Occasionally, we here at SpiritAirlinesFacts.com hear from a proud, vocal Spirit Airlines supporter, wondering why we even bother to run this site. "It's all lies, Spirit Airlines is amazing," or "I've never had a problem with Spirit," or "you must be getting paid by another airline!" Here's a typical example of one of those (rare) notes from Robert. This time, Robert challenged us to publish his letter. If Robert had bothered to read our entire site, he would have known that we publish notes from EVERY Spirit supporter and non-supporter we receive here, but in this case, we thought it might be instructive to break down the typical pro-Spirit arguments, brought to you from Robert. We are publishing his comments in full, without correcting his typos or punctuation:

​Let's take this from the top: "I think your evaluation of Spirit airlines is unfair."

Opinions are great. Everyone should have some! But any evaluation of Spirit Airlines needs to start with actual data rather than with individual opinions. 

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI) rated Spirit LAST among airlines in their 2017 survey.

The 2017 survey by Deal News finds "People Hate United Airlines, But They REALLY Hate Spirit" 

CNN Money informs us "When it comes to customer satisfaction among airline passengers, Spirit Airlines ranks dead last."

Here's another last-place rating for Spirit from the Points Guy. 

We could go on and on. To see more, just Google "travelers rate Spirit Airlines."


Now, as for Spirit's renowned flight delays, again, we urge Robert to beware the focus-group-of-one syndrome. Again, opinions are great, but we prefer to look at actual data. We featured an article a couple of years ago on data from the 538 Blog studying industry on-time arrivals. Spirit's on-time arrivals, among 11 carriers, were ... dead last. 


Let's talk legroom. Or better yet, let's let others who have actually studied Spirit's legroom (or lack thereof) do the talking for us.

Heels First Travel does a nice apples-to-apples comparison, titled "How Much Legroom Do You Really Have (or Not) on Spirit Airlines."

Here, the Washington Post lists major airlines with the most/least legroom (Spirit comes in last).
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Now, onto our favorite part of Robert's note: Someone pay you to write this junk.? (Punctuation is his, not ours.)

While it might be hard for some to imagine helping strangers without any promise or hope of financial gain, that is exactly what this site does. We are a public service to the traveling public, warning them of the risks of traveling with Spirit. As we clearly state in the OPENING two paragraphs of our home page: 

Yes, Spirit Airlines can be, if you fully understand Spirit's unique business model, the cheapest way to travel from point A to point B. However, those that assume flying Spirit is no different than flying any other airline may discover what seems at first glance to be a nightmare organization that has ruined vacations, destroyed business travel plans, taken money without offering agreed-upon services and shocked unsuspecting travelers with hidden fees and questionable policies. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Spirit Airlines has seven times more official complaints against them than any other airline operating in the United States. Even the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation has warned travelers that Spirit Airlines doesn't care about its customers.

To be fair, Spirit Airlines has many, many fans who have learned how to travel within Spirit Airlines' rules and save hundreds of dollars every time they travel. 

As anyone reading this site can clearly see, we have chosen to accept no advertising on our site. This is a free service, and we are here to help every traveler who feels cheated, robbed or abandoned by Spirit Airlines. Even for travelers who proudly traveled for years on Spirit without any problems ... until they suddenly had a major problem. Yes, we're even here for you, Robert, when you find yourself stranded somewhere for three days, waiting for the next available seat on a Spirit flight. 


And finally: I know you dont have the balls to publish this. 

Wrong yet again, Robert. Thank you for visiting SpiritAirlinesFacts.com. Happy travels.

A big pat on the back for Spirit Airlines here. Yes, those have been rare, but we're hoping there will be many more to come.

I was told personally by officials at Spirit that they are no longer charging active military members for their bags. No surprise charges for our hard-working (and underpaid) military men and women is a huge, huge positive. Anything we can do to help those fighting the bad guys overseas so they don't have to fight them here is a good thing. 

We personally thank Spirit for this smart change in policy,

Sometimes a graph is worth a thousand words ...

