Spirit Airlines is changing its on-board branding and offering for the third time in less than a year. The carrier will now use the more traditional names First and Premium Economy to describe the more spacious seats on board, replacing the “Go Big” and “Go Comfy” brands introduced at the end of July 2024.
We’re simplifying choices so travelers can better understand and compare their options and the exceptional value that Spirit provides. Our Big Front Seat has been one of the best kept secrets, and these updates will bring more travelers in the know that Spirit offers one of the industry’s most affordable options for a premium experience. – Rana Ghosh, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at Spirit Airlines
The change aims to reduce confusion in the market, according to the company, as it seeks to sell the premium seats more aggressively, albeit at the beginning of the booking funnel rather than as an upsell at the end. The First Class seat – known a Big Front Seat (BFS) for years – historically has