An ode to Spirit Airlines: Yeah, they were all yellow
Yeah, they were all yellow ... and for a long time, those yellow planes often meant the difference between going and staying home.
$100 round trip to fly to Orlando on a whim and make some of the best memories while my kids were in their prime magic years.
$31 on a cold January morning to fly to Las Vegas and sell my business.
$19 to fly to Kansas City and see a Chiefs game with family.
2,500 miles for my retired parents to fly out west and go skiing, hiking, or just take in the mountains.
Especially in those pre-pandemic days — when shutdowns and TSA backups were less common — it was easy to just say yes to a trip, not overthink it, pack a bag and go.
To me, Spirit Airlines wasn't just that quirky airline you booked because it was the cheapest, even if it was a somewhat dreaded experience — you know, the one with the "bare fare" era and those mostly-naked ads.
I won't just remember it as the airline where you wore your bulkiest clothes onboard to avoid bag fees, where the planes looked like highlighters, where there might be ads on the overhead bins, and where there were certainly fees for everything from printed boarding passes to the right to carry your own bag onboard.
It was also so much more.
It was the airline that changed the game in the U.S. 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, got to take trips that otherwise would have been completely out of reach.
That's not some hypothetical about other families. That's my story.
And that's why — in addition to the loss of thousands of jobs — you won't find me laughing at "RIP Spirit" memes. You'll 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 big stash of points. For many years, I lived on a pretty modest social worker's salary.
So to me, Spirit Airlines meant something simple: the freedom to go.
For $30 or so, you could toss your stuff in a backpack and be airborne.
Sure, the gates sometimes felt more like a bus terminal than an airport lounge. The seats were tight. The vibe was closer to 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 just as good as it was from any other plane.
There are countless trips I owe to Spirit, but the one that sticks with me most is from 2018.
My kids were ages three and nine. We'd just had a perfect Disney World trip that summer, and I wanted nothing more than to see that magic on their faces again — this time with Christmas lights and decorations everywhere.
The only way to make it work was 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 that morning.
I'll never forget their 5 a.m. confusion, 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.
Other than this: it made the trip possible.
And honestly, that's exactly how it should be.
Spirit Airlines wasn't perfect. But it was safe, and it never pretended to be something it wasn't. Over three decades, it made travel more affordable while quietly reshaping airline pricing.
Even if you never flew Spirit, there's a good chance you benefited from its scrappy yellow competitor status, pushing fares down.
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.
This article was first published on TPG's Talking Points Substack. To read more like this, you can subscribe for free.
TPG's complete coverage of Spirit Airlines' shutdown:
- The latest: Spirit Airlines goes out of business, cancels all flights
- What you can do: Refunds and consumer protections for Spirit flyers
- Rescue fares: What to know about booking on other airlines
- Getting your money back: Will your credit card reimburse you for your ticket?
- Other airlines swoop in: JetBlue adds 11 routes, fills Spirit's gap at major Florida airport