So if it seems like Spirit flights are always late, you might be at least partially right. If you'd like to read more, you'll find it HERE.

Have you bought a Spirit Airlines ticket on Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity or any other third-party website? Would you like to be responsible for taking millions of dollars from Spirit Airlines? If so, you may be interested in participating in this investigation that could evolve into a class-action law suit.

It seems as if Spirit may have been selling tickets on third-party sites for more than those same tickets have been selling on their own site. There is some question as to the legality of this practice. I am in contact with a Washington D.C.-based consumer-rights law firm that is looking into Spirit's practices. Right now they are ONLY looking for people who bought a Spirit ticket on Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity or any other third-party website.

They're also looking into one specific aspect of Spirit's online baggage charges. Have you paid online for your luggage on your outbound trip, but been unable to pay in advance for your return trip? If you have experienced this, this law firm would very much like to talk to you. 

If you would like to participate, please email us at: SpiritAirlinesFacts@gmail.com. Or simply reply to this post. 

A new government study has revealed that only 49.9% of Spirit Airlines flights arrive on time. The industry average is 74.8%. Spirit's 49.9% on-time arrival rate is the lowest among the airlines monitored by the United States Department of Transportation. That 49.9% on-time rate is the worst recorded by the U.S. DOT in a decade.

The AP reports: Spirit performed poorly at nearly all airports it serves but was worst in Philadelphia, Chicago's O'Hare Airport and Detroit, where on-time percentages were in the 30s ... On six routes, the Spirit delays averaged more than two hours.

United Airlines comes in second-worst, with a significantly higher 66.3% on-time rate. 

Also interesting from this study: Spirit Airlines had by far the highest complaint rate of the 14 airlines covered in the report. Spirit passengers were 43 times more likely to file a complaint than passengers on Alaska Airlines, which had the lowest complaint rate.

And then there's this: the overall rate of complaints against airlines jumped 45 percent from June 2014, but Spirit alone was responsible for more than half the increase.

Thanks to AP for getting this story out! Read more here.

Over the past four years, I have divided up the reasons to avoid Spirit into three categories:

1. Travelers get fooled by Spirit's unique pricing model.
It seems like they charge you for everything. Because they do. And once they do, you might as well fly on any other airline. You won't save any money.

2. General rudeness.
Spirit tries to save money everywhere. Including the salaries of their employees. And you get what you pay for.

3. It may take you 3-4 days to get to your destination.
Spirit is the only national airline that doesn't provide backup jets, or crew or have agreements with other airlines. This means that if your aircraft is unable to fly, you won't be going anywhere. This can (and often has) lead to travelers being forced to wait three or more days for the next available seat on a Spirit flight with little or no reimbursement for meals, hotel stays or rental cars throughout the days you're waiting for your flight.

Issue #1 can be overcome if you understand their pricing model and work within it.

Issue #2 is a pain, but travel is often a pain.

Issue #3, however, is a fundamental violation to the pact between an airline and a traveler. An airline has only ONE responsibility, that is to get you safely to your destination in an appropriate amount of time. And Spirit has repeatedly and without apology violated this pact again and again, week after week, month after month, year after year. This is not about a several-hour delay. This is about being forced to miss entire vacations, business meetings and family functions because Spirit doesn't care enough to get you there.

That is ... until this weekend! On August 8, 2015, we received information from travelers flying from both Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and from LaGuardia Airport that, after cancelling flights, Spirit was buying tickets on other airlines for the travelers who were supposed to be on those cancelled flights.

If this is the beginning of a new Spirit policy, this is BIG, BIG news. And if it's not a new Spirit policy, it's big news that, on at least one day in their existence, Spirit Airlines did the right things for passengers in at least two cities.

So, a rare kudos to Spirit! Please keep up the good work.

We will be watching and reporting on whether this policy continues.


UPDATE: It's two days later and Spirit is still stranding their passengers for three days at a time at airports across the U.S.

