Spirit Airlines Review: Is It Really As Bad As Everyone Says It Is? 

Spirit Airlines Star Rating: 3.0 out of 5 Stars 

Spirit Airlines has something of a bad reputation in the budget airline industry. While I had heard lots of bad reviews about the nation’s most expensive “low-cost” carrier, complaints were largely centered around its deceptive pricing and how cost quickly costs skyrocket upon checkout. And that is a fact. But in my experience, the worst thing about Spirit is not the cost, the fact that it charges over $50 for a carry-on bag (yes, a carry-on) or that it doesn’t offer any form of in-flight entertainment. Find out all about Spirit, how much it really costs, what you can expect at the airport and onboard and more with our comprehensive Spirit Airlines review. 

Spirit Airlines Pros & Cons 

Flights and Routes 

Though Spirit Airlines is largely a U.S. domestic carrier with around 60 U.S. destinations, it also offers flights to the Caribbean, Central America and South America. 

Spirit Airlines Destinations [Complete List] 

For the latest routes, check the Spirit Airlines route map. 

On-Time Departures and Reliability 

Spirit Airlines is mediocre when it comes to reliability with an average on-time departure rate of 71.2%. For reference, this is a higher on-time departure percentage than JetBlue (65.4%) and Frontier (69%). However, Spirit has a lower on-time departure than the following: Hawaiian Airlines (85.9%), Delta (83.6%), Alaska Airlines (79.6%), American Airlines (78.6%), United Airlines (77.1%), and Southwest Airlines (73%).

On-Time Departure Rates By Airline 

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics

Pricing and Affordability 

Though Spirit Airlines is a budget carrier, don’t expect your total price to be a bargain. When you first search for a Spirit flight, the ticket prices typically look pretty awesome. However, its very unlikely that this is what you will pay. Spirit has lots of upcharges, from seat selection to baggage (including a carry-on bag, which costs more than a checked bag). So unless you’re traveling with nothing, it’s going to cost more than you initially think. However, even with seats and baggage, its pricing is still reasonable and around what other airlines will cost for the same routes and dates for a direct flight. 

Baggage Fees 

Don’t expect to get anything bags flying free with Spirit. That is, unless all you’re bringing is a small backpack or handbag that fits under the seat. Otherwise, you will be faced with baggage fees for both checked baggage and carry-on baggage. 

• Carry-on bag: $50 to $60 each way 
• First checked bag: $47 to $49 each way 
• Second checked bag: $69 each way 

You read that right: a carry-on bag costs more than a standard checked bag. And its things like this that lend to Spirit’s bad reputation. Another thing to note is that Spirit’s weight limit on a standard check bag is 40 pounds. This is a bit below many other airlines, and so passengers are often surprised to then be faced with yet another baggage fee: the overweight baggage fee. 

Spirit Baggage Fee Examples

Seat Selection Fee 

Seat selection does not come standard and can be purchased during the check-out process. So if you want to ensure you get the seat you want, you need to pay a fee to choose your seat. This fee varies but ranges from $5 to $13 for a standard seat, $19 for an exit row and $67 for a Big Front Seat. And keep in mind, this is the fee for each flight. 

Spirit Airlines Seat Selection Fees By Row (May Vary By Route) 

Rows	Seat Selection Fee
1-2 (Big Front Seats)	$67 per seat
3-11	$13 per seat
12-13 (Exit Rows)	$19 per seat
14-19	$10 per seat
20-30	$5 per seat

If you want to save some money, you can skip the seat selection step in the checkout process. In doing so, will be able to select a seat upon check-in instead. If you go this route, it’s worth checking in as soon as possible to give yourself as many options as possible. Otherwise, the less likely you are to get a decent seat. 

Priority Boarding Fee 

If you want to get onboard as quickly as possible–and don’t want to buy a bundle or pay for a seat up front–you can purchase the “Shortcut Boarding” option during the checkout process. This costs $9.99 per person, per flight. 

Cost to Fly With a Pet 

Spirit Airlines is a pet-friendly airline that welcomes all types of pets, including dogs, cats, rabbits, and even birds can fly on Spirit domestic flights. However, it’s not the cheapest airline for pets as the fee for any of these pets is currently $125 each way. 

Keep in mind that while it does not expressly advertise a size or weight limit, it does require that the pet fit into a carrier bag that can fit under the seat. This generally equates to a maximum weight of about 40 pounds. 

Learn more about Spirit Airlines’ pet policy and optional extras.  

Flex Flight (No Change Fees) 

Spirit Airlines’ “Flex Flight” is an add-on that enables you to modify your flight for free up to 24 hours before its departure. This add-on costs an additional $45 per person. In the world of flexible flights, this is actually a pretty good deal and can be worth it for those who often change flights last minute or aren’t entirely sure of which date they will be flying and won’t know until last minute. 

