The average passenger wouldn’t say there is much in common between United Airlines and Spirit Airlines. But when my annual “go to Chicago and eat a hot dog lunch with friends” date came up on the calendar, I found myself mixing the premium full-service carrier with the ultra-low-cost carrier (ULCC) on a Saturday day trip between New York and Chicago.
For a trip like this I disregard my typical preferences for comfort and passenger experience and book the cheapest, best timed flights available. I needed a mid-morning flight to Chicago and a mid-evening return to New York on the cheap, and these airlines met those conditions this time around. In the past I have done the roundtrip entirely on Spirit, First Class on Delta A220s, and even American’s MD-88s.
My morning flight to Chicago was awarded to Spirit, coming in at a very reasonable $44.09 fare. Because this was a day trip and I was carrying absolutely nothing besides my jacket, I didn’t need to pay for a bag as Spirit repeatedly suggested via email in the days leading up to the flight.
Wi-Fi was the only ancillary purchase I was interested in, but I scoffed at the high pricing of $13 for browsing and $16 for a streaming connection. It was a good thing I didn’t pre-pay, though, as the system never worked in-flight, unfortunately.
I also decided to skip purchasing a seat assignment to see where I would end up at check-in, keeping an eye on the Big Front Seat. I was assigned an aisle seat in row 33 of the 39-row Airbus A321ceo. Not great, not terrible. Certainly better than a middle seat.
Because the initial offering for the Big Front Seat was over $100, I submitted a bid using Spirit’s Plusgrade implementation. I set it for $12 and later bumped it up to $14, not exactly breaking the bank.
The day before my flight, I received an email from Spirit claiming that I had been outbid and there weren’t many seats remaining. Seeing that the option to outright buy up to one of the two remaining seats had dropped to $44, I pulled the trigger. I suspect this email was a ruse, however, as the last seat went unoccupied for the flight.
All in all I paid $88.09 for the one-way fare and upgrade to the Big Front Seat, a good value given the relative comfort of Spirit’s premium bare bones offering down back. The flight even blocked into Chicago 34 minutes early as a bonus.
In the month leading up to my return flight to New York with United I put the airline’s change fee policy to work.
While I originally booked a “Break From Business” economy fare for $165.20, I whittled that down bit by bit to eventually bottom out at $103.29. While I was happy to lower my fare substantially and receive credits for future flights, it was still quite a bit more expensive than Spirit’s fare.
At one point United was saying that I had struck gold and my flight would be operated by one of the few refurbished 737-800s, featuring the airline’s latest and greatest #PaxEx called United Next.
Unfortunately that did not hold and I ended up on an aircraft with the legacy LiveTV system.
While I appreciated the seatback screen offering I did not really enjoy flipping through Saturday evening basic cable programming.
These screens are a product of a different era, but at least United is still maintaining them well.
I didn’t bother with the free streaming entertainment, but I did enjoy the free messaging and an hour of free Wi-Fi from T-Mobile. The older Thales-administered, Viasat powered Wi-Fi now finally allows for streaming, and even on the free hour I was able to stream YouTube at 480p without much issue.
Thankfully I ended up with an empty middle seat, as I found the 30-inch seat pitch on this United subfleet to be quite tight. This older cabin also does not offer power outlets in regular economy, something I would have appreciated on a day trip away from power most of the day.
While both airlines offer extremely different value propositions, Spirit edged out United for this type of trip with its price point and Big Front Seat. I wasn’t looking for a premium experience like entertainment or free Wi-Fi or even free snacks and beverages on these short flights, though it was certainly nice to have those options on United.
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- Delta versus Alaska on each carrier’s Boeing 737-900ER
All images credited to the author, Jason Rabinowitz
