The airline industry loves to play follow the leader, and Florida-based Spirit Airlines is once again reacting to a major change made by its most direct competitor.
A few months after Frontier Airlines made the sudden shift to bundle its fares, slash its much hated fees and shift up market, Spirit has followed suit with a few interesting twists of its own.
“We’re unveiling a new era in Spirit’s history and taking low-fare travel to new heights with enhanced options that are unlike anything we’ve offered before,” said Ted Christie, Spirit’s president and CEO.
Spirit has broken its fares into four distinct bundles, just as Frontier did. At the bottom end is the traditional “Go” fare, which is the baseline Spirit offering of today.
“Go Savvy” adds one carry-on or checked bag and standard seat selection.
Go Comfy, the most interesting of the new options, allows one of each bag type — personal item, carryon and first checked bag — and includes priority boarding, seat assignment, free small snack and non-alcoholic beverage, and, notably, a blocked middle seat.
The inclusion of a blocked middle seat appears to be a direct response to Frontier’s addition of the seating option in an attempt to appeal to the hot premium leisure travel trend. Spirit, however, has an ace up its sleeve that Frontier can’t currently match.
While Spirit has long offered a premium first class-style Big Front Seat option, it has only been available as an ancillary buy up from the base fare and included no additional perks. Spirit is now making the Big Front Seat the central point of its highest end offering called “Go Big”.
Unlike Frontier’s top tier offering, Spirit’s new Go Big option also includes additional perks such as free streaming-class Wi-Fi (Thales FlytLIVE, powered by SES-17), premium snacks and drinks, and priority check-in at select airports.
The airline has also redesigned its boarding process., and is embracing a five-group strategy. Priority boarding will be available for guests who choose the Go Big and Go Comfy options plus certain credit card holders, US service members and their families.
With these options, Spirit is putting itself in the position of offering a compelling alternative to a true domestic First Class fare offered by the US majors. Spirit’s offering in some way exceeds that of the legacy carriers such as American and United who do not offer free Wi-Fi in any class of service.
Spirit has not yet announced what a typical buy-up to the new bundles may cost, but the bundles will be available to book starting on 16 August.
Onboard changes, meanwhile, are set to begin on 27 August.
Times are tough for ultra low-cost carriers, especially so for Spirit after the failed merger with JetBlue.
Time will tell if passengers are willing to accept a more premium Spirit identity.
Related Articles:
- Southwest to ditch open seating, offer extra-legroom option
- Frontier tries UpFront Plus seat-only Eurobiz model
- United versus Spirit on a New York-Chicago hot dog run
- Spirit’s transition to SES-17 satellite capacity continues apace
- How to stay on budget when flying Spirit Airlines
- Why I always say yes to Spirit Airlines’ Big Front Seat
Featured image of Spirit Big Front Seat credited to Jason Rabinowitz