Airport Check-In 

Like just about every airline, you can check in online up to 24 hours before your flight. However, the check-in and bag-drop experience at the airport is where things start to vary tremendously. Generally, Spirit has a decent check-in experience at smaller airports where it has a minimal number of departing flights per day. However, Spirit has one of the worst airport check-in experiences at airports where it operates a number of flights simultaneously. For example, it is notoriously awful at the notoriously busy Orlando International Airport (MCO). 

While it has the check-in kiosks where you can print your boarding pass and tag your bag, it does not offer a separate bag drop line so even if you have already checked in and tagged your bag, you still have to wait in its extremely long line. The last time I was, it was about a 30-minute wait just to drop our bags. Yikes. 

It’s also worth noting that it does not seem to offer a separate line for loyalty members or its version of premium seating (it’s “Big Seats”). So even if you are a rewards member or are paying more for its “Big Seats” don’t expect to get any special treatment when it comes to waiting in its check-in/bag drop lines. 

Note: One interesting thing about the photos above of the Spirit “bag drop” at MCO is that while the line was massive with an approximate wait time of about an hour, there was a Spirit employee who was barking at people in line to squish in closer to those in front of them. 

So while there were open check-in desks and an extremely long line, this employee’s job was not to help check people in and help the line move faster, but to bark at people to get closer to strangers–because the line was overflowing too far into the airport. To me, this was absurd. It was also just annoying to be yelled at when we were already standing like sardines. 

Boarding 

Spirit Airlines has a pretty standard boarding process where all passengers have assigned seats. On your boarding card, you will see that there is a boarding group, which boards the plane from front to back. So, if you’re seated in the front of the plane, you’ll be in one of the first boarding groups. Whereas, if you’re in the back of the plane, you’ll have to wait to one of the last boarding groups to board the plane. 

One strange benefit of Spirit Airlines charging for carry-on luggage is that fewer passengers bother with carry-on luggage bags and so its overhead bins do not fill up as quickly as other airlines that offer free carry-on luggage. That said, the boarding process isn’t bad. Even if you’re in one of the last boarding groups, you’ll still get your seat (unlike, say Southwest where you choose a seat as you board) and you’ll likely still find plenty of overhead storage. 

In-Flight Experience 

As a budget carrier, don’t expect a luxury service with Spirit. But in my experience, I believe you can expect a fairly good in-flight experience. The seats aren’t the most comfortable (though they’re not the worst). Most Spirit flights are short-haul, so it’s all very manageable. I can’t say I’d want to fly Spirit for anything over three or four hours, but most of its routes are within that amount of time. 

Comfort  

In-flight comfort is mediocre on Spirit. Personally, I don’t find the seats themselves to be too uncomfortable, the legroom is minimal at 28 inches (one of the least in the industry), the tray tables are the worst I’ve seen and so is the seatback “pocket.” I didn’t expect seatback televisions, but I did expect a normal tray table. As someone who likes to work from a plane (or at least likes to plan to), the tray table is more like a drink tray. It’s about half the size of a normal tray table and doesn’t extend so you can’t move it closer to you like you can with most. 

Food Service 

One of the most disappointing things about Spirit Airlines for me is their food service–or lack of it. While it does offer a decent assortment of drinks and snacks for sale, there is nothing available for free–not even water. And it might be one thing if everything came at a small price, but its prices are pretty ridiculous. For example, a can of Coca-Cola is $4 and a bottle of Dasani water is $5. Again, I get it when alcohol is expensive onboard, but in my opinion, airlines should offer at least a limited selection of non-alcoholic beverages for passengers.

Drinks 

Product	Price
Hot Beverages
Coffee (Juan Valdez)	$4
Tea (Lipton Black Tea or Stash Green Tea)	$3
Hot Chocolate	$4
Cold Beverages
Coca-Cola (can)	$4
Diet Coke	$4
Sprite	$4
Apple Juice (Minute Maid)	$4
Cranberry Apple Juice (Minute Maid)	$4
Orange Juice (Minute Maid)	$4
Tonic Water (Canada Dry)	$4
Club Soda (Canada Dry)	$4
Ginger Ale (Canada Dry)	$4
Bloody Mary Mix (Mr. & Mrs. T)	$4
Water (Dasani – bottle)	$5

Entertainment 

When flying Spirit Airlines, expect its offering of in-flight entertainment to be what you would expect a flight to offer in 1990. There are no entertainment options. No seatback televisions (like JetBlue), no entertainment portals to use from your own device (like American Airlines), and no power outlets (like most nationwide carriers).  

