Over the past year, we’ve seen Spirit Airlines try to transform its business model, by bundling fares and becoming more premium. The airline has today announced plans to streamline its booking experience, with new travel option names.
In this post:
Say hello to Spirit First and Spirit Premium Economy!
Effective immediately, Spirit Airlines has rebranded its three most popular types of fare bundles, and they’re already reflected on Spirit’s website and mobile app:
- Spirit First (formerly Go Big) provides enhanced comfort with a Big Front Seat, a carry-on and first checked bag, no change or cancel fees, priority check-in and boarding, reserved overhead bin space, complimentary snacks and drinks (including alcoholic beverages), and streaming access to fast Wi-Fi
- Premium Economy (formerly Go Comfy) provides more space in a seat with extra legroom or a blocked middle seat, and includes one carry-on bag, no change or cancel fees, priority boarding, and reserved overhead bin space
- Value (formerly Go) lets passengers select only the options they need; seat selection, one carry-on bag, checked bags, and other options, can be purchased separately
The airline is also eliminating its Go Savvy travel option, though will honor all existing Go Savvy reservations. The airline describes this as being in response to customer feedback. Go Savvy was essentially a bundled version of Spirit’s most basic fare, offering standard seat selection, and including carry-on bag and checked bag.
Here’s how Rana Ghosh, Spirit’s Chief Commercial Officer, describes these changes:
“We’re simplifying choices so travelers can better understand and compare their options and the exceptional value that Spirit provides. Our Big Front Seat has been one of the best kept secrets, and these updates will bring more travelers in the know that Spirit offers one of the industry’s most affordable options for a premium experience.”
This rebranding seems sensible enough
Understandably, Spirit Airlines is trying to turn around its business model, and reduce losses. So it’s logical that the airline would try to make changes that lean into how consumer demand has evolved, especially with the demand for premium products.
With that in mind, I think these changes make a lot of sense. Terms like “First” and “Premium Economy” are probably more appealing to the traveling public than terms like “Go Big” and “Go Comfy,” which mean very little. I still can’t help but chuckle a bit at Spirit now having first class (I guess it’s technically still not first class, but instead, “Spirit First”).
That being said, I think some people might be sad to see the elimination of Go Savvy fares, which offered additional inclusions, without premium seating. With this latest change, Spirit is essentially back to offering two types of premium bundles, plus one fare option that includes virtually nothing. That’s an interesting reversal, if you ask me.
A few months ago, Spirit exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, after a fast process, lasting just a few months. Unfortunately the problem that’s nearly impossible to overcome is that being an independent low cost carrier in the United States just isn’t viable anymore, at least in the current environment.
The legacy carriers have become more competitive (competing more fiercely with basic economy), labor costs have gone up, and even the profitable airlines earn much of their money from their loyalty programs (which requires scale). Spirit’s operating margin in 2024 was negative 22.5%, and there are no signs of that improving.
Bottom line
Spirit Airlines’ travel options have been rebranded. The carrier now has three fare options — Spirit First, Premium Economy, and Value, replace the Go Big, Go Comfy, and Go bundles. I suppose the branding makes sense, since the terms are more in line with what people are familiar with.
That being said, the pace at which Spirit is updating its product offerings sure makes it difficult to keep track of. Furthermore, at least based on what we’ve seen so far, this premium pivot doesn’t seem to be helping Spirit’s bottom line.
What do you make of Spirit’s rebranding of travel options?
I think this is Spirit's opportunity to rebrand and become the next Southwest before Southwest became like the other Big 3 airline! Southwest was a good airline with a good business culture for their employees and most of their customers were happy with who they were with the 2 free bags and so on. An airline company must take advantage of this and start offering 2 free bags and just change their pricing!
No matter what they do, it is Spirit so you are still going to get the same “quality” service and clientele that Spirit is known for. The only difference will be the fist fights will now be in the big seats.
