Spirit Airlines to charge for a boarding pass

Not me this time, family. Oy.

Cool to have the boarding pass on your phone (although the efficacy/hassle from airline to airline varies greatly). Still a very good idea to carry paper if/when you can.

 

If you're leaving from home or the office, printing your own boarding pass is easy.

But, if you're on the road, it's not always so simple.

That's what I like about this.

 

For the most part, it's just easier to drive, and I can see more of the country that way. Unless I've got a very good reason to fly, such as needing to be there quick or having a short amount of time to spend at my destination, I'm going to drive.

 

It's not easy to drive when it takes 3-4 days to just make the trip to see family and then 3-4 days for the return.

 

Most Airlines have boarding passes for any smart phone, not just Iphone. I love not having to have a paper boarding pass.

 

That would obviously fall under the "having a good reason to fly" category.

 

It's too much of a hassle to have to carry that piece of paper from the check-in kiosk all the way to the gate?

I haven't checked the Spirit stock lately, but I'm assuming it's in the same boat with all the other carriers (except Southwest) that have lost money in 90 percent of the last gazillion fiscal quarters.

They're all absolute buffoons that deserve the misery that comes their way.

 

That's the good thing about Ryanair. Yes, you can't get the boarding pass at the airport without paying through the nose. However, you can also check in up to 15 days before your flight. So if you're going away for a weekend -- or even for two weeks -- you can print your boarding passes for both flights before you leave home.

I think you're pretty much fucked if you need to change flights, but with Ryanair, you're fucked if you need to do that anyway.

 

Flying is pretty much a necessity if you're going anywhere outside of the Northeast Corridor region. The major cities/traveler destinations are too spread out elsewhere in the country. With the exception of the most leisurely of travelers or people who have a specific reason to drive (such as moving), it's simply not practical to spend 15 hours driving from New York to Chicago when you can fly it in less than 2 hours.

New York-Boston is one thing; I totally agree that driving/taking the bus/taking the train makes more sense. New York-Chicago, let alone New York-Los Angeles, is very different.

 

But it's not 2 hours. Door to door offpeak it's at least double that; with rush hour traffic to and from each airport, it's closer to six.