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https://skift.com/2016/07/29/you-can-soon-fly-to-cuba-but-only-after-satisfying-all-the-rules/
American, JetBlue, Spirit and other airlines are cleared to begin scheduled service to the island, some as early as September. JetBlue will have fares as low as $99 (or 3500 points).
PreCheck is the TSA program that lets you bypass the lengthy “standard” security lines at US airports. If you have PreCheck you can use the short line, leave shoes on and leave liquids and computers in your carry-on luggage.
Frontier and Spirit Airlines Might Finally Join TSA PreCheck
The hangup has evidently been mostly the changes to their reservation systems needed to get that little PreCheck logo printed on boarding passes.
Passengers can get PreCheck in several ways. My favorite is to get Global Entry ($100 / 5 years), which includes PreCheck as a free bonus.
Another way is to sign up for PreCheck itself ($85 / 5 years). A third way is through some premium credit cards.
In the past the TSA granted temporary PreCheck to randomly-selected passengers, but the agency has stopped doing so.
Transcontinental flights for just $88 round-trip on Spirit Airline, plus the assorted fees that they add for everything.
Today Only: Round-Trip Transcontinental Flights On Spirit From $69 Round-Trip
There are a variety of restrictions, but if you can take the limited legroom and lack of other amenities on Spirit, this is worth checking.
This summer the U.S. government will award permission for 30 flights per day from the United States to Cuba…20 to Havana, 10 to smaller cities. Airlines applying for these need to tell why they are a good choice, and why the other airlines are not.
So, the airlines have come out swinging.
JetBlue says it is the “leading domestic airline at JFK,” a claim which Delta described as “demonstrably false.”
Southwest applied for 9 of the 20 daily flights to Havana, saying it can offer lower fares than its competitors…even lower than Spirit. American Airlines described some of Southwest’s application as “absurd.”
American also slammed Alaska Airlines application.
It looks like both fares and seat availability to Cuba will be low.
Here is an updated version of MileValue’s award-chart comparison for major United States airlines:
http://www.milevalue.com/comparison-of-united-delta-and-american-airlines-latest-2016-award-charts/
The chart covert the Big 3 mainline airlines in the U.S. – American, Delta and United. The fourth column is for American Airlines off-peak awards, which come with a considerable savings.
The chart does not cover Allegiant, JetBlue, Frontier, Spirit, Southwest and other smaller airlines.
On Spirit Airlines, for travel until May 10, 2016. Slightly-higher fares to Colombia, also.
http://www.milevalue.com/165-roundtrip-to-peru-172-to-colombia-from-many-american-cities/
Check the Spirit.com website to verify availability. You must purchase your ticket by 11 PM tonight.
You may not have realized that some Spirit Airlines flights feature in-flight entertainment. This one had music…very loud music.
Fight Breaks On Spirit Airlines Flight From Baltimore To Los Angeles
I wonder where the flight attendants were during all this.
Miguel Quinones is a travel blogger who points to verifiable statistical evidence to show that low-cost Spirit Airlines is terrible.
A bunch of commenters, many of whom have flown Spirit, disagree.
http://pointmetotheplane.boardingarea.com/2016/02/19/spirit-is-truly-a-horrible-airline/
Who are you going to believe?
In my particular case, I have long legs and am confident that I would not be a happy camper in one of their closely-packed 28-inch-pitch seats. In a “Big Front Seat” I think I could be happy…I’ll have to try it one day.
UPDATE: The Washington Post newspaper reports that President Obama plans a visit to Cuba next month.
As the United States slowly opens up access to Cuba, airlines are applying for airport “slots” so they can provide scheduled service to the island nation.
Cuba recognizes that a huge influx of Americans would overwhelm their tourist facilities.
In an interesting thread on Reddit, someone has described a creative way to change passenger on an existing Spirit airline reservation.
Spirit utilizes an overseas call center, staffed by people whose native language is not English. They do not recognize which English-language names are real and which are bogus.
Spirit does not permit the transfer of a ticket from one person to another, but they do permit “spelling errors” on issued tickets to be corrected.
So, someone figured out a way to transfer a ticket, say from “Pete” to “Sharon”.
Clever hack!
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