PIREP Spirit Airlines

Tampico Trauma

Tampico Trauma

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Nov 3, 2015
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621
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Southeast of Disorder
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Mauled Formerly known as Tampico Trauma
Decided to roll the dice and take my five-year old daughter across the country to see my wife last night on a red eye from LAX-BWI.

Figured it couldn't be worse than a CRJ-200 of which I've spent a majority of my adult life being mailed through the sky in.
I'm 6'6"....

Check-in was a shiatshow. 35 minutes to drop a bag (did my check in online to save $20). Most of the people were fighting with CSRs over pretty much everything.

Got priority boarding somehow...maybe the TSA guard felt sorry for me.

Plane was 30 minutes late on arrival.... it happens.

We preboard because hey, I'm traveling with a 5 year old princess.
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We get to our seat..which is literally a stackable plastic school chair wrapped in leather.
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We finally get everyone settled down and boarded. Then we wait.

We taxied from Terminal 3 all the way down past TBIT and over to the south field. On one engine with the APU whining full steam ahead.

22 minutes into the taxi, #2 for departure, they light up the right engine.

Takeoff was uneventful...

Except....

The plane literally smells like ass. The entire trip someone was blowing wind.

Somewhere east of Memphis at sunrise, the FA comes over the PA and asks if we have any medical personnel on board and to press your cal button if you are. One guy gets up and proceeds to the rear of the plane.

Someone was having a dizzy spell...
308nm from BWI, we get cleared direct.

Out come the speedbrakes, click click click... 4000fpm, the pilot is a... well actually, was some fine flying.

Winds are 10kts down the runway.

Left main touches down first.

Then again.

Then again, along with the right main this time.

We arrive at the gate and wait for the EMT's to do their thing.

Not a damn person stayed seated except for my sleeping kid and myself.

We escape the plane and gather ourselves and my daughter says:

Daddy, why didn't we take OUR plane.

Definitely not worth the $480 savings over Alaska.

If I hadn't already paid for the "big front seats" on the way home, my ass would be on southwest on Monday...

Bottom line: spirit is truly the Greyhound of the sky, clientele and all...and they really truly do make Allegiant look legitimate.






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You should try Allegiant, it's worse than Spirit, IMO
 
I am glad you had that experience. I'm not fan of ULCCs, and with the potential cancer that is NAI cracking the door towards flags of convenience, the only way we will sway public opinion away from this regression is by negative experiences.

The problem is that this isn't merely a classist "riff-raff issue" over discount fares. Actual operational safety is compromised when low cost philosophies are ramrodded into a high fixed operating environment in the de facto public utility that is airline travel. Automation improvements have largely masked that opportunity cost, especially at the regional level, but the potential for more carnage at the altar of cost cutting is still there.

To be fair to Spirit, their mx practices are actually better than Allegiant, latter which is in true form the next ValuJet.
 
On "other carriers" the patient would have been moved to the rear of the plane (if they can be moved) and the EMT's enter the rear door. Getting everyone off through the front door is preferable so the EMTs can work undisturbed in the back and, depending on the situation, the patient can go out the back door to the ambulance or wheeled out the front.

Cross country smelling like ass is a negative on Spirit.
 
I'll take Greyhound before I take Spirit ever again. Flew it to Vegas a couple years ago. If our return trip hadn't already been on Southwest, I'd have eaten the Spirit tickets and bought new ones. Terrible in every way, shape and form. At 6' tall (which I don't think is "tall"), I was horribly uncomfortable because the seats are so close together. Never. Ever. Again.
 
mscard88 said:
24 years of airline flying and I never had medical folks enter from the rear door, only the front door, where the jetway hooks up to. YMMV, I dunno.
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I've seen Law Enforcement come through the front door 5 times (not looking for me) and EMTs 3 times (1 front door, 2 rear door) I assumed the front door was due to the location of the patient.

Hopefully there is some policy that tells the Flight and Cabin Crews what to expect. And hopefully it's logical.

In my OPINION, the first bags are off the plane before the people in the first row of coach, the trash is leaving and the galley is being restocked before the last passenger deplanes. The people doing that work don't usually come down the jet bridge.
 
I'm impressed your daughter looks so presentable with your wife out of town! :) Not sure I could have pulled that off!
 
rolivi said:
In my OPINION, the first bags are off the plane before the people in the first row of coach, the trash is leaving and the galley is being restocked before the last passenger deplanes. The people doing that work don't usually come down the jet bridge.
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Most passengers jets have another door across from the passenger (front) door that caterers use to take out the trash and restock. At the smaller airports though they'll come down the jetway as they may not have the vehicle to use that door...but unless it was a major hub we didn't restock, just trash was taking out, along with the passengers. Wanted to make sure I didn't get those two reversed! ;)
 
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Took spirit once,and only once,not a fan.
 
Skip Miller said:
She doesn't look "Daddy dressed" like my kids did at that age! Congrats! -Skip
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Not gonna lie, being a dad is like my second favorite thing next to being Miss Carly's full time charter pilot.... so when it comes down to making sure her hair's brushed and she's looking her cutest, that's definitely my department.

