OTC: Is spirit/frontier worth it for atl roundtrip?
Estafador
BIG APPLE
It's OT sort of. I remember before I did read about going to ATL, now I'm going to actually start making plans. It seems that on November 18th is The Sweet Spot to do a round trip from NYC to ATL. Spirit and Frontier Airline is offering $53 round trip for that flight on the 18th of November. JetBlue however is offering $97 for a round-trip flight. Now given that is this going to be around a 2-hour flight I wanted to know if it was worth being cute just implied because reservation for Housing Authority more expensive for should you still pay the bigger bucks.
Considering I'm over 6 ft and I never flown before, I don't want to be too uncomfortable but I don't want to pay too much just for two hours flying comfort. And I still don't know whether to get the hotel or do an Airbnb. And of course there's the consideration of either ubering everywhere or renting a car which definitely will not be no Toyota Corolla or Prius or whatever.
Considering I'm over 6 ft and I never flown before, I don't want to be too uncomfortable but I don't want to pay too much just for two hours flying comfort. And I still don't know whether to get the hotel or do an Airbnb. And of course there's the consideration of either ubering everywhere or renting a car which definitely will not be no Toyota Corolla or Prius or whatever.
32 comments
https://www.seatguru.com/charts/shorthau…
Both Spirit and Frontier range from slightly below average to above average in both measurements, depending on the specific aircraft/configuration. Shouldn't be any more uncomfortable on either of them as compared to a major airline.
(1) I used to travel a lot, and I tried Spirit several times. Something always went wrong. Lost luggage, cancelled flights, late flights, paid upgrades that I didn't get. Those are all things that happen occasionally on any airline, but with Spirit you should expect them every time.
(2), since you've been to strip clubs, you know how upsells work. Spirit is a master of the upsell. They will charge extra for everything except using the bathroom. They display a low price so they come up first in your search, but by the time you book, it's $45 more.
It's busy while since I've used Frontier, but I don't recall any serious problems. As to seat comfort, them days is gone. Prepare to be squeezed on any flight.
If you’re planning a trip where your spending $$ anyway, just splurge to make sure you’re going to have a good experience, IMO. Just say no to discourage t airlines unless you have nothing that you’re bringing with you except the clothes on your back.
*That's* why you want to put your dick in a guy's mouth...
Their planes are pretty new but always dirty, and their seats are uncomfortable for long haul trips. When you get into a Spirit plane you fell like you’re on a bus because their interiors are so stripped down.
BUT a 2 hour flight isn’t that long. $53 for a ticket. If you want to pick your seat that’ll be about $20 each way, and checking your luggage is around $35 each way. Don’t bother with a carryon because they’ll charge you around $30 each way for that unless you can stow it under your seat. That’s why I always check my bags with Spirit.
Also you will be sitting next to some derelicts. People that would never usually fly but are because it’s so damn cheap.
Only used frontier twice. They were briefly at my home airport but pulled out. I can’t remember anything about those flights.
That Jetblue flight will likely be cheaper after factoring added charges. It will also definitely be more comfortable.
Phew what a bullet to dodge.
@desertscrub not sure why i haven't ignored you yet, but if your gay that's cool. I'm not though so find another man for your fantasies please.
I never had a problem w/ Spirit per se but in the future I may opt for a different airline if the price difference is not huge (many of the major airlines have been forced to compete w/ the budget-airlines to where often the price-difference is not that great).
