11 reviews
Report No: 2023-909
Dear folks,
Welcome to this brand new Flight-Report where I would cover the Spirit Airlines Airbus A320neo on a transcontinental flight from Baltimore to Los Angeles. Since I was going to travel on a Friday and the legacy carriers asked for minimum 4 times what Spirit asked for this route from the DC area to the LA area, I decided to fly Spirit Airlines for $42.90 one-way.
Since I have Free Spirit Gold status through a status match, I was also not going to pay for any additional extras such as exit-row seat selection, carry-ons and snacks onboard which made the journey attractive since without status and with the add-ons, I might have ended at the same cost as flying a legacy carrier which I could use status benefits with.
Loads for this flight:
Economy Class: 100%
The day before the flight, I did receive an invitation to provide a bid to be an overbooking volunteer and I did bid $750 at that time for a later flight. The cancellation on the same route the previous day, helped filling seats onboard my flight since Spirit wouldn't rebook anyone on another carrier during a disruption and I don't think most of the passengers would ask for a refund and pay more for another carrier out of their own pocket.
The day of the flight, I took the MARC Train from Washington Union Station to BWI Airport.
Since it was car-free week in Maryland, the trains were free that day to encourage people using public transportation.
Since I was traveling the opposite direction of the morning-peak, the train was pretty empty.
After a 35 minute train ride, I have arrived to the BWI Rail Station where I took the shuttle to the terminal which I waited for about 5 minutes.
The terminal was pretty quiet that day but security wasn't empty though but I was airside within 10 minutes.
After clearing security, I made my way to The Club Lounge which I could access via my PriorityPass membership.
FIDS for the day.
My flight looked on time.
Our aircraft, N946NK had also arrived at that time and visible from the terminal.
While the lounge is very small, there were a couple of empty seats at that time.
Also while entering the lounge, the staff informed me that due to a maintenance issue, they only had packaged food and bottled/canned drinks at that time. The bar was open but only offered limited selections.
The buffet looked pretty basic with bagel, cheese, butter and granola bars.
The staff also informed that outside food was permitted during that time.
Since I was hungry, I did go to McDonald's where I could order by phone to skip the line. While some of the employees were rude and overwhelmed my order was ready in 5 minutes without any issues. Otherwise, the line was pretty slow.
The prices are similar to outside airport McDonald's location so I paid something around $8 for two breakfast sandwiches and a latte.
Some other concessions such as Dunkin Donuts had even longer lines and the Dunkin store at the concourse was not accepting mobile orders at that time.
Then I went back to the lounge to relax and enjoy my breakfast.
Our aircraft was also visible from the lounge.
While I arrived at the gate about boarding time, they didn't need any more volunteers so I had no luck on the overbooking voucher ( the next flight was in 3 hours so I didn't bother arriving late ). I also bid a bit high so I was not the first one on the overbooking list as well.
Shortly later the flight boarded with the respect of group numbers and I boarded with Group 1.
After being welcomed by the crew, I have headed to my seat at the exit row which was 13A.
The newer seats on the Spirit Neo's are similar to what is available on Frontier aircraft, albeit the older seats on the Ceo's are much more comfortable. The legroom is still pretty decent though.
View from the wing
Overhead panel
Our neighbor was this Frontier A320neo heading to Orlando that morning.
Boarding competed on time and we started our push back on time.
During the boarding process, a passenger was very furious to see that Spirit didn't have any power outlets or USB ports and asked the crew about this; the crew was sorry to tell him that Spirit doesn't offer any power or recharging option.
Also before the safety demonstration, the crew has informed that the front lavatory is out of service and people shouldn't be surprised seeing the pilot walking to the back for the lavatory during the flight.
Spirit A320 in the old livery
United 737-MAX-8 which had just arrived from San Francisco as UA643.
After a short taxi, it was time for us to take-off.
Spirit does offer Wi-Fi on their aircraft, however, since I was planning to sleep, I have skipped purchasing Wi-Fi on this flight.
A route map is also available through the Wi-Fi portal.
The seat back pocket contains the safety card, the buy-on-board menu and a Free Spirit flyer.
Here is the buy-on-board menu for this flight.
Since I am a Spirit Gold member, I was entitled for one beverage and one snack with the Gold sign next to it which I am going to claim later during the flight.
I have slept for the majority of the flight and woke up about 45 minutes before landing and there was already a 10 people queue for the 2 functional lavatories at the back of the plane which moved at an OK pace.
However, like the majority of public restrooms in the USA, people were not applying the courtesy rule of cleaning their own mess after their use so the lavatory wasn't clean.
On the way back from the lavatory, I asked for my free snack and drink ( opted for Oreo's and a bottle of water ) which was granted immediately by the friendly crew.
Shortly later the seatbelt signs were turned on and we started our descent.
And in a few minutes, we have landed at LAX.
Construction is going at the TBIT West gates for the expansion project.
Tom Bradley International Terminal always hosts a variety of international carriers which some serve the airport with A380's.
Terminal 4, the home of American Airlines here in LAX
Terminal 5, which is used by Spirit, JetBlue and American
N406AN was at the taxi-way at that time. It didn't have any scheduled flights that day so likely being positioning to the maintenance facility.
And we are turning left, to Terminal 5.
We would be going to park at gate 56B that day.
And we have parked at the gate just on our scheduled arrival time.
Deplaning took a bit time, however I was out of the aircraft within 5-10 minutes after the seatbelt sign has been switched off.
At that time I took the fuselage shot of N946NK.
The terminal was pretty crowded once I did arrive and it was hard to find a quiet place since I needed to do some work on my computer. Luckily I found a quiet empty gate to do some brief work before leaving the airport.
Laterwards, I left the terminal to take shuttle to the LAX City Bus Center.
And this report has succesfully come to an end.
Thanks for reading and hope to see you in another report.
While Spirit Airlines is a low-cost carrier, the price and the timings worked for me so the journey was pretty decent. I would pick them over other carriers if they are offering a significant price advantage over other carriers on future occasions.
The lounge situation at BWI was disappointing but I think that I didn't miss too much since during my previous visits to that lounge, the offerings over there were pretty basic.
Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 3 avis concernant 1 compagnies sur la ligne Baltimore (BWI) → Los Angeles (LAX).
La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Spirit Airlines avec 5.6/10.
La durée moyenne des vols est de 5 heures et 59 minutes.
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2 Comments
Thanks for sharing!
Indeed yes, European standards have now adopted the US LCC standard which is almost offering nothing for free except water ( which Spirit does if you would like a cup ) so I'll agree that the industry is not going forwards towards a passenger experience oriented period.
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