Spirit to fly to MSP from ORD and LAS. $9 tix. Really?

[robair73]

Since when is $200 for an airline ticket "really expensive?!" That's still cheap!!

 

[chqflyer]

I was on a spirit flight not too long ago and I was talking to the gentleman beside me. He and his wife paid 99 dollars for the airline ticket. They had two bags each, one the checked before for 25 dollars each and then they got charged 50 dollars to put their bag in the overhead bin because it was too big to fit underneath the seat in front of them. Then they got charged 6 dollars for two bottles of water. So in reality they paid about 200 dollars each for the trip. 31 % of spirits revenue comes from fees. If you are doing a day trip and pack very lightly it's the perfect airline. For a family trip it can get really expensive pretty quickly just like everyone else.

You don't say what route you were on, but $200 each is still incredibly cheap. How much would they have spent on gas alone to cover the same distance? What about the value of the hours saved in travel time? Safety? They were a helluva lot safer sitting in that airplane than they would've been on a highway full of drunks, texters, general nincompoops, etc.

 

[MIAFO]

I think they have a great alternative....the only problem I can see there that if you decide to pay the extras still costumer service is crappy and your legs don't fit...so ok, I end up paying the same as Jetblue after the extras.. why will I choose Spirit over Jetblue?

 

[chqflyer]

It's called "gotcha capitalism". Hook them with a super low price then tack on all sorts of extras. My $99 iPhone still cost me $227 by the time I walked out the door with it. It's just the new normal way of doing business.

 

[chqflyer]

I probably should add that the gal that sold me the phone had a huge rack and a nice smile. I still don't know what the hell I bought. ?

 

[shon7]

Since when is $200 for an airline ticket "really expensive?!" That's still cheap!!

Since forever.

 

[Raskal]

As a life long MSP resident, I am disappointed. And am not sure they will do very well here. Yes, they will do well enough to not pull out, but most here will be very turned off by 50.00 carry-on bags and .005 inches of leg room. For many reasons, I wish this had been jetBlue.

But yes, we need more competition because Delta does not prioritize this market and we have the 11th highest airfares of any major market, with some important markets with NO competition at all for big Delta...

Not impressed.

Yeah, because the CRJ 900 that DAL would put on this route has SO much more room...C'mon man, you came from here, you know there is no difference in the product Spirit puts out over DAL or its regionals (or any domestic for that matter). The only real difference is that Spirit has the sack to actually tell the customers they couldn't care less vs all the other companies pretend. I say good for Spirit for giving the passenger what they want: cheap crappy service. It's the American way.

BTW, being from MSP you know that they'll do incredibly well there since there may not be a state in the union with a more, um, "frugal" population.

 

[CA1900]

Yeah, because the CRJ 900 that DAL would put on this route has SO much more room...

Even the CRJ has 3" more seat pitch than the Spirit A320 cattle car. For me, that's literally the difference between comfort and agony on an airliner.

C'mon man, you came from here, you know there is no difference in the product Spirit puts out over DAL or its regionals (or any domestic for that matter)...

Well, except for the seat comfort, availability of first class, inflight Wifi, IFE, and so on. But yeah, "no difference."

 

[Beetle007]

Well, except for the seat comfort, availability of first class, inflight Wifi, IFE, and so on. But yeah, "no difference."

Spirit passengers can choose if they want more leg room. Spirit sells Big front seats and other seats with extra leg room.

I think most passengers choose to save a little bit of money for the seats with less leg room.

 

[Raskal]

Even the CRJ has 3" more seat pitch than the Spirit A320 cattle car. For me, that's literally the difference between comfort and agony on an airliner.



Well, except for the seat comfort, availability of first class, inflight Wifi, IFE, and so on. But yeah, "no difference."

If you seriously consider any seat on any of the CRJ products, including "first class", comfortable then you must be in a wheelchair with no feeling in your legs or possess a rear end of iron. I'll deadhead on Spirit's bus all day long over the CRJ-xxx...now that bigger Embraer, not bad...

As for wifi and IFE...I don't know what kind of commute you have but the only entertainment I ever see are the fa's antics and that asinine seat belt video on the back of seat 46B in the most uncomfortable aircraft ever made, the 757.

The point I'm trying to get to is that they're simply not that different from a pax standpoint, one's just more honest than the other.