re: How Bad is Spirit Airlines

I've never flown spirit airlines and I probably never will. All I hear is bad things but their promotions can't be ignored. It's a company that knows its clientele very well.

Some of the best.

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On January 8, the airline reintroduced the MILF Special, described as meaning "Many Islands, Low Fares".

On December 2, shortly after a well publicized car accident involving golfer Tiger Woods, Spirit launched lowered fares in a promotion called the "Eye of the Tiger Sale". Imagery for the campaign featured an SUV crashing into a fire hydrant, with a tiger leaning out the driver's side window

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On February 2, the airline offered the "Many Unbelievably Fantastic Fares (MUFF) to Diving Destinations" promotion. Many of their prominent Caribbean or Floridian destinations were featured.

In June, the airline offered the "Check Out The Oil On Our Beaches" promotion. The ad was in reference to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest in United States history

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On January 12, the airline offered a promotion entitled "Free at Last! Free at Last! Air travel is Free at Last!", which applied for travel the following weekend, celebrating the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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On June 7, amidst the Anthony Weiner Twitter photo scandal, Spirit offered "The Weiner Sale: With Fares Too HARD To Resist." The email promotion included the subject line "Want To See Our Weiner?"

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Spirit capitalized on the Summit of the Americas prostitution scandal by featuring an advert with women in pink bikinis, around an agent implying secrecy, and the slogan "More Bang for your Buck" for flights to Cartagena, Colombia – the location of the scandal – as well as other destinations. Colombian officials complained, and Spirit removed the ad after its scheduled 36-hour run.

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I flew them once on a two hour flight at the last minute.

If you know what you are getting into with the fees it is unbelievably cheap.

The biggest risk is timeliness. In the past Spirit ran their planes 24/7, so it was difficult to recover from irregular operations. They have improved this and now have a better on time percentage (in October they ranked 3rd among all airlines behind Hawaiian and Delta). As long as you are on a nonstop and can live with a 30-60 minute delay its fine.

The seat pitch is very tight, but on the plus side, there is no recline so the person in front of you won't impact your space. When you factor Delta, United and American's 30-31" pitch with recline, its a wash.

The drinks and snacks are all a la carte, but they try to price them reasonably. Bulk discounts can be had. I think they were selling three Budweisers and a thing of chips and pretzels for $15.

One thing that stood out were the crews. The cabin crew was very young and very energetic. they seemed to actually care that you were having a good flight. Beats the hell out of the septuagenarian union crews on the legacy guys.