After years of being a loyal Southwest customer, I switched to Spirit Airlines this year.
That's not because I stopped liking Southwest Airlines. Instead, it was really a combination of factors created at least partially by the covid pandemic.
First, after Southwest extended its loyalty program benefits for a year, I still lost my A-list status because in the post-pandemic period, I simply had fewer reasons to fly. In my most travel-heavy years it was not hard to accrue 25 one-way qualifying flights, but in a year when the world was not operating as normal, it became impossible.
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In addition, when I went to book Southwest Airlines (LUV) -) flights over the past year, I often found that my options included having to make a stop. That's an added hassle the airline made worse by changing its Wi-Fi pricing from being $8 for a full day to $8 per flight segment.
It's not the added $8 that bothered me exactly, but if I have to make a connection, and schlep myself and my bags from plane to plane, then the airline really should not nickel and dime me.
Still, Southwest was generally my preference even once I lost my A-List loyalty status. Spirit Airlines (SAVE) -) was never really an airline I considered until it offered a brief promotion where it sold me top-tier "Gold" loyalty status for $100.
Getting that promotion required me to have high-level status with a hotel or other airline, which I had with a hotel chain through being an American Express Platinum cardholder. But once I paid for the enhanced status I got a lot of benefits including no bag fees, a free carry-on, priority boarding, and most importantly free upgrades to exit row seats.
It was that last perk that proved the most valuable, something I would not realize until I had a flight where due to a late change in my plans, I was not able to secure an exit row seat.
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Spirit and Frontier Airlines sacrifice your comfort
After realizing that my flight from Las Vegas to Fort Lauderdale not only had a stop but also left super early in the morning, I opted to change to a later, direct flight. At first, I booked a middle seat in the exit row, the only exit row seat left, and then I opted to change to a regular aisle seat.
It's worth noting that while I could lose a few pounds, I'm not a tall man. In general, I say I'm 5' 8", but that's rounding up a bit. Sitting in a regular seat on Spirit was uncomfortable, to put it mildly. That's something that's absolutely intentional.
The super-value airlines have sacrificed your comfort in order to pack more seats on their planes, Spirit and Frontier Airlines (ULCC) -) have a seat pitch of 28 inches. That's the worst among major airlines, and well below the 31 inches Southwest offers.
In practical terms, the very tight seating was uncomfortable with no real way to fully extend your legs. And, when we reached cruising altitude, working was nearly impossible as I could not fully open my mid-size MacBook.
On the plus side, neither Spirit nor Frontier allows passengers to recline their seats. If that was possible, it might be hard to read a book or look at your phone. It's one thing to be uncomfortable. It's another thing entirely to have a five-hour flight where it was, in my case, nearly impossible to work and, for others, would be impossible to watch a movie or show on their laptop.
Spirit and Frontier have sacrificed everything for price. That's not as noticeable from an exit row seat, which has about ten inches of extra legroom. From a regular seat, however, you realize that both of these airlines don't care about your comfort or whether you can work or entertain yourself on your flight.
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Instead, both Spirit and Frontier simply want to offer the lowest price possible at the full sacrifice of everything else. That may be worth it for some passengers, but others may opt to spend a little more in exchange for more comfortable experience.
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