- Two professional travellers, where's she gone,
lost at an airport, can't even get downstairs. Pathetic.
(upbeat music plays)
Welcome to a very, very quiet Newark airport
where today, I'm with my buddy Stella from The Points Guy.
We're over in the U.S. and we're gonna be testing
an airline today that I'm a little bit nervous about.
Who are we flying?
- We're flying Spirit Airlines.
- Okay. Now Spirit does have two ways to do things,
a kinda nice way and a kinda not nice way.
What are you doing?
- So I'm doing the nice way.
I'm flying the big front seat all the way in seat 1A.
- I am flying down the back in some random unassigned seat.
Spirit has a bit of a reputation,
so this is gonna be interesting.
Should we go check it out?
- Yeah, let's check it out.
- Let's do it.
(upbeat music continues)
Well, we're off. We've entered the airport.
Stella's here. She's looking much happier than I am
because I just don't know what this is gonna be like.
Spirit has such a terrible reputation.
I'm genuinely nervous for what this is gonna be like,
thrown down the back.
I mean, I'm imagining it's going to be a bit like Ryanair,
but I guess let's see. I'm remaining positive.
I've already gone the wrong way. Everything's stuck here.
I can't, I don't know how to get downstairs.
New York's very confusing.
Especially when it's empty. I can't follow anybody.
(mellow music plays)
Well, here is the Spirit check-in area.
Now I can see multiple agents, not many people waiting,
actually, there's hardly any queue at all,
but that's a good start.
If I didn't have any kind of priority check-in,
I'd be all right.
I don't even know how much it'd benefit you.
- So I'm about to check in. So in Spirit,
there's two different ways to do it.
You can do it on your app the day before,
or leading up to your flight for free, or, you know,
Spirit nickels and dimes you for pretty much everything.
So you can check in in person for $15.
So I am gonna go ahead and see what it's like.
I have nothing to check,
so it should be a pretty easy experience.
- Yeah. Yeah. But I'm wearing a bag as well.
I'm wearing a bag. 187, that's all right.
So while Stella is flying with all the bells and whistles,
I get nothing, a randomly assigned seat,
no priority boarding.
It's gonna be down the back of the plane somewhere.
Nothing to speak of that is exciting,
but I think I'm excited.
Okay. I guess we're gonna try to check in on these
online screen things.
All right, here we go.
I'm gonna enter my name, first and last name.
Okay, so I put my free Spirit ID number in.
TSA pre-check done.
Seat 23A, I didn't know that was gonna to be my seat.
That's a window seat. That's good.
The flight's on time, which is good.
It looks good. Accept. Accept.
That's it. I mean, the check-in process took 30 seconds.
That was brilliant. No queues, use this,
and if I was checking a bag in, there are many queues
there at the Spirit check-in desks anyway,
so no-frills ticket looking good so far.
- So hear me out.
A lot of people hate on Spirit Airlines because, you know,
you think you get the most basic seat and there's no service
and whatever, but you can actually add more to your ticket
so you can upgrade your experience.
So for example, I upgraded to the big front seat,
which is seat 1A. That is 36 inches of leg room
and it's 20 inches wide, so that is a pretty comfortable way
to fly economy in the sky, I would say.
Especially if it's just for two hours,
I think you really can't beat that,
especially for the price.
And if you do want to upgrade your experience,
I got the Boost It combo,
which gets me things like priority boarding.
So I'll be the very first one on the plane,
which I'm very excited about.
You can get a free checked bag,
which I have nothing to check except for my backpack,
so don't have to use that today.
And then I'll also get a seat selection,
which again, I picked a big front seat,
so that's not too big of a concern,
but that is a really great way,
if you want to sit with friends and family members,
you don't want to be, you know, sit apart,
you can definitely do that.
(mellow music plays)
There is no separate line for what I bought,
the Boost It bundle, but there's virtually no one here.
So I am second in line.
Hello. Just wanted to print my boarding pass.
- [Airport Worker] ID, please?
- Thank you very much.
- [Airport Worker] (indistinct)
- Okay. Sounds good.
I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty impressed with Spirit.
If you want to speak to a real person,
you definitely can do that. Get your boarding pass.
Otherwise just use the kiosks. So both really easy options.
And I'm now ready to go to my gate.
(indistinct airport background noise)
- Was actually not expecting that to fit in,
quite happy with that.
Just know that they're gonna be pernickety about the bags.
- So even though Nicky is just flying
the most basic package, he has TSA pre-check,
which you'll get in the separate line.
I also have TSA pre-check,
so we'll be in the gate in a matter of no time.
