Budget airline Spirit is trying to go upmarket with snacks, Wi-Fi and checked bags included

A Spirit commercial airliner prepares to land at San Diego International Airport in San Diego, California, U.S., January 18, 2024. 

Mike Blake | Reuters

Free Wi-Fi? Free checked bag? Free snacks? On Spirit?

The Florida-based carrier that is practically synonymous with budget air travel in the U.S. said Tuesday that it plans to offer packages for its highest-priced tickets, wrapping in perks it used to charge for a la carte. It’s a bid to increase revenue as it struggles with the aftermath of a U.S.-blocked takeover by JetBlue, engine recalls, an oversupplied domestic market, and larger rivals who have capitalized on premium and cost-conscious travelers alike.

Starting late next month, Spirit will offer four categories of service:

“Go Big” Tickets will include a spot in one of the airline’s Big Front Seats, its roomy seats at the front of its Airbus planes. Instead of upselling travelers for the seat alone, the assignment will come with free Wi-Fi, a checked bag, one piece of cabin luggage, and, CEO Ted Christie told CNBC, “unlimited” snacks and drinks, including alcoholic beverages.Below that package is “Go Comfy,” which will offer travelers a seat with standard legroom but a blocked middle seat for extra space. That offer also includes earlier boarding, one snack, one nonalcoholic beverage, and checked baggage and a carry-on.”Go Savvy” fares come with either a checked bag or a carry-on.Then there’s just “Go,” essentially Spirit’s original product, with just a seat and fees for checked bags, cabin luggage, seat selection, Wi-Fi and snacks.

The options will be available to book Aug. 16, and all four will be available on flights from Aug. 27.

Spirit is competing with larger airline rivals like United that have capitalized on cost-conscious travelers with their own bare-bones products but still offer higher-priced options like extra legroom and first class.

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“What we realized now is that we were sort of ceding other markets to other airlines,” Christie said in an interview. “Now we’re saying, no, we can still do what we were doing before, but we’re also going to compete for people who are willing or want a little bit more of a premium feel and and would pay for that. They just didn’t have it on us.”

Spirit earlier this month warned of a wider-than-expected loss after nonticket revenue — what it collects in the form of fees — came in lighter than it had previously forecast. The carrier has also warned pilots about potential furloughs in the coming months.

Spirit isn’t the only carrier looking to increase its upmarket seats to attract more customers. Southwest Airlines, also under pressure to raise revenue, last week said it plans to ditch open seating and offer “premium” seats with more legroom, the biggest overhaul in the airline’s more than 50 years of flying. Frontier Airlines in March said it would start offering blocked middle seats at the front of the plane for a higher price.

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