2 hour delay posted in the morning.
When we woke up we found that the flight was delayed by 2 hours, going from departing at 2 pm to 4 pm. This was a little surprising, considering the route usually was never delayed this much. We would later find out why on the aircraft, and get a additional hour on top of this delay.
Screenshot from flightera.net - Final delay which we received in the aircraft had us depart at 5:11 pm
Seamless self check-in, extremely poor baggage drop experience
While the self-check-in was seamless, the bag drop experience was very poor, almost resulting us in missing the bag drop timeframe (without having to pay extra). Right before we came to the bag drop, the only bag drop agent for Spirit left and went over to the back side of the bag drop area for 5-7 minutes. When they finally came back they quickly checked our bags in, along with some other passengers behind us, without any comment about why they left.
Still wonder if they would have accepted our bags had the bag agent been gone for longer. 🤔
Hurring on to the aircraft only to recieve another delay.
When we boarded the aircraft—assuming we were the last ones to get on since the app showed a 4 PM departure—the captain later announced that there would be another one-hour delay. A Spirit flight coming in from Atlanta, carrying 30 passengers who were connecting through Tampa to take our flight to DFW, had been delayed by an additional 30 minutes. As a result, our flight was further delayed so they could make it onboard.
On the bright side, since the total delay crossed three hours, we qualified for a $50 compensation per passenger (in the form of flight credit for future flights). But overall, our impression of Spirit so far wasn’t the best, so we didn't think of using it any time soon.
Very simple seat with a small tray table, and poor legroom
As with any other Spirit aircraft, the A319 features a small tray table and seatbelt "pocket" made of multiple ropes. The legroom was also pretty poor, which made the now longer flight quite uncomfortable.
On the bright side, I got a nice plane-spotting opportunity during the hour we were stuck at the gate.
The Atlanta flight is finally here!!!
Uneventful cruise for the most part, cheap Wi-Fi
WIFI prices are pretty cheap, with streaming at 7.99 and browsing at 5.99 for the entire flight. While I didn't try it for todays flight, I've heard the speeds are pretty fast. This was kind of surprising since Wi-Fi on American (at that time), cost me $15 just for a one hour pass on the way to Tampa.
The menu is only accessible via the Spirit app, so be sure to download it ahead of time. The prices were alright, no complimentary food or drink as usual.
Awesome cabin crew throughout the whole flight!
Throughout the whole flight, the cabin crew were really kind and answered any questions passengers had. They even had the whole cabin do a stretching activity right before our descent into DFW.