This is so funny.
So it says if you have regular,
it will take less than 10 minutes,
but if you have TSA pre-check, it'll take less than 15.
There's Nicky. Here is the TSA pre-check line.
This is the regular line.
So I guess they were right in that
this takes a little bit longer.
No worries, though.
- Okay. Security, done. Pre-check really didn't
help me that much, still had to take loads of stuff
out my bag and really annoyingly,
they made me re-scan the bag and check loads of stuff
and yeah, pre-check didn't help me.
Spirit definitely didn't help me get through that quicker,
but we did it in about 10 minutes, so it wasn't too bad.
In a swanky big front seat, she doesn't get lounge access.
Cause Stella's hanging around the food outlets here,
getting fish and chips.
- No, thank you. It's way too early for that.
- Little Tony's Pizzeria? No.
- I'm gonna have to pass.
- We're bit stuck on these options.
What about Starbucks with a giant queue?
I think that's gonna have to be it.
(upbeat music plays)
- Doesn't look too bad.
(upbeat music continues)
- $11 for a yogurt and a bottle of water.
(record scratch)
- [Stella] Pro tip, bring a water bottle.
I hate buying airport waters, so this'll do.
(calm music plays)
- There's the yellow livery. You can't miss it.
- I might not get a lounge, but Newark Airport's
actually all right. There's plenty of seating here.
I'm just gonna hang out. I'm right by the gate.
Wait for my flight to take off.
- Even if I bought priority boarding,
that only puts me at zone two.
So they're boarding zone one right now,
so that means that, you know, you're not necessarily
at the top of the line, like they advertise,
but it's all good.
We're just waiting for them to finish up zone one,
and then I can get on my plane.
- So I'm in boarding group three, or zone three.
So, which is not the worst one,
I think the worst one is four.
And the queue's not being too bad, actually.
Stella is way ahead of me, but this has been all right,
although we could get stuck on the jet bridge.
I hate it when that happens.
- Good morning. Giving this to Ricardo. Thank you, Ricardo.
- My pleasure.
(beeping sound)
- [Nicky] Thank you.
(indistinct announcement)
- The moment of truth.
The plane is ahead of me. I'm on the jet bridge.
What are we going to find? How was it going to be?
It can't be worse than Ryanair, can it? Can it?
Hi, how are you?
Look who it is.
- Yeah! Look at all this leg room, (indistinct).
- I want this seat. You're the lucky ones!
While I'm waiting, we've got Spirit crew, wanna be famous.
What's your name?
- Ricardo.
- How're you doing?
- Ready to be on cam?
- Absolutely.
- Ready to make this a good experience.
- Definitely.
(Nicky laughs)
Well, the crew are certainly friendly.
It's a good, it's a good start.
(mellow music plays)
- So I just boarded my flight and it's pretty full.
I'm having a great time, though, in seat 1A
with my new friend, Bob.
We are just sitting it up here. We have so much leg room.
We are very comfortable compared to Nicky
and everyone else in the back.
- I've made it to my seat, 23A,
and it's not as terrible as I might've imagined.
Leg room is just about acceptable.
There's not much else going on.
I've got an armrest here.
I've got another armrest here. Both of them go up and down.
So if I did have a whole empty row,
might be able to make a bit of a poor man's Business Class.
A window blind. I'm really having to hold onto
the minor things I've got around me here.
So this Airbus A320 is arranged
in a three, three configuration.
And aside from the seat itself,
there are very few amenities.
No charging ports, no entertainment screen.
The seat is really quite hard, not uncomfortable,
but it's not the squishiest.
And actually like the depth of the seat is pretty short,
so there's not much for your bum to sit on,
which is annoying.
One thing I don't always get that we do have this time
is air vents and a reading light.
And I love an air vent.
It's very annoying when you don't one.
And probably one of the smallest tray tables
I've ever seen in my entire life, check this out.
Baby tray table. Not getting much on this.
Good for a drink. Laptop, no way.
So if you're here to work, not gonna happen.
I guess that's what you expect from a low-budget carrier.
I'm not sure if they have anything different up front,
but it feels like a whole plane is like this.
(upbeat music plays)
- We have officially taken off and are in the air.
This is a beautiful view of the Jersey Shore over there.
Let me show you guys the tray table. It is pretty large.
So if you ever wanted to get work done, you can do that.
How does your tray table feel?
- Very good.
- Very good? Yeah, it's pretty large.
So lots of room, you know how some airlines, you know,
you don't really have that much room to work with,
but yeah, it's, I feel like mine is kind of close to me.