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Of course I'm the first one to throw her in the pig pens or the horse pasture dressed in a nice dress and some kind of boots my wife picked up at Nordstrom Rack... Michael Kors or something like that.

I guess those boots aren't supposed to go to the farm. I took some serious FAA enforcement action from the Mrs.


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Alaska, virgin, my own plane, or just drive.
 
Flew Spirit once and only once. Worst customer service ever. My dog was about to die right as we were scheduled for a vacation. Tried to call to re-schedule the flight, got routed to India where there call center was and spike to someone who was reading from a script and did not waiver from the script no matter what I said. In the end, they would not refund anything and simply made us reschedule for a different flight( not really any different than most airlines probably) but the call center thighs was a nightmare.

They could give me there infamous 5 dollar fares and is still feel like I was being ripped off!
 
Allegiant, Spirit or bicycle. No contest, bicycle for ANY distance.
 
We took Allegiant from CID down to SFB for Thanksgiving. As long as you know what to expect it isn't so bad. Doesn't make it good and they are my last resort (in laws paid for the flights) but the cabin crew was just as good as any other IMO.
 
Took Allegiant from ABE to sanford over thanksgiving and was pleasantly surprised since I was expecting MD80 or something of that vintage and they were fairly new airbuses.
 
Flyfeld said:
Took Allegiant from ABE to sanford over thanksgiving and was pleasantly surprised since I was expecting MD80 or something of that vintage and they were fairly new airbuses.
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"Fairly New" to Allegiant maybe. They're getting 15+ year old used buses that have generally came from 3rd world countries....
 
Seems I recall them buying new ones a few years ago.
 
KSCessnaDriver said:
"Fairly New" to Allegiant maybe. They're getting 15+ year old used buses that have generally came from 3rd world countries....
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Of course Afganistair had a great maintenance program until the taliban blew up there maintenance cave.


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It's refreshing, in a way, to find out that "you get what you pay for" still works.

Back in my college days I took Greyhound from eastern KS to Indianapolis and back. My first leg was in the middle seat of the back row between two guys that had been drinking since Denver. Everytime the bus slowed down, their empty beer cans rolled to the front. Fortunately, they were happy drunks, and really a lot of fun to hang with.

A couple years later I rode the dog from central KS to Colorado Springs after a broken crankshaft left me stranded on I-70.
 
mscard88 said:
Seems I recall them buying new ones a few years ago.
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It was only in the last couple months that Allegiant made their first ever new airplane order, indeed for Airbus 320's. Everything in service now is used.
 
I don't understand your post.

Are you saying if you paid an extra $300 for a Delta ticket there would be a guarantee that nobody would blow a fart?? And another guarantee nobody would get sick??

What's your point?
 
Allegiant has service from here to PIE and SFB. Pretty convinient for the price of the fares. Only problem I have to say about them is their punctuality. They're hardly ever on time. I could care less about inflight amenities but being on time is what low cost carriers seem to lack.
 
Are these airlines really that bad? Granted I've only flown Delta/NWA and the ocassional time I'll jumpseat on another airline.
 
Kritchlow said:
I don't understand your post.

Are you saying if you paid an extra $300 for a Delta ticket there would be a guarantee that nobody would blow a fart?? And another guarantee nobody would get sick??

What's your point?
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No no, people fart. sprit customers fart more.

I'd pay more for a seat that wasn't a stackable plastic chair wrapped in leather


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jordane93 said:
Are these airlines really that bad? Granted I've only flown Delta/NWA and the ocassional time I'll jumpseat on another airline.
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Yes. Part of it is the product they are selling, part of it is the people they are generally selling it to. Generally, people who routinely Allegiant would be on Greyhound otherwise...
 
I flew Spirit once ten years ago before they started getting all weird with the fees. We actually bought up to a pseudo first class on the DC-9 they were flying for hardly any increment. It got us past the massive line at DCA's security checkpoint, and a free snack and some extra leg room (though the seats were about the same as the rest) and we boarded first and sat in the first row. Amusingly, there seemed to be some maintenance issues after we arrived back at IAD. While waiting to disembark the pilot seemed to be having issues getting both the ground power to kick on (it would come on for a second and kick off) and then getting the APU started after that didn't work.
 
Hey those are the exact same crappy seats Frontier has! Same credit-card sized tray table too.
 
Mtns2Skies said:
Hey those are the exact same crappy seats Frontier has! Same credit-card sized tray table too.
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Mind you I haven't flown Frontier in 5 years but last time they had TV's at every seat and padding. My have times changed.


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KSCessnaDriver said:
Yes. Part of it is the product they are selling, part of it is the people they are generally selling it to. Generally, people who routinely Allegiant would be on Greyhound otherwise...
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That is a drastic over generalization IMO. Look at their business model. They are flying from the small regional airports to vacation destinations. Especially the Florida destinations are probably 80%+ families that are just looking to get to Disney and the other attractions for as cheap as possible without spending an arm and a leg (ever price a family of four or more on the mainlines?) or spending several days each way in the car. My wife's grandparents that are multi millionaires also use them to fly between their homes in Iowa and Vegas.
 
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