Spirit Airlines Taps A Nation Of Hate Fliers

I flew them once. They cancelled for "weather" leaving me without a hotel. I then asked how weather was canceling out flight, the winds were straight down the runway at 15 gusting to 25. There was not a cloud in the sky between Vegas and Phoenix (my destination). No ground delay programs either. They said it was due to winds. No later complained in writing quoting their own wind limitations and included the metars for 2 hours before our flight to 2 hours later. They responded with "FAA wouldn't let us go and we have to comply with ATC" I wrote back that once again their reasoning holds no water. As a controller myself and a previous airline pilot am not your common passenger. ATC can not tell you that you can't operate a flight. If there had been a ground delay program to Phoenix then yes we can give you a delay but there was no program in Place. I also had a buddy working that day in Vegas that confirmed there was no delay to departures. They responded with it was a weather cancellation. This is out final correspondence.

We had a plane, a crew, and no delays with winds you could fly a Cessna in.

Ironically a delayed flight they had to DTW with more passengers booked left an hour later with our crew and plane.

I'm one of those pax that says I will never fly spirit again and I won't.

In 2010 and 2011 I had to fly regularly between Ft Lauderdale and Dallas. After a few months using Delta and AirTran I got tired of going through Atlanta and tried Spirit's non-stops.
Their FLL terminal was always crowded and had the atmosphere of a Greyhound Bus Terminal. Their planes were brand new. Their staff was as competent as other airlines.
There were separate fees for everything. But when I added all the fees and included upgrades to a first-class size seat, snack and a couple alcoholic drinks, it was always cheaper than the cheapest coach fares on the other airlines I'd used. Plus my overall trip time was cut by hours by avoiding hub cities.
I didn't find Spirit any more unpleasant to fly than any other airline on that route. When I fly domestically I always check if I can use Jet Blue or Virgin America first. But on other routes I put Spirit in the same category as Delta, United, American and Southwest.

I heard this one on All Things Considered yesterday. With that, I guess I did call it right, when I equated them to the Dollar Store. Dollar General definitely qualifies, as you get what you pay for. Good to see that NKS and RYR are in good company.