I had the opportunity to speak with a VP at Spirit Airlines last week. Evidently, your efforts to reign in their airline's abuses are being noticed. They estimate this site is causing 50-60 new reports every month to be filed with the Department of Transportation. That causes real hours to be spent by their employees to research and answer every one of these reports. 

So if you really wanted to cause trouble at Spirit HQ (as so many of you tell me you want to in your emails), congratulations! You're doing it. 

In the spirit of fairness (Ha! Pun!) the Airline has asked that we mention that reports sent to the U.S. Department of Transportation are going directly to a GOVERNMENT department, not directly to the airline. I've been told that Spirit follows up with many of those who file complaints. Spirit officials are finding that some people are directed to the DOT site to file complaints without understanding the difference between complaining to the DOT and complaining to the airline.

So, let me make it clear right here:

When you complain to the DOT, you are talking directly with the governmental organization that has direct oversight of the airline industry. 

We missed this story back in May, but it was helpfully sent to us by a site reader. (Hat tip to you, Alex!)

Skytrax is an international leader in rating airlines and airports. In May they released a list of the 20 worst airlines on the planet. The good news for Spirit Airlines is that they didn't rate as the world's worst. No, that honor went to Turkmenistan Airlines. But Spirit was the only U.S.-based airline to make the list.

Alrlines on the list not QUITE as bad as Spirit?

• Angola's TAAG Airline, which was once completely banned from European Union airspace.
• Nepal Airlines, an airline that has been known to sacrifice goats to appease a Hindu god after technical problems.
• Jakarta-based Merpati Nusantara Airlines, currently banned from European Union airspace for being unsafe.
• Ireland's Ryanair, which is removing two of three bathrooms from each of its planes so they can sit six more passengers.
  

Also on the list were airlines from Sudan, Uzbekistan, North Korea and a wide variety other assorted third-world nations. Read the entire list here.

Congratulations, Spirit Airlines! With a little work, next year you should be able to break the top ten!

This is a personal comparison of two airlines under nearly identical circumstances. I'm simply laying out the facts. I'll let you draw your own conclusions for your own future travel plans:

Two different airlines, two different flights leaving the same airport early on a Sunday morning. While they both happened early on a Sunday morning,  the Sundays were separated by just over two years. I showed up for both in plenty of time for my flight, and in both cases, long lines at the check-in counters prevented me from making either flight.

On being informed I missed my flight:
Spirit: Made it clear that missing the flight was my fault, even though my flight wouldn’t take off for another 45 minutes. Spirit personnel first told me they gave away my seat to someone else, then decided that, instead of that story, they would go with me being too late to make my flight, which was, again, 45 minutes from taking off. I was refused a boarding pass and the opportunity to get to the gate.

Southwest: Apologized for the long line, warned me that I would probably miss my flight, but I was given a boarding pass, pointed toward security and wished the very best luck.

On resolving my travel needs:
Spirit: Told me (on Sunday morning) they could get me to my destination as soon as Wednesday!

Southwest: After missing my flight, the friendly counter crew pointed me to another flight that would be talking off 30 minutes after the flight I missed.

On the final outcome of my travels:
Spirit: I completely missed an important business meeting, I was told it was my fault I missed it, and my credit card company had to step in to get them to refund the cost of the flight I was never allowed to take.

Southwest: I made it to my destination just 30 minutes later than originally planned, and my choosing Southwest was repeatedly thanked.

This story comes from Associated Press via NBC News. You can read it here. Evidently a Spirit flight taxiing at Ft. Lauderdale airport "clipped" a U.S. Airways jet. While that's not unheard of, this part of the story raises some alarm:

"... all 162 passengers on board got off at the gate as normal, and the plane returned to service. Authorities say the US Airways aircraft was left with a gash in its tail section."

So let me  get this straight. The collision was serious enough that one plane ended up with a "gash" in it's tail section? Yet the other just went right back into service as if nothing had happened?

Hmm ... glad I'm not flying on that plane.


(H/T to my friend Craig for bringing the story to my attention.)