• Seatback entertainment: No 
• Entertainment portal (to access from your own device): No 
• Power outlets: No 

Though Spirit offers nothing by way of in-flight entertainment, there are a number of ways to kill time and stay entertained on flights. For example, you can download Netflix shows and movies to your phone from the Netflix app, download music or podcast episodes with a premium Spotify account, or of course there are always books. Just be sure all of your devices are fully charged before you board or you might be bored. 

Customer Service 

Admittedly, I have mixed feelings about Spirit Airlines’ customer service. On one hand, I was disappointed that, unlike the other airlines I frequently fly, you have to opt-in to receive text notifications about flight changes. This meant that I didn’t learn about my flight’s over six-hour delay until arriving to check in. The gate agent was very blase about the oddly long delay (during nice wealth in both the departure and arrival locations). I also didn’t like that Spirit will sell you WiFi for flights that don’t offer WiFi. This seemed odd to me. 

On the other hand, Spirit does a good job of preemptively offering easy ways to resolve issues, which I really appreciate. Unlike other airlines that offer little help when things go wrong, Spirit is great in that it seems to offer a number of user-friendly, automated ways to get the assistance you need (with the outcome you’re looking for). 

For example, when my in-flight WiFi turned out to be a waste of money, I expected to have to spend ages waiting on hold to speak to a customer service representative who would likely offer little support (as I’ve experienced the exact same situation before with Southwest Airlines). However, it offers a simple WiFe refund form, which refunded me my WiFi purchase nearly instantly. 

Delayed Flight Assistance 

During a recent flight with Spirit Airlines, our flight was delayed over three hours. Unfortunately, I did not see the email Spirit sent to notify us of this delay until we arrived at the airport. For the inconvenience, Spirit sent each passenger a $50 voucher for a future Spirit flight. 

Lost Baggage Support 

An interesting benefit of Spirit not allowing passengers to book connecting flights is that it greatly reduces the likelihood of lost luggage. However, that surely does not mean it never happens. In the instances where there is a baggage issue, domestic passengers need to make an incident report within four hours of arriving at their destination. International travelers need to file an incident report within 21 days of arrival. 

Spirit pre-emptively advises passengers to keep track of receipts of anything they must buy as they wait on their missing luggage so that Spirit can refund them those additional expenses. This should be standard practice, however, it’s unfortunately not. In my experience, I’ve often had to make quite the case to customer service to get a refund for the additional expenses (e.g., toiletries, makeup, and some clothing) it cost me to have to go without my luggage in a new destination. In my experience, Aer Lingus has been the worst for this (but that’s another story). 

If you’re experiencing a luggage issue, please visit Spirit’s lost luggage page for more information. 

Ticket Changes 

Surprisingly, Spirit Airlines had a decent ticket change policy for being a budget carrier. Ticket changes or cancellations can be made up to one hour before the scheduled departure time. Changes can be made online by clicking on “My Trips” from the Spirit site, via live chat (click here), via Whatsapp or phone at 855-728-3555, or by speaking to a Guest Agent at the airport. There is a fee, which varies depending on how far in advance you change or cancel your ticket. 

Spirit Airlines Ticket Change Fees 

Days from Departure	Fee
0-6 days from departure	$119
7-30 days from departure	$99
31-59 days from departure	$69
60+ days from departure	Free

Learn more about how to make ticket changes to your Spirit booking.

In-Flight WiFi Issues 

While it’s a bit strange that Spirit will pre-sell Wifi for flights that do not offer in-flight wifi, it does make it very easy to get a refund for it. It has a simple online Wifi refund request form where you input some basic information, such as your name, flight number, wifi issue, and voucher number. 

In my experience, my refund request was instantly approved and the refund showed in my credit card account within a week. 

Check out the step-by-step instructions on how to get a WiFi refund with Spirit. 

Top Spirit Airlines Competitors & How It Compares 

	Spirit	Southwest	Frontier	Allegiant
Rating	3.0 out of 5-stars	4.0 out of 5-stars	3.0 out of 5-stars	3.5 out of 5-stars
Percent of on-time departures	71%	73%	69%	63%
Cancellation rate	2.58%	0.04%	0.34%	1.3%
Legroom in economy	28 inches	32 inches	28 inches	30 inches
Carry-on bag cost	$50 to $60 each way	Free	$60 each way	$15 to $50 each way
1st checked bag	$47 to $49 each way	Free	$30 to $50 each way	$18 to $50 each way
2nd checked bag	$69 each way	Free	$45 to $55 each way	$18 to $50 each way
Baggage Weight Limit	40 lbs	50 lbs	50 lbs	40 lbs
Fly with pets	$125 each way	$95 each way	$99 each way	$50 each way
In-flight beverages	Available for purchase	Free	Available for purchase	Available for purchase
In-flight snacks	Available for purchase	Free	Available for purchase	Available for purchase
In-flight WiFi	$8 per device	$8 per device	No	No
In-flight entertainment	No	Yes	No	No
In-flight power outlets	No	Some planes	No	No

