如何选航空公司：Jetblue vs. Spirit

I used to have the following criteria in booking flight tickets:

1. Always try to get non-stop: Not only to save time, but also to avoid unexpected delay and cost!  In certain cases, if you cannot catch the next flight and have to stay in a hotel because of a delay caused by a snow storm, you may have to pay it.

2. Tried to avoid red-eye flight: Even if I seemed to sleep all the time at the plane, I would still feel so tired for the next couple of days.

3. Price vs mileage: I used to book the cheapest airlines. It turned out that I have had mileage with almost all of airlines but each of them was not enough to get a free ticket. Eventually,  they were all wasted! For a long flight, it's better to choose the same partnership airlines so that your points would be accumulated towards a free ticket

I just had a trip from 2/2 to 2/6 to FFL with my friends, from which I learned some new lessons. Originally I booked the ticket from Jetblue. Some of my friends booked from Spirit with extreamely low price. On Monday 1/31, it started to snow and Jetblue canceled all the flights on both tuesday and Wednesday including my flight. However my friend's Spirit flight was still on schedule! On Tuesday Spirit had no cancellation! I then booked my ticket with Spirit airline! I paid $59 for membership, so that I could save $40 for ticket and $10 for luggage. I also bought $12 for insurance in case the flight would be canceled I would get refunds. Our flight on Wednesday was on schedule!

It was my first time to fly with Spirit. I'd like to make a comparison with Jetblue:

1. Spirit needs to pay $28 for a check-in luggage and $30 for a carry on. Only carry-on backpack is free.

    Jetblue allows to bring 1 free checked in luggage and 1 carry on.

2. Spirit has no TV.  Jetblue has a table TV with free ear phone .

3. Spirit does not provide free food or drink.   I spent $5 to buy 2 bottles of spring water.

  Jjetblue offers 1 bottle of free drink and a small bag of snack.

4. Spirit will not cancel the flight --- I guess as long as the airport is not closed.

   Jetblue will cancel the flight when the weather is not good enough.

5. One more trick: When booking a very cheap flight from Spirit, you are not assigned a seat at the time. 

When I checked in online, it asked me to pick up my seat. Only "green seats" were free and all the other seats would be $10 or more. However there was no any green seats left! At the bottom of the screen, there was an option saying "continue without selecting the seat."    I picked it and was assigned a seat at the airport without extra charge. My friends who did not see the fine line had to pay at least $10 for each flight.

   

BTW I took Southwest airline only once. Someone told me that Southwest would never have delay - always on time! They will not allow you to pick up the seats at the time when you book the ticket. Instead, first come, first serve. You get your seat when you check in. Hence try to check in as early as possible to get a good seat!