Oh, they slide open.
There is an armrest that is really spacious and
comfortable, as well at 36 inches of leg room,
and 20 inches wide.
So even though there's no in-flight entertainment, you know,
I have some work to catch up on.
There is no in-seat power, so if your phone tends
to die quickly, then that might be a problem for you.
As well as you can't buy wifi.
I know I said it was à la carte service,
but that is one thing that you can't opt for.
- Okay, we are at cruising altitude, 38,000 feet.
And they just said they're going to bring food to the cabin.
It's time to try out food and drink onboard.
(calm techno music plays)
- So far, everything has been great.
The flight attendants are so friendly.
Being in seat 1A , you know, you get to be served first.
So I got my first pick of drinks and snacks.
I will say the selection is quite limited,
even though I had an iPad of all these selections,
some of those were not available for choosing.
- We're out IPA, we're very limited right now.
- Okay, that's okay! Ummmm...
But, no worries there.
- What do you have? What snacks do you have?
- [Flight Attendant] Umm, Cheez-its, Pringles,
muffins, Oreos, M&Ms.
- Can I do some M&Ms and a Diet Coke, please?
- [Flight Attendant] Yeah! Would you like a glass of ice?
- Please.
(calm techno music continues)
I'll clear that up later.
- Okay, it's time for everybody's favorite moment,
it's the call bell challenge.
(bell rings)
(indistinct voices)
- Um, can I look at the snack options? Thank you.
- Pretty quick.
- I think this is gonna be quick. They seem quite on it.
Let's see.
(bell rings)
- [Flight Attendant] Hey, what's up?
- Hi. Could I just get some water, please?
- [Flight Attendant] Yeah!
- Thank you.
I mean, seconds, three seconds, four seconds.
That's impressive.
Let's see how quickly the water comes out,
bet this is gonna be fast as well.
(techno music plays)
- [Flight Attendant] There you go.
- Thank you so much.
- [Flight Attendant] You're welcome.
- For a bottle of water, couple of minutes.
Response to the call bell was outrageously quick.
Might be budget, but they know what they're doing.
Very impressive. Good job, good job, Spirit.
- Let's go check on Nicky and see what he's up to.
I have no idea what seat he's at.
Oh, there you are! I was like, where are you?
I got you, do you like Pringles?
- Oh my God. Pringles!! Love that.
- Yeah.
- Nice little snack.
- [Flight Attendant] As they say, thank you
for flying Spirit!
- Yeah, we love it! I've actually had a great time.
- So Stella came to see me and brought me up some Pringles.
She thought she'd find me in my seat,
but I wasn't in my seat because I was hanging out
with the amazing Spirit crew.
They're actually so nice and so fun.
I didn't want to sit next to the miserable mom next to me.
I'd rather be here.
- Yeah!
- And now we're all having fun,
a little party in back of the plane.
- How's the big front seat?
- Oh, it's so comfortable, and my friend Bob has been
asking me so many questions.
- North Carolina?
- North Carolina.
- Oh, very exciting.
- Yeah?
- Coming back next Wednesday.
- He's so interested in what we're doing,
everyone here is so nice.
- I'm glad your friend Bob's nice,
because the guy next to me...
- Is he not happy with us filming?
- He would like me to not be there.
- Yes.
- Thank you for flying Spirit!
- Time to sit back down.
So it was just a short hour and a half flight to Myrtle
and I had a good time.
So as everyone's leaving the flight now,
I just wanted to review everything that happened.
So overall, I had a great time on Spirit Airlines.
As a first time flyer, I would definitely fly
with them again.
So I definitely recommend if you're flying just up and down
the East Coast, for example, there's no reason why you
shouldn't ignore Spirit Airline.
So flying in the big front seat,
you get a really big arm rest that was super comfortable.
And then obviously the tray table that was really large.
It kind of I was flying in a throne,
and I had a really, really awesome time here.
And I definitely recommend it to anyone who is thinking
about flying Spirit.
At least the big front seat is a sure bet that you'll have
a great time.
- That was actually a really great flight.
The seats were not too uncomfortable.
It was only an hour and twenty minutes.
Actually these exit row seats look like they would be
even more comfortable.
Those are the ones that go for if you've got long legs,
but what really shone today was the crew.
They were so nice, so friendly,
and they really made it a great experience.
I always say it, but crew are the make and break
for many experiences.
And today, they made it for me.
Thank you so much!
- [Flight Attendant] Oh, you're welcome!
- Bye! These guys are great.
They're the one.
So that is Spirit Airlines,
down the back in economy. Ta!