I’m no fan of ultra low cost carriers like Frontier and Spirit. I don’t like their nickel and diming to reserve a seat or get a drink of water. I don’t like their extreme lack of legroom, their lack of seat recline, their lack of a carry-on allowance, or their lack of useful miles. I don’t like that they don’t participate in Priceline’s “next day at 11:29pm” refund policy. I don’t like their 40 pound checked bag allowance even after you pay for a bag. I don’t like their lack of onboard WiFi. I don’t like that they don’t have partner airlines to accommodate you when things go wrong. I don’t like that they don’t have credit cards that waive bag fees. And I don’t like buses that are used in place of flights.
But I get that it works for some people, especially those that travel light and don’t care where they sit. In fact as long as there are no flight delays or cancellations, it probably works just fine for most people, but when things do go wrong it can be mean waiting around for several days until they can reaccommodate you.
Spirit will finally tackle one of my pet peeves as they announced that their entire fleet will have WiFi by Summer 2019. That’s a full decade after I marveled about free WiFi on Airtran, but better late than never I suppose.
Spirit expects WiFi to cost an average of $6.50/flight, with fluctuations based on demand and the length of the flight.
If you are buying Spirit tickets, don’t forget to use this “hack” to save $40 per round-trip flight.
Will onboard WiFi be enough to make you fly Spirit?
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20 Comments On "Spirit Will Finally Add Onboard WiFi"
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What next, El Al will actually add wi-fi to their flights?
they already started on some flights
The “hack’ saves $40 per round trip, not per flight.
@dan. did you update your post after yosef-s’s comment? then you should’ve mentioned something in the comments, like tnx, unless he misread ur post
Most people book round trip flights, but yes, I clarified that.
Nope
Spirit’s new CEO (formerly CEO of Airtran) is doing a good job trying to make the Spirit product better. That said, I don’t think this is a good move UNLESS Spirit is taking no financial risk from it. The provider may be paying for the installation and Spirit is just getting a cut of the proceeds. Obviously, at no risk, why not — there are some Spirit customers who will buy, and Spirit would make a modest amount from the purchase.
Otherwise, this makes no sense because there are very few people who currently avoid Spirit who will suddenly say “Wow — I will now fly Spirit now that I can buy wifi on their aircraft.” You only fly Spirit for one reason: it’s cheap. The only investments I want them to make in their product are those that would make their service more bearable and reliable. I don’t want any frills from them and I wouldn’t be willing to pay for them.
I fly spirit 1-cuz they have the best times for me 2-brand new aircraft 3- always friendly service in the air 4-cuz it’s usually cheaper
“Usually cheaper”? I assume you NEVER pay more to fly Spirit than a “regular” airline. If you do, that would be very odd.
Correct I’ve paid CHEAPER with spirit as I am much happier with them for the route I use
Sorry -i meant to say I paid MORE to go with spirit. Sorry for all those who had bad experiences for many years they have been my favorite.
Spirit is the worst! I dislike that airline immensely and am happy to pay extra for the quality of Jet Blue.
Extra? I just priced a random lga-fll roundtrip. About 165 on spirit with their separately listed taxes but no add-ons. 240 on jetble with one checked bag, also includes carry-on and selected seat. 340 on spirit with carry-on, checked bag, selected seat.
Sprit is still one of the best when it comes to safety!!
LOVE Spirit because I can get a first-class seat for $30 extra. Hell yeah!
Spirit at BWI has the Priority Pass lounge for BWI. Free food, free booze.
To fly in a 1st class set and wait in a free luxury lounge I’ll deal with a backpack size free bag.
And after Southwest’s ancient engine blew I appreciate Spirit’s brand new planes much more. Nice to hit land inside the plane.
I don’t think you’ve flown with Spirit’s Big Front Seat before. According to the website it doesn’t come with free food or drinks, nor free baggage allowance.
Nor does it even recline
My husband will be so happy. He hates Spirit, but with a family of five Spirit allows us to take trips to places that we wouldn’t be able to afford on most other airlines. If it’s just the two of us we fly SW, but that extra $150-$300 per ticket can turn into the price of another trip.
I agree. So far I have only taken it average-length flights (from Newark to Fort Lauderdale), but I’m not sure how it would be to go for 5-6 hours or making connections. I’ve found that with Spirit I am less likely to be frustrated with delays and late-arriving aircraft if I take the first flight of the day (typically at 6 or 7AM). I also plan on knowing that if I will be vacationing for a few weeks and will require several checked bags- it might be wise to start “doing the math” of baggage fees, carry on fees vs. other airlines prices. But for a quick 2 or 3 day Rosh Hashana or Shavuos trip, Spirit is a GREAT contender.
I just flew Spirit one way this past Sunday for an in-and-out trip to attend a milestone birthday. Coming with such low expectations, I was mildly impressed with the experience, until –
We were collecting our baby strollers at the gate, when they brought up a stroller that they had completely knocked off the wheel! I had seen the mom hand over the stroller and it was intact. Now, it was leaning to the side and couldn’t ride. My stroller was fine, but my heart just broke for the mom who was standing there, carrying her heavy sleeping toddler at midnight, with a useless, broken stroller. My sister and I demanded they go back to check for the wheel, but they couldn’t find it. They flatly told the lady that she wasn’t eligible for compensation because Spirit is not “reliable” (talk about bad English) for strollers and that the checkin agents should have warned her about that. (How that helps after you have already arrived at the airport with your stroller in toe, is beyond me. It should be written in big bold letters on the website before you can book a ticket for any child under age 5: WARNING – We have been known to break strollers and we do not compensate for that!) That’s a $350 loss- certainly more expensive than flying another airline!
I told the woman to file a complaint at the DoT and took some pictures on her phone of the stroller at the gate for her to use as proof. I have no idea if that will help, but I couldn’t think of any other way she could get her complaint heard.
Anyway, my point is, if you think flying Spirit makes it possible to fly with your family because of cheaper prices, BEWARE