
If Everyone Hates Spirit Airlines, How Is It Making So Much Money? - ALee
https://marker.medium.com/if-everyone-hates-spirit-airlines-how-is-it-making-so-much-money-8c7d13472352
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kjhughes
Because people purchasing airfare prioritize price over service.

Money quote: “Businesses that look at what people say,” [Ben Baldanza, Spirit
CEO] argues, “don’t do as well as businesses that look at what people actually
do.”

~~~
Wowfunhappy
Sure, but often "it's so cheap" leads to brand satisfaction despite lousy
quality. I know people who really like Walmart and Dollar Tree.

~~~
conductr
I know a lot of people who love Spirit. They find ways to avoid the fees and
just want low prices

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neckardt
I love spirit. If I can save $50 on a flight that would normally cost $200,
that means I can visit my girlfriend 4 times instead of 3 for the same price.
I'm not particularly tall so there's no change in comfort for me. I wish they
had more routes though, been handing a good percentage of my annual salary to
delta.

~~~
amyjess
I'm assuming you travel super light, then?

Because Spirit's baggage fees are so high that it'll more than make up the
difference in ticket prices. One reason why I prefer Southwest so much is
because I can get both my carry-ons _and_ two checked bags with the ticket
price... which is _still_ lower than any of the legacy carriers.

(which is a reason why I'm going to be so upset when the MAX is put back in
service and I won't be able to fly Southwest anymore)

~~~
tim58
What are you really doing with two carry-ons and two checked bags?

If I'm staying for less than 4 days I can fit everything I need in one
backpack. With a backpack and a carry-on I can bring everything I'd want for
weeks.

~~~
amyjess
For me, it breaks down like this:

* My purse counts as a carryon. I don't go anywhere without it.

* My other carryon is my backpack, which contains my electronics. I have my Surface, my headphones (which are very large padded cup models... I have sensitive ears and can't wear earbuds or small hard things), and a variety of chargers and spare batteries. I intend to use at least some of these on the flight itself. And I also stuff the side pockets with snacks for me to munch on during the flight (usually red/yellow stuffed Twizzlers).

* I have a suitcase for my clothing. I don't really like wearing the same clothes every day, so yes I pack multiple changes of clothes.

* I have a duffel bag for all my toiletries. Makeup, shampoo & conditioner, hand cream (I tend to travel in late fall/winter, and the cold fucks up the skin on the backs of my hands for some reason), shaving equipment, pads, flat iron, etc. Some of these _can 't_ go into a carryon because of bullshit TSA rules.

And on one of the trips I made last year, I also brought a number of toys for
my niece and nephews (three kids, two toys for each kid, and not all of them
were terribly small), which I had to basically play Tetris with to get them to
fit in my luggage. I think they ended up being distributed between my
backpack, suitcase, and duffel bag.

~~~
tim58
I usually fit in a backpack.

* Eight shirts (4 undershirts, 4 overshirts)

* 4 boxer-briefs

* 4 pairs of socks

* 1 toiletry kit

* 1 laptop or tablet depending on the nature of the trip

* 1 phone charger

* 1 tablet/laptop charger

* 1 medium sized book for the plane/airport

On my person I carry a wallet, car/house keys, airpods, and cellphone.

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Simulacra
Because of low income people who need to get places and are used to being
treated poorly. Sometimes you have no choice.

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sct202
Spirit has been mostly fine but you should price in the cost of eventually
getting stranded by them in the flight cost. I've flown them at least a dozen
times and been stranded once where the next flight would be 4 days later so I
had to suck it up and buy a flight back on Southwest.

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majos
Well, here are the key bits:

> Branding experts are forever telling us that this scenario simply isn’t
> possible; eventually a negative popular image will crush your business. If
> that’s the case, how do we explain Spirit?

> Sure, there were lots of complaints, but Spirit consistently delivered on
> its low-cost promise, and that’s why customers kept coming. “Businesses that
> look at what people say,” he argues, “don’t do as well as businesses that
> look at what people actually do.”

As for why Spirit is an easy punch-line, I think a lot of it is the name.
There’s not much to go on with American Airlines, Delta, Southwest, United,
etc., but _Spirit_ sets up such a contrast between the name (noble, eternal,
incorporeal!) and the experience (no-frills, optimized for cost, and extremely
corporeal!). It’s nice irony.

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gok
What a senseless question. You could ask the same thing about Walmart or
dollar stores, or why most people watch YouTube with ads. Just because I feel
it's the best move to save money by using your services doesn't mean I don't
also feel your service sucks.

~~~
majos
If it’s unnecessary and you consume it (YouTube with ads), doesn’t this imply
that it doesn’t suck?

Dollar Store, sure, sometimes people need to buy cheap food. But using YouTube
is optional.

~~~
leetcrew
> If it’s unnecessary and you consume it (YouTube with ads), doesn’t this
> imply that it doesn’t suck?

in the common parlance, it is possible for something to "suck" and still be a
good value. in my opinion, the experience of shopping at walmart sucks. I have
a hard time finding things, I have a hard time finding employees to help me
find things, and the thing itself is usually of poor quality. and when it's
time to pay, I'll probably be waiting for one of the two cashiers to ring up
two full carts worth of items for the person in front of me. as much as I hate
it, I still go there if I need to buy a bunch of stuff where I don't care
about quality.

if something is free, it only needs to provide an infinitesimal amount of
positive utility to be a good value. I also hate google play music, but it's
the best of several bad options to play music for free in my car.