The negatives of Spirit from my POV (have never flown Frontier but I assume it applies to them as well):
+ often not as many flights during the day so may be harder to make-it to your destination around a particular time desired
+ with rock-bottom prices one often gets rock-bottom custies – a lot of normal people fly on Spirit to save $$$ but IMO/IME it seems you get more shitty/rude people on cheap airlines like Spirit
+ the seats are fixed in place and do not recline – w.r.t. leg-room it’s not great but seems a bit-better than in years-past – I’m barely 5’10 and remember having a bit of a hard-time in years past getting in the seat but in the last couple of years it seems a bit better but not great by any means
As others have mentioned, add-on$ can make it to where the ticket comes out about the same or close-to other airlines:
+ most airlines allow you to pick a seat of the seats available – Spirit charges you if you wanna pick a seat (e.g. isle or window seat; a particular row; etc) – if you don’t pay to pick a seat then your seat is randomly assigned to you
+ carry-ons – this is a BIG ONE – AFAIK almost all airlines allow free carry-on(s) – Spirit charges you for a carry-on; I think $25/carry-on but don’t remember – and how they really nail-you is that if you don’t pay for the carry-on at the time you purchase your ticket online and show up at the gate thinking you can just go on the plane w/ your carry-on as w/ most airlines, w/ Spirit they will charge you a $100-fee for each carry-on you have if you didn’t prepay for the carry-on when you bought your ticket – many people unfamiliar w/ Spirit have been clobbered like this
+ also drinks and snacks are not free on Spirit and have to be purchased; even water – and you have to use a credit/debit card; i.e. they don’t take cash – what I often do is take an empty water-bottle w/ me then fill it once I’m past security b/f I get on the plane (you can’t go thru security w/ a water-bottle w/ water in it but can go thru it w/ an empty one)
+ I think they also charge-you if you gotta print a boarding-pass at the airport but that should be a non-issue today w/ the use of smartphones
I’ve never had to pay for a carry-on b/c Spirit allows a “personal item” – a personal-item is a purse; a briefcase; or a backpack (like a school backpack) – there is no charge for those – I have a large 17” laptop and bought a backpack that has a sleeve/compartment for the laptop so I can carry-it-around – when I do my ATL-trips I use this backpack and leave the laptop at home and my backpack is all the luggage I take since I’m only in ATL to SC and don’t need much w/ me so I take the bare-min that can fit in the backpack – the backpack/personal-item is supposed to fit under your seat but since I put a fair-amount of stuff in-it it can get a little bulky and I can have a hard-time fitting-it under the seat so I usually just put it in the overhead compartment and have never been told anything (but I assume on a very-full-flight they may ask you to put it under your seat so they can store conventional carry-ons in the overhead bins).
[back in 2019 I had an out-of-state TUSCLer in town - he flew on Spirit and had a gym-bag as his carry-on I believe for which he did not have to pay as a carry-on - while downhere the zipper on his gym-bag broke and he bought a different small-bag at a store downhere - when he flew-back his new bag did not meet the "personal-item" size-requirements and I think he was hit w/ a $100 carry-on fee (they have a box at the gate that measures carry-on sizes) - needless to say he was pissed and vowed never to fly Spirit again]
I’ve managed to always pay the bare-fee w/ no add-ons but one has to dot their i's and cross their t’s.
I’m surprised someone actually remembers that figure!
ATL is pretty-spread-out – Uber def adds-up if one is out-and-about and being there as a tourist vs business/work where one would like to be going to multiple different places or clubs – I would assume Ubering would be more-expensive and one will be more limited. Rentals have come-down in certain areas but seem still high in others (IDK about ATL).
Pre-Covid when I hit ATL I would jump thru some hoops to save $$$ on my rental - I would often rent off-airport – airport rentals are often more expensive and at times 2x especially if there happens to be something going in town those days and there are more people than usual coming into the area and needing rentals – my M.O. used to mainly be getting a hotel that had free-airport pick-up then I would rent from Enterprise and have them pick me up at my hotel – but IME Enterprise has gone to shit in the last few years where at many locations I've had issues getting a rental – but Enterprise used to have a great weekend-special where one could get a car for as low as $10/day (later it went up to about $15/day) but I don't think they have it post-Covid – the caveats of the Enterprise weekend-special was one had to rent it Fr-Mo; mileage was limited to 300-miles for those 3-days (which usually wasn’t a problem but if one went over it was only like 20-cents/mile); and it didn’t apply to the airport location – but anyway in general I often avoid renting at the airport if I can b/c it’s often significantly more expensive – I use the BJ’s (similar to a Cosco) travel website which list all rental cars from all companies in a given city; I use the BJ’s travel website to look at the prices then go to the actual car-rental-website and do the rental there and the prices have usually matched:
https://travel.bjs.com/car-rentals/
^ I use that website and sort the results by price low-to-high
Bacon!!
How did it go?