All those planes were yellow, and for years that bright color often meant the difference between staying home and leaving.
There were $100 round trips to Orlando booked on a whim that yielded some of the best family memories, $31 flights on freezing January mornings to Las Vegas when I needed to sell a business, $19 fares to Kansas City to catch a Chiefs game with relatives, and a 2,500-mile ticket that let my retired parents fly west to ski, hike, and breathe mountain air.
Before the pandemic made travel unpredictable, it was easy to say yes to a plan. Pack a small bag, head to the airport, and go. Spirit was more than the cheeky cheap option with its bare fare approach and bold highlighter yellow planes. It was the airline that forced you to wear your bulkiest jacket onboard to avoid baggage fees, where overhead bins could carry ads, and where extras like printed boarding passes or carry-on rights came with a price. Gates sometimes felt like bus terminals, seats were tight, and the boarding line had the chaotic patience of a DMV queue. But none of that diminished the point: it made travel possible.
For many people the low fares did more than save money. They opened doors. Think of the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and kids who took trips only because of $29 or $49 fares. That isn’t hypothetical for me. For years I lived on a social worker’s salary. Spirit translated that modest income into freedom to go. For thirty dollars you could sling a backpack over your shoulder and be airborne. The view from 36,000 feet out of a yellow fuselage felt no less like escape than any other window seat.
One trip stands out. In 2018 my kids were three and nine. After a perfect summer at Disney World I wanted to see the parks again at Christmas, all lit up. The only way it worked was a $100 early-morning round trip. I booked on impulse and didn’t wake the kids until it was time to go. Their confusion at 5 a.m., the messy hair, and then the explosive joy when they realized where we were headed is a memory I replay often. I don’t remember details of the flight. I remember the day that flight made possible.
Spirit wasn’t flawless, but it was honest about what it was, and over decades it reshaped fare expectations across the US. Even if you never boarded one of those yellow planes, you probably benefited from the pressure they put on the industry to make flying more accessible.
Tonight the stars will shine a little brighter for Spirit, even if for the first time in 34 years its planes are resting on the ground. I won’t mock RIP Spirit memes. I’ll be mourning and profoundly grateful for all the places those yellow planes took me and so many others.