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glofish
People HATE that they have to pay for every additional service, but LOVE the
original low (and overall lower) price.

When they travel only nickel-and-diming is visible.

But then, when they plan a new trip, they remember that overall it was not so
bad and apparently decide it was worth it.

~~~
riantogo
There is a fix for this. Charge the max services fee on top of ticket price
and credit back for services not used. Didn’t bring a check-in? Here is $50.
Not gonna eat? Keep this $20. Suddenly now they are not nickel-and-diming.
They are handing out money.

~~~
leetcrew
I'm not sure the psychology works out that way. price sensitive customers
probably don't want to let you hold onto an extra $75 of their cash from the
time they make the reservation until they actually fly.

~~~
gruez
Time value of money of a $200 plane ticket at federal funds rate (for half a
year) is like what, $1.5?

~~~
leetcrew
it's not about the lost opportunity to make an investment so much as
tightening the margin for stuff like paying rent, utilities, and credit card
bills. $75 isn't enough to make or break my budget, but it's still a lot to
have tied up over a service I'm planning not to use. if you're the type of
person to aggressively optimize travel for price, it could be a meaningful
sum.

~~~
glofish
Plus it is well established that we are less price-sensitive once the money
left our pocket.

Most people would end up using more services. Hence even instinctively feels
like a much worse deal even if tying up that money would not impact them
directly.

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ApolloFortyNine
My most recent Spirit flight was $200 cheaper than any other airline. I have a
bag that's the exact personal item dimensions, and generally pack very light
as it is, so the restrictions don't affect me at all. And honestly, I think
largely because no one can recline, the seats are not that uncomfortable. I've
been on more uncomfortable British Airways flights (they still fly some
extremely old 747s on their North American routes).

So I save $200 to be slightly more uncomfortable for 2 hours, on a piece of my
journey that simply has to happen. No one flies just for fun, people have
somewhere they're trying to be.

~~~
microtherion
> And honestly, I think largely because no one can recline, the seats are not
> that uncomfortable.

This. As far as I'm concerned, non-reclinable seats in economy are a FEATURE:
I lose more comfort from the seat in front of me reclining, than I gain from
my seat reclining.

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crooked-v
A key thing to keep in mind with air travel customers is that it's nigh-
impossible to effectively search and filter on anything past price and _maybe_
number of free bags. Thus, you get people buying seats with no leg room...
because travel search sites lump everything together, and without researching
every single flight in the list, there's no way to actually see how much leg
room there is in advance.

~~~
JMTQp8lwXL
There's no guarantee for the type of aircraft that will service your flight.
You can check the schedule, but an Ops team may switch out if any operational
exception (bad weather, equipment malfunction) occurs.

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chx
Because noone wants to pay. We are still flying the same speed as we did fifty
years ago. Imagine for a second that you could fly from London to Sydney in
ten hours (that's the Concorde speed on a route over Panama City so that
almost all of the flight is over a sea to avoid any problems with sonic booms)
but a ticket would be 15 000 dollars. Noone developed that plane.

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protomyth
Its not like a lot of airlines have good reputations flying out of the same
places as Spirit. For a certain type of travel (one carryon, not super long
flight), its actually ok. They suck but the lower price compensates for the
difference in suck between them and some of the others.

They're the burner phone of airlines.

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burnJS
I'd take spirit on a short trip where I need only a small carry on. I just
don't generally need flights that fit that scenario, especially on the east
coast where I prefer the comfort and ease of Amtrak. I hate airports.

I wish this country had high speed rail.

~~~
tyingq
If your small carry on is larger than 18x14x8 inches, it's an additional ~$35
to ~$60, depending on when/where you pay. This is how they make their money.

~~~
MiroF
Even with this rule, it is generally cheaper than commercial flights from
other carriers, except (in my experience) for extremely low price United
flights that have the same stipulation.

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tyingq
Oh, yes...should have mentioned the 28" seat pitch. That's the other way they
make money. Other airlines have 30"-32" in their economy seats.

~~~
tatersolid
This can’t be a significant factor. The seats per plane allowed by pitch
difference is about 11% (at maximum using 28" vs 32") seats in a two-aisle
plane.

Spirit base fares are often less than half what a United or even Southwest are
charging for same route.

~~~
tyingq
11% more seats is a pretty big deal in a low margin business.

Comparing base fares is hard when the product is so different, and Spirit
isn't uniformly half the cost either. Say it's uniformly 20 to 30 percent
lower. Seat pitch and bag fees (carry-on/checked) might account for most of
that. Also see things like refundability.

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catalogia
Because _" Everyone hates Spirit Airlines"_ obviously isn't true, despite the
impression the author may have gotten from mass media and social media,
neither of which are representative of the full population.

If you have a gut feeling ( _' everybody hates Spirit'_) and hard facts ( _'
Spirit is profitable and has loads of customers'_) that seem to contradict
each other, maybe _just maybe_ you should consider the possibility that your
gut feeling is just flat wrong.

