Spirit Airlines

Phoenix to Minneapolis via Denver with Spirit. Please never fly this airline unless you don't mind canceled / delayed flights, and being charged for everything. We were scheduled to depart at 12:08pm and on our way to the airport we received an email stating the flight was delayed by an hour. By the time we got to the gate, the flight was delayed for 2.5 hours and not one agent was at the gate to answer questions or deal with people like us that had connections. Eventually, the people who had connections were asked to go to the ticket counter. We were not going to make our connections. We had to fly the next day, so we missed day 1 of our 2 day family reunion. I would rather pay more for a flight than to fly this airline.

Houston IAH to Los Angeles with Spirit Airlines. They charge for everything - even a carry-on ($35) except for small personal bag. Seats won't recline. Cannot get hold of customer service. Goes to voicemail. No one calls back. Try emailing. No one emails back. Extra charges for seat selection, water / soda, checking in at the airport, checking carry-on at the gate is over $100, modifying reservations and canceling reservations. Literally they charge you for everything so the fare ends up being more than other airlines.

✅ Verified Review | Spirit Airline is a great deal if - 1) you are traveling alone 2) no luggage except a purse/backpack 3) have patience level of a saint 4) a meticulous planner 5) someone small, not afraid of small spaces. At the end of the day, it's my fault for not doing research beforehand about this airline. My husband and I along with our 8 month old traveled from Chicago to Baltimore to visit family. We decided on Spirit Airline due to its low cost ($200/ticket). We booked this trip far in advance and the downside of purchasing tickets so far in advance is that unexpected things can happen. Something came up and I called Spirit Airline to request a return flight change, from morning flight to evening flight. I was told that it would cost me $500 to change from morning to evening flight. Obviously I declined this. Purchasing two new return tickets would only cost me $200 ($100 each way from BWI to ORD). We checked in online, printed the tickets and guess what? We still had to check in with an agent. We waited 30 mins for our departure flight and our return flight just to check in with an agent. Despite being at the airport at 4.00am, we barely made it to our 6.30 am flight. The security line wasn't even that bad compared to the check in line at Spirit.

Houston to San Pedro Sula with Spirit. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Spirit if you can read, follow directions, and have some patience you can have a decent experience. I found some things confusing, like the 9$ fare but I'm not a frequent flyer so I really don't think this will benefit me. Other than that I knew enough to understand that I had to pay extras for almost everything. It still came out to be a lot, yes a lot, less than other airlines. After reading all the bad reviews I decided to give it a try. To be on the safe side I also purchased the "insurance" just in case. All went well. I checked in online, printed my passes, showed up early to drop my bags off, got through TSA then waited. Boarded the plane, which by the way looked brand new, found my seat which was plenty roomy, aisle was even larger than other planes. Got where I needed to go with no fluff - just the way I like it. Now I hope my return flight will be the same. If not I'll be right back here letting you know. Really though, if you can follow directions then you will be just fine flying Spirit Airlines.

Chicago to Minneapolis with Spirit Airlines. They cancelled my flight on the 4th July, citing "weather problems". The weather at my city of departure, and city of arrival was slightly cloudy with no storms, and no other airlines cancelled flights from ORD TO MSP. After driving to the airport to speak to an agent, I was told I could either fly out on the next available flight, or receive a refund. The next available flight was in 2 days. I asked if it would be possible to get placed on the least expensive flight from another airline, and was told "Spirit doesn't do that". So, I requested a refund, and received well under half of my round-trip ticket fair. Being Independence Day, there wasn't a single plane ticket for less than $320. I had to foot the bill for a $160 ticket at 7AM the next morning.

✅ Verified Review | My Spirit Airlines flight from Baltimore to Los Angeles was cancelled due to missing crew. The next flights available were hours and days later which didnt work because we had a connecting flight in Los Angeles later in the evening. We paid for the upgraded seats 2A and 2B and baggage but I must have received 3-4 emails prior to the flight trying to get me to upgrade however I already had. The agents at the airport were bickering with each other and not helping with baggage etc. Very unprofessional and no customer solutions. I later had to call customer relations and the call center staff had very poor English skills. Very poor business practices and horrible customer service.

Flight 866 from Los Angeles to Dallas Forth Worth was supposed to depart at 10.19, it was delayed until 12.39. We were not informed of our delay. I checked with Spirit about an hour after our supposed departure and agent informed us of the delay. Asked why this was not announced, he said that it would be done after the previous flight departs. I was told the reason for the delay was crew shortage, this is unbelievable that such a huge airline does not have accommodation for crew shortage.

✅ Verified Review | I had booked from DFW to Tampa Florida. Arrived 2 hours early at DFW airport, they said there was going to be a delay of an hour. After that it was delayed an hour when they said it was cancelled. They sent us to a different gate to rebook to Orlando FL. So after an hour waiting we boarded the plane. After sitting onboard for about 30 minutes they said we had to get off the plane because the engine wasn't working. So we walked to a different gate to get on board a different plane. We waited for them to get the plane ready for about an hour and then they told us the flight was cancelled. So they gave us a phone number to call to rebook it for another day. I was there from 6am-1pm.

✅ Verified Review | Flew from Ft Lauderdale to St Thomas. Our family of 4 arrived at the airport 1.5 hours ahead of our scheduled departure time as recommended. Spirit's counter was friendly but understaffed which resulted in time lost. Now running late our family proceeded to the gate once we each got through security in hopes of getting seats together on the plane. Two of our family members arrived at the gate five minutes behind the first two. The terminal attendant had just closed the door to the jet-walk after only 2 of our 4 had board. Another 8 passengers were also at the gate after the jet-walk door had closed. The plane was still connected to the jet-walk and was still 5 minutes before the scheduled departure time but the door to the jet-walk was closed. No one from Spirit Airlines, either on the plane or in the terminal would allow the 10 passengers onto the plane even though it was minutes before the scheduled departure. The plane was not full. To add further insult to this situation the plane arrived at its destination 30 minutes early and had to wait on the tarmac because it was early.

✅ Verified Review | Spirit Airlines is only good for weekend trips and flight duration no longer than 90 min. The seats are very cramped, I am a short person (5'3") and I found them very claustrophobic and uncomfortable. And once in flight, you are not even given a glass of water, no matter have sick you are. But my worst experience was on my flight home, my route was Managua-Ft. Lauderdale-Houston-San Diego, basically a full day to get home, my flight MGA-FLL was at 1am, so we got at the airport early to check in, and just like the first flight, our flights were not linked, so we had to get them linked at the counter so we wouldn't have to pick up our bags and check in at every stop. This flight left on time to FLL, where we had a 12-13 hr layover, trust me this airport is not meant for those layovers, finally our 6.40pm flight arrives and it gets a total of 3 hrs delay because they couldn't find a pilot. I had read these stories but didn't believe them completely, but yes, they didn't have a pilot, finally got one that was coming, I think from St. Thomas and we were off to Houston. Luckily our layover was just an hour and it was on the same aircraft, but once we landed at IAH, we were informed that the flight to SAN was cancelled. So we had to deplane at almost midnight to go to the Spirit counter and see what would happen, that was a 4 hour wait to get anything done. By then we got another flight with a more reputable airline, and I got home at 8pm. This company is horrible all the way, I didn't book this flight, because I knew the horrible reputation it has, but definitely I will try to avoid it like the black plague. The person who booked this flight was trying to save money, ended up spending more money even before the cost of the other airline. Cheap things usually end up costing more in the long run.