An ode to Spirit Airlines: yes, they were all yellow

Yes, they were all yellow… and for a long time, those yellow planes often meant the difference between going home and staying home.

$100 round trip to fly to Orlando on a whim and create some of the best memories while my kids were in their magical best years.

$31 on a cold January morning to fly to Las Vegas and sell my business.

$19 to fly to Kansas City and watch a Chiefs game with the family.

2,500 miles for my retired parents to fly west and go skiing, hiking or just enjoying the mountains.

Especially in those pre-pandemic days, when lockdowns and TSA backups were less common, it was easy to just say yes to a trip, not think about it too much, pack a bag, and leave.

To me, Spirit Airlines wasn’t just that quirky airline that you booked because it was the cheapest, even if it was a somewhat dreaded experience, you know, the one with the “base fare” era and those mostly naked ads.

I won’t remember it simply as the airline where you carried the bulkiest clothing on board to avoid baggage fees, where the planes looked like highlighters, where there could be overhead bin ads, and where there were certainly fees for everything from printed boarding passes to the right to bring your own luggage on board.

It was also much more.

It was the airline that changed the game in the US for people who otherwise couldn’t afford to fly.

Think of all the moms, dads, grandparents, kids, aunts and cousins ​​who, because of those $29 and $49 fares, had to take trips that otherwise would have been completely out of their reach.

That is not a hypothesis about other families. That’s my story.

And that’s why, aside from the loss of thousands of jobs, you won’t find me laughing at “RIP Spirit” memes. You will find me mourning, in my own way, and feeling deeply grateful for what that yellow airline made possible in my life.

I didn’t always have a lot of points. For many years I lived on a fairly modest social worker salary.

So to me, Spirit Airlines meant something simple: the freedom to travel.

For about $30, you can pack your stuff in a backpack and fly.

Sure, the doors sometimes looked more like a bus terminal than an airport lounge. The seats were tight. The atmosphere was more like a line at a DMV office than United’s 1K boarding group.

But so what?

We all stand in line at the DMV. And we all want, sometimes, to escape our regularly scheduled lives.

And the view from 36,000 feet inside that yellow fuselage was as good as any other plane.

There are countless trips that I owe to Spirit, but the one that sticks in my mind the most is 2018.

My children were three and nine years old. We had just taken a perfect trip to Disney World that summer and all I wanted was to see that magic on their faces again, this time with Christmas lights and decorations everywhere.

The only way to make it work was with a $100 round-trip flight on Spirit that left very early in the morning.

Since I booked it on a whim, we didn’t tell the kids until we woke them up that morning.

I’ll never forget his confusion at 5am, the bed hair, and then the absolute joy when it clicked: We’re going to Disney World… right now.

I remember their smiles, their laughter and one of the last times they both wore princess dresses.

What don’t I remember? Anything about the flight itself.

Apart from this: he made the trip possible.

And honestly, that’s exactly how it should be.

Spirit Airlines wasn’t perfect. But he was confident and never pretended to be something he wasn’t. For three decades, it made travel more affordable while quietly changing airline prices.

Even if you’ve never flown with Spirit, there’s a good chance you’ve benefited from its yellow competitor status, which drove down fares.

So tonight, the stars will shine for you, Spirit, even if, for the first time in 34 years, all your planes are watching them from the ground.

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TPG’s Complete Coverage of Spirit Airlines Closing: