You're thinking about going on a trip. You look up fares and find that they're all over the place. You see some really cheap fares, but they're on an airline that you rtried once but had a bad experience.
Do you forgive and try them again or do you cough up another $100 to get a seat on an airline with a solid reputation?
It’s a tough choice because the budget airlines are acting more like the larger carriers these days. Frontier and Spirit – airlines that have less than glowing customer reviews – are a prime example of trying to make things better: Frontier with its “free carry-on” promotion and dropping its change fees; and Spirit dropping cancellation fees, offering bigger seats, and dangling the carrot of a “Transformed Guest Experience.” If those promises come to fruition, great, but Frontier and Spirit haven’t had time to fulfill that promise yet.
So, what would be your call – a full-service or budget airline? In addition to our own ConsumerAffairs research, we asked Katy Nastro at Going.com to give us her two cents worth. Together, here’s what we found.
The pros of budget airlines
Lower mishandled bag rate: “LLCs (low-cost carriers) have an advantage over legacy carriers regarding mishandled bags,” Nastro said. And she’s spot-on. In the last Department of Transportation Air Travel Consumer Reports, Allegiant and Spirit sit in the top half among the airlines with the lowest mishandled bag rate; and Frontier has improved its batting average in the last year, too.
Low-cost = Low quality: Au contraire mon frère. Nastro says that “budget” or “low-cost” simply means that its business model strongly emphasizes minimizing operating costs. “But that doesn’t necessarily translate to a bad experience and product,” she suggests.
Way cheaper: The main draw is that tickets tend to be significantly cheaper than regular airlines – especially when Delta, American, or United’s “best” fares have already been snatched up.
More flight options: Budget airlines tend to be picky about where they fly, often going for destinations they know a lot of people would like to go to for a short getaway like Vegas, Nashville, Charleston, or New Orleans.
The cons of budget airlines
Tiny, cramped seats: If you’re going to be “low cost,” you’re probably not going to invest in “high cost” things and the seats on a budget airline frequently have less padding than other carriers to maximize space and weight for fuel efficiency.
Less “controllable” protections: Unlike Delta, which stepped up quickly to make good with customers after it was caught in the recent computer outage, “Carriers like Frontier and Allegiant are not committed to all coverages that a controllable flight disruption might result in providing travelers with less rights,” Nastro said.
Just ask U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buddigieg. He’s been hammering airlines to get in line with his agency’s Air Travel Consumer Dashboard and guarantee they’ll take good care of fliers when something goes wrong. Allegiant, Frontier, and Spirit are the three airlines that have committed to doing the least when it comes to delays and cancellations.
None of those three, as well as Southwest, say they’ll “rebook on partner airline or another airline with which it has an agreement at no additional cost” and Frontier is the only one that's dragging its feet on “Complimentary hotel accommodations for any passenger affected by an overnight cancellation” and “Complimentary ground transportation to and from hotel for any passenger affected by an overnight cancellation.”
Hidden fees: Watch out for extra charges for everything from checked bags to picking your seat because those fees can add up quickly. Especially at Spirit. A recent NetVoucherCodes study found that Spirit has hidden fees that are 736% of the base flight cost – considerably higher than any other airline.
Bare bones: Fancy meal? Nope. Free drink? Nope. They don’t charge for bathroom visits, yet, luckily.
Limited help: If something goes wrong, get your cot and a sandwich because it might take forever to find someone in customer service and when you do, they might not be as helpful as the full-service airlines.
They don't always go when you want to go: Allegiant and Breeze play it smart. They fly in and out of markets a couple of days a week and leave it at that. If you want to go on Friday, and come back on Monday, good. Otherwise, you should probably look elsewhere.
No interline agreements and smaller networks: “Lastly, no U.S. budget carriers are a part of alliances or have interline agreements, meaning they don’t have extended networks across the globe with other carriers making their footprints smaller,” Nastro concluded.