re: Spirit Airlines made me religious again

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know he can't do anything about the turbulence, but he sure didn't help the situation

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he could certainly find smoother air to fly in. The sky is a pretty big place

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Spirit and southwest ascend like mad men

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Yep, and they basically just fall onto the runway when landing.

You can have comfortable or cheap, but not both.

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How is that Spirit's fault?

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they want to cut fuel costs instead of flying around it


eta: just out of curiosity, what was your route?

hmm.. no known areas of turbulence on that route right now. might have hit some rogue outflow from the thunderstorms northwest of IAH?

or maybe your pilot was just really bad

I fly 20 to 24 times a year, and the worst I have hit in the 14 years of travel was from a flight out of Lubbock to Dallas on Southwest.

no warning from the pilots about it or anything. the plane bounced around so much you could feel things hitting the floor. in fairness they tried to do what they could, but ultimately just hod to fly through it. people were crying because the plane would drop for 2 or 3 seconds and then bounce back up like we hit the ground.

almost broke me of traveling by air.

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I couldn't tell you the last time I prayed, and I prayed the entire 50 minute flight.

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God is always there for you.

had more issues flying with Delta than Spirit

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The worst I've ever felt...about 5 minutes into the flight. There was some form of turbulence the entire flight.

The dude next to me said he flies 50-70 times a year and he was scared shitless.

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If you have had bad turbulence, ask your flight attendant after the flight where it ranked. The worst turbulence that you have felt will probably be the middle of the road for you.

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he could certainly find smoother air to fly in. The sky is a pretty big place

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As a former air traffic controller, finding smoother air is not for the pilot to decide. He asks ATC for a different attitude due to turbulence, but it could have been that the airways were congested. Air traffic controllers actually use what is referred to as jetways (or it did back in the day). Anyway these are basically "highways" that the pilots use to fly from place to place following signals off of beacons. If the air was turbulent chances were he was going through some weather or a frontline (flight only 50 minutes) so probably wasn't much wiggle room for ATC.

In any case, turbulence sucks. I'm retired USAF and now fly 20-25 times a year and I too hate it. It seems the older I get the more I hate it. But, this was in no way Spirit's fault, although yes as an airline they are easily the worse I've ever been on.

Have a great day!!

I have no idea why people are still in the dark about what Spirit does. They have a well established reputation. It's simple no frills cheap flying. Don't like it? Don't fly them.

You wonder why they charge half price for a flight and then bitch when you get half of the accommodations.