Spirit Airlines vs Southwest  

While many people hate Spirit Airlines, many people love Southwest. The reason is that unlike Spirit which comes with tons of upcharges, which jack up ticket prices, Southwest comes with lots of extras. For example, Spirit charges over $50 for carry-on luggage, meanwhile not only is a carry-on bag free with Southwest, but your first two checked bags are also free. On top of that, Southwest gives free in-flight beverages and snacks, while even water will cost you on Spirit. 

One selling point for Spirit, however, when it comes to Spirit vs Southwest is that Spirit allows you to choose your seat. Granted, it will cost you around $5 to $19 to do so. However, as someone who personally hates having to choose a seat upon boarding, this is a bonus to me and anyone like me who doesn’t enjoy the stress of hoping there’s a good seat upon entering the plane. 

Spirit Airlines vs Frontier 

Spirit and Frontier are two very similar budget carriers. In general, Spirit offers more routes and destinations than Frontier. Though this will likely change as the two airlines continue to expand. Both charge a fee for luggage–checked and carry-on, which we think is ridiculous. However, one difference is that while the checked luggage pricing is in the same ballpark, Frontier’s weight limit is 50 pounds per bag and Spirit’s is just 40 pounds per bag, so you get more bang for your buck with Frontier on that front. 

In-flight experience is similar with these two. Both have some of the lowest legroom in the industry with just 28 inches. Neither offers any in-flight entertainment, no charging ports, and no complimentary drinks or snacks. Spirit does however offer in-flight WiFi on some flights (for purchase). Whereas, at this time, Frontier does not offer in-flight WiFi on any flights. 

Spirit Airlines vs Allegiant Air 

Though Spirit and Allegiant are similarly priced with similar routes, they are very different when it comes to size. Allegiant is tiny compared to Spirit in terms of routes and destinations. However, both are similarly priced and what’s nice about Allegiant is that it tends to service smaller, more off-the-beaten-path airports. This makes it a very convenient choice for those who happen to live near an airport that Allegiant flies out of. However, its routes are extremely limited, not only in terms of where it flies but even on which days of the week it flies. 

Methodology 

In order to review Spirit Airlines, we considered a variety of metrics and factors that matter most to travelers. We considered overall affordability, and total cost after all additional fees and expenses, as well as value for price (mean what do you actually get for the price that you pay). Factors such as reliability were considered by looking at data on cancellation rates and on-time departure statistics. We included customer service and how helpful it is in times of need (e.g., a lost bag, delayed flight, etc…). And of course, we considered our own first-hand experience with flying with the airline and our overall experience with it from booking to flying. 

Here are the key factors we considered in this Spirit Airlines review: 

• Affordability 
• Value for price
• In-flight experience
• Reliability
• Customer service
• First-hand experience 

Please keep in mind that everyone has a different experience with airlines. The more frequently you fly, the more likely you are to run into different issues. While we included our own first-hand experience, it’s important to note that everyone will have a slightly different experience. However, we tried to take a broad look at the airline to gain a better understanding of how most people experience it. 

Our Expert Opinion: Spirit Airlines Review 

If you asked me, “Would you fly Spirit again?” my answer would be yes, but it would not be my first choice. While the price was not a selling point, it is generally comparable to other airlines for the same route once you tack on extras like seat selection and luggage. However, after initially booking flights with Spirit, I find that it tends to change the departure time–and pretty frequently. This isn’t only annoying in that I chose to pay a particular price in order to depart at a certain time, but it also creates a problem if you’re renting a car upon arrival as you need to adjust your rental pick-up time (which can change the price). 

On top of that, I find it pretty appalling for an airline not to offer passengers water for free. It’s a basic human need and one that is absolutely necessary during a flight. Though I always bring water with me onboard, not everyone does and though the $5 is worth it if you’re thirsty, it still just feels shabby to me. While the check-in and bag drop experience varied wildly by airport, it is sometimes wildly long (I’m talking over an hour just waiting in line to drop your bag–after already tagging your bag at the kiosk). 

Overall, it felt like Spirit doesn’t respect its passengers’ time. Between changing departure times multiple times (and multiple weeks) before the scheduled departure, delaying flights over six hours for no apparent reason, and its incredibly long check-in times that mean you have to get to the airport at least two to three hours before your flight is scheduled to depart is too much. I’d fly Spirit again, but it’s not my first choice and I will do so slightly begrudgingly.