Just read of Spirit's plan to shrink the size of their one allowed carry-on bag in order to make it necessary for more people to pay the significant additional fee to check their bags. Their marketing strategy has always been bait and switch. They lure you in with a truly low fare and once purchased bombard you with solicitations for additional services. Since everything must be done online, they take advantage of their captive audience to hard sell add-ons by making their customers weave through a maze of aggressive sales pages before a transaction can be completed. I recall on my last flight with them (and I do mean my last flight) I followed the instructions I received in an email the day before my flight. It informed me that I had to go online to get my boarding pass and select my seat. I did so and learned that pre-selecting a seat came at an additional charge that varied with the desirability of the seat. I was shown a seating chart that supposedly illustrated the available seats. It showed that roughly 80% of the seats were already assigned. Once I'd committed to paying for an assigned seat (in order to avoid the dreaded middle), an altogether different chart appeared. This one showed a flight with only about 25% of seats assigned versus the roughly 80% shown previously. I remember feeling like I'd just been conned.
I'd been content to accept Spirit's model of budget travel with it's lack of frills. I can live without free drinks and peanuts. On a shorter flight I may even choose to accept the relative discomfort of less legroom and seats that don't recline. But you can't make me accept that and make me feel like a sucker too. At the end of the day, I'll choose to do business with a company that earns my trust and treats me with respect. Spirit Airlines does neither.