Why Budget Airlines are Suddenly Failing

Fixed title: Why Budget Airlines in the USA are Suddenly Failing

Honestly, I’m tired of being loaded with fees. A round trip from Boston to Atlanta was $75 on Frontier, but with all the fees it came out to $180 just to hav3 a bag. Flying American was $200 and that came with a checked bag, choosing my seat, and snacks on board. Plus comfier and bigger seats.

Budget airlines are no longer as budget-friendly as they used to be.

I honestly love Southwest. The low cost label I think gives it a bad reputation, but you get free checked bags, more leg room, the proven most efficient boarding process in the industry, and seat flexibility. They may not have premium classes but the consistency and lack of hassle makes it worth it to me... Edit to add: also free cancellation at any time, up to like 10 minutes before the scheduled flight time.

Here's a take. People hate Spirit Airlines. People put up with all their BS with bag checks, extra fees, and horrid customer service when they had no choice. With literally any reasonable competition in the market, people are going to bail on them.

I mean the real issue with budget airlines is the prices really aren’t cheap

In Europe you can pay London to Prague on Ryanair for $20 or $150 on British Airways, I often go with BA over Ryanair and those BA flights are often packed. When I looked at a flight between two cities in the US it was $113.30 for every single airline, I thought maybe it was a codeshare but actually Spirit, Frontier, Delta and American all were charging the exact same amount for the same flight departing at different times, bizarre. Delta or American were obvious choices.

American Budget Airlines are failing. Budget Airlines in other countries are thriving meanwhile legacy Airlines are barely surviving in many countries. e.g. - in India all the legacy Airlines have vanished. Only the budget Airlines have survived. Some budget Airlines too have vanished.

When you add up fees the budget airlines aren't really much cheaper.

"Elliott doesn't understand what makes Southwest Southwest" private equity doesn't understand a damn thing.

As someone who works at an airport and often works the check in desk, in my experience about half the people flying to vegas are actually going for business conferences.

I work for one of said ULCCs and the changes that they have implemented for crew and flights have the operation in shambles almost every day. Morale is at an all time low, and we are making less money at a time when costs continue to rise. I am constantly working 12-14 hour days and only being paid for 6-8 of those hours. I know I chose this job but only a few months ago before the changes it was the best job in the world. I just don’t know how much longer I can keep going, and with other airlines not hiring either, I am afraid I will have to give up on a job I have so much passion for.

Two elephants in the room not mentioned - and they're related: 1. Air travel on the whole is historically cheap. It's possible to find airfares on "legacy" airlines that rival "low-cost" airlines, once items like checked bags are factored in, and the "legacy" airlines also started offering reduced-fare "basic economy" "no-frills seats" - only there ARE more frills than the budget carriers offer. 2. Widespread snd severe reputational damage to the "budget" carriers via social media is driving people to check the "legacy" airlines - which people are discovering aren't that much more expensive than the "budget" carriers.

A Wendover plane video? Never seen this before

i never heard of spirit airlines. my grandmother died and i didn't want to go across all the airlines looking for a decent deal. so i went to an aggregator site. the aggregator site asked how many bags i wanted to check on, and i told it 1 per passenger. the site ignored that there would be an upcharge for the bag on the seccond leg. it gave me a package and i bought the tickets, it had one stop on the way over, but that was no big deal if the price difference was $1000. we get to the airport and they say we need to pay extra because the seccond stage of the flight was on spirit airlines and they don't include a checkon bag so i had to pay the equivalent of the price difference. i wont fly them a seccond time or use an aggregator site again.

Budget airlines use to be budget, they would have 100% full flights because they were so cheap. Now the budget airlines increased their prices so their demand dropped, people will fly Delta/United when its the same price as the budget airline

I flew budget when you could bring a carryon/backpack with no extra fees. Budget airlines kept getting more and more stingy with what you could bring, seats got worse, no infotainment systems. Delta got very competitive price wise and if you have their credit card you get a free checked bag per ticket. I fly with golfclubs/snowboards/mountainbikes most of the time I fly and delta treats them like any other bag and its free if you book with the delta card. If you add the fees and extra costs you have to pay when you fly budget, its almost the same price as delta, but, delta planes are more comfortable, you can pick your seats, have movies/screen. Overall I just fly delta now because the cost is prettymuch the same. Yea if I'm flying with just a backpack, alone, with no need for a checked bag, from 2 major airports (denver to JFK) I might still fly spirit, but, sometimes the delta flight is competitive enough that I'll just fly delta. also, frontier and spirit often times have 10-12+ hour "travel times" with stops in places.... for example denver => JFK I can pay 67$ more on delta to have a better flight experience while also having a 3hr 47min "Travel time" non stop... Or I can save 67$, fly frontier, have a 6-8hr layover in dallas... Frontier/spirit don't have as many non stop flights.

I hate Spirit and Allegiant like no other corporations. As a customer, they are the worst of the worst. At the same time, I hope they do not go bankrupt as their prices keep Delta, AA and Alaska prices controlled to a certain extent. Meaning: exist but not thrive.

For some background, this tape, which starts at 1:44, is from when Southwest's 737-MAXs were grounded and they were in Victorville, California. It has nothing to do with Southwest's current financial problems.

8:50-8:55 well that's Spirit's own fault. They treat the customer like an inconvenience. If you treat your customers terribly, they will stop accepting being treated terribly. There are two airlines I refuse to use, Spirit and United. Spirit is uncomfortable and wants to nickel and dime me for everything. For United, I've had way too many cancelled and delayed flights, and they don't do a good job of accommodating me when they screw up.