Living a Dream

People who don't fly much want to know what it's like to fly on budget airlines. Currently, the biggest budget airline in the States is Spirit, which operates largely how you'd expect: Everything costs extra. You pay to choose seats, pay to check a bag, pay to take a full-size carry-on, pay to have a glass of water, etc. Some other ways that they pinch pennies is by making you print your own boarding pass ($10 or something if they have to do it for you at the airport), baggage fees are way extra if you don't order them online beforehand, and they seemingly shrink the plane - itty bitty leg-room, seats that don't lean back, and more. So let's dig in. Wife and I decided to save $150 per person by taking the redeye from LAX to Cleveland on a Saturday night after a Friday wedding (which was a delight, for the record). The savings, we reasoned, would be worth the flight that we knew would be a nightmare. Our Sunday would be a waste of a day as we'd be too e...