We used Spirit for our flight to Florida. We did the go comfy. The 1st plane so our flight down had the middle seat blocked with a table, the flight home didn't have the middle seat blocked but no one would sit there... and you could tell the plane was newer because we had bigger leg room.. it was nice for the price, carry on bags, no need for checked bags, priority boarding.....definitely next time get those bigger seat the looked more comfortable.
I like how quick Spirit are making these changes! Good on them.
Perhaps they can now open up their calendar past Nov 18th - they literally are the only airline in the world!
I don't think it's unthinkable Spirit changes their image. In the car industry just in the last few decades we've seen brands like Mazda slowly enter increasingly premium markets while dumpster fires like Nissan and the Stellantis brands have fallen off cliffs. It isn't unthinkable to think that Spirit can steal some market share from Jetblue and Southwest with solid PR efforts and good strategy.
@Lucky unrelated but as a consumer advocate you should see the early reports about the Hertz AI scanning. Pretty bad. At least they’re not arresting people again or charging gas for teslas, but sheesh.
Go Savvy did not have change / cancel fee. Without it, change / cancel fees are back.
Now we will be looking at posts "Spirit Business Class review".
Seems as though Spirit is trying to walk away from the ULCC business model and somewhere more along the lines of a LCC. But it has a horrible reputation and will it attract higher end customers in lieu of the people that will now look at Frontier?
Omg, I can’t wait to fly Value class! This speaks to me. What an opportunity to get great ~value~ on life’s journey
lol their competition on "value" class is called "basic economy"
SO where are the "you know what's" going to sit?
I've never flown spirit but I imagine the problem with spirit is their core customer base that should be on greyhound
The big problem Spirit needs to confront is its reputation. An Axios poll from last month found Spirit to have a worse reputation among the public than the Trump Organization, Twitter/X, and UnitedHealthcare. Even many of the most price conscious travelers draw the line at flying Spirit. Ryanair, in Europe, doesn’t have this problem to the same magnitude Spirit does, and is immensely profitable. Spirit needs to find a way to turn around it’s public image.
Yeah the public image thing is a bit surprising to me. I travelled primarily budget for close to a decade while in school and it seemed like the overall consensus among similar travelers was Spirit > Frontier > Allegiant... and some people (myself included) went as far as to say they *liked* Spirit because of the BFS and friendly service.
Maybe things have gone downhill since... or perhaps all three are just rock bottom. Either...
Yeah the public image thing is a bit surprising to me. I travelled primarily budget for close to a decade while in school and it seemed like the overall consensus among similar travelers was Spirit > Frontier > Allegiant... and some people (myself included) went as far as to say they *liked* Spirit because of the BFS and friendly service.
Maybe things have gone downhill since... or perhaps all three are just rock bottom. Either way, I've certainly had better experiences on Spirit than Ryanair and Easyjet, but I could be in the minority.
Ryanair and EasyJet have the benefit of not actually competing with the legacy carriers (IAG or AF/KLM or LH Group) in many markets they serve profitably. They really do have many customers completely to themselves.
Here in the US, AA/AS (combining them for our purposes since they're both in OneWorld and don't really overlap markets), UA, DL, or WN already serves just about every profitable market/niche there is, especially now that they have basic economy...
Ryanair and EasyJet have the benefit of not actually competing with the legacy carriers (IAG or AF/KLM or LH Group) in many markets they serve profitably. They really do have many customers completely to themselves.
Here in the US, AA/AS (combining them for our purposes since they're both in OneWorld and don't really overlap markets), UA, DL, or WN already serves just about every profitable market/niche there is, especially now that they have basic economy for the most price-sensitive travelers.
I would agree. It seems that a lot of the "out of control passenger fights" seem to take place around the Spirit ticket counters and gates. My partner and I are planning a trip to Columbia and Spirit First is looking mighty attractive compared to our much hated American.
I think it's a mistake to eliminate Go Savy fare. So with the change, they will have the equivalent of Basic Economy, "Premium" economy, and First - without an Economy option. That's just odd to me!