My recent experience with Spirit:
For pesach my father in law was gracious enough to pay for our flights. Since I wasn't using my money or miles, I didn't care which airline I was going to take. We were booked on Spirit.
On the way there we really had no issues other than they want to charge every time you sneeze. They let us check in the car seat for free and the porta crib for free. When we were on our new Spirit plane, we saw that the first two rows were extra big 2 seaters, but we figured infants were not allowed in those seats. Lo and behold a couple sits there with their infant. My wife decided she would try to make sure we get those seats on the way home. Also on this flight somebody used the bathroom at the beginning of the flight and the flusher did not work so well so the toilet seat was a little dirty. Instead of attempting to clean it, they decided to lock the bathroom for almost the rest of the flight. They did absolutely nothing for the entire flight.
Fast forward a few days and DW calls spirit to try to get those bigger seats. They say no problem. Dw Double checked with them to make sure it was okay for a baby to sit there, and they assured her it was no problem at all.
We arrive at the airport hoping for check in to be a breeze. The agent tells us we need to pay for the porta crib. I said it was free on the way over. She gets her manager and she tells me only strollers and car seats can be checked in for free as they are modes of transportation. I respond firstly, that makes no sense, why should one check in their mode of transportation, it would make more sense if you said they need to be checked in for some other reason. Second, please show me that regulation in writing. (I'm a quality assurance specialist for a living I check regulations on a daily basis, I better damn well find that reg). She brings me out a paper with a highlighted area that says strollers and car seats can be checked in for free under the car seat section. I replied that nowhere on this paper does it say cribs cannot be checked in free nor does it mention anything about cribs. After all this back and forth, the manager just walked away. I said to my wife, you know what, I'm getting tired of these obnoxious people, let's just put in on a certain credit card where I can dispute the charge. Time to board. We are boarding and the gate agent tells me they are probably going to change our seats. I asked why. He said that lap infants can't sit in the first two rows because of inflatable seat belts. I told him we specifically asked the rep on the phone and they said it was fine. He said okay, go on the plane and if they make you switch seats I'll issue you a refund. We go on the plane, take our seats and a flight attendant comes over and gives us the same shpeel; FAA regulations...i respond if its a regulation we will gladly switch, please show me the regulation. Nobody showed me a regulation. Long story short, we switched o moone seat. One flight attendant said we can only take the one open seat on the plane which was a window, I told him to get me an aisle seat. The gate agent refunded us for both thinking we would both switch, but I wasn't going to let that happen.
Rest assured, my fight will not end here.