying to check in or running for the flight begging and pleading to hold flights, these are the times when you have late departures… enjoyed your article…..
Caveat emptor. Nice piece, Kyle.
Could debate points of the article, but you intended it as a ‘hot take’ style and likely agree with many counterpoints people bring up.
Do we believe Breeze will take 60 A220s or as quickly as planned at his stage? Think the AZUL E195 may comprise a large percentage of operations for some time.
Good question. I thought the initial order was 100 and that was scaled back, but I also think that the production line probably needs an order like that so they will be more flexible with terms just to get the planes in the air. I haven’t flown the DL A220s yet but I have seen them in Houston and they look nice. I love flying the E175s and I wish that more carriers like UA and AA would replace their 8-seat first class 319s and some 737s with the E170/175s so I’d really like to try the 220. I also think that it makes a statement when a carrier can make the type exclusive and I love that.
Hi Kyle,
I just came across this article on my Facebook feed and wanted to thank you for your observations and kind words about the Spirit brand. I’ve been a flight attendant for them since 1999 and I’m very proud of my company. We have gone thru many trials and tribulations but we’re still here. They’re a good company to work for and my benefits are amazing. It hurts me when I see so many negative news against Spirit. I’m really glad you took the time to write this fair article about them. Thanks again.
There’s a significant way US Basic Economy is worst than Spirit.
Basic Economy requires an in person checkin that wastes time at the airport, unless you check luggage. Spirit doesn’t.
Argh, autocorrect. UA, not US.
That’s an excellent point.
Ben Baldanza, the former CEO of Spirit, was the primary reason for years of NK having a bad rep. His attitude towards passengers was basically: “Who cares if we piss them off, they’ll come right back when they wanna save $10”. The new management team is much more operationally focused, and has improved customer service across the board.
Thanks for the article. I am a former FLL Spirit employee and I have been saying all of these things for years! Just this week on the heels of the 3 violent passengers at FLL I defended the airline on a post on my fb. I can attest to the fact that Spirit employees are more qualified to deal with a difficult customer base. FLL is the hub to Latin America and those passengers were often difficult yet never violent! Whenever we had to call for police backup at the counter, gates, or bag claim it was always domestic passengers!
You might want to read a more objective take down of Spirit Airlines from another travel blog writer, The Points Guy: https://bit.ly/3fJjN2x. Debating the benefits and challenges will be more helpful to all travelers alike, rather than based it in subjective terms like it’s undeserved or not.
Sincerely,
Dale
@Dale:
Thanks for your comment.
Agree with most of what you’ve written here. I’ve flown Spirit a handful of times, and the experience has always been – fine. Cabin crew and ground staff have always been pleasant, and I’m yet to observe any obnoxious behavior onboard. Frankly the introduction of Economy Minus was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. Especially where the buy-up to regular Y is obscene (and increasingly it is), I find it preferable to pick Spirit, where I at least have the option to buy up from the bottom of the barrel if I want to.
The limited route network and schedules make them more of a niche carrier in my book, but they’re a useful piece of the puzzle.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
I think large part of it is duento the customers spirit attracts. Not that the people are bad people in the majority, but that they have limited experience of flying in general and unbundling as a concept in particular. The small issues that creep up because people have bought the lowest priced ticket and then find that checked bags aren’t Included, for example, tend to add up leading to this.
Of course I could be completely wrong
I couldn’t agree with you more. The majority of people that ‘hate spirit’ have never flown them before. I know because I was one of them. I like many others relied on the misinformed comments of others bashing the airline because they aren’t offered a ‘free’ coke. Spirit isn’t given any room to have a ‘bad day’ without everyone dragging them for it. Barely anyone recognizes the good Spirit does in the community. Spirit was the first airplane to touchdown in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria filled with supplies. (before FEMA, and even the ‘president’). Countless humanitarian flights bringing US citizens home for FREE during Covid-19 etc. They’re true to who they are and you know what you’re getting with the price you pay. They’re not a bad airline once you know what to expect.
Spirit Flight Attendant here: I’m very proud of my airline and the work we do. Of the four airlines I have worked at this has been the best and everything said in the article is true. Thank you for bringing common sense to the table again.
I have flown spirit at least 10 times a year or more with groups. In some smaller location the staff is wonderful but in big location for instance Detroit, Atlanta, and Orlando there are some rude disrespectful staff that are either overworked or just don’t want to be there and they give the guest a hard time. I have seen it first hand and it has happened to me. I always purchase my carry-on bag and my luggage ahead of time. However while in Orlando I found some boots in the shopping area of airport and when I got to the gate the made me pay $80 to carry the boots on the plane. Yes I had a probably with that I got upset I asked for manager and she refused to get manager and that’s where the confrontation begin. Instead of staff getting the manager they begin to debate and go back and forth. This could have been easily prevented but like I said some staff in bigger locations already have their guard up and ready to agrue or fight.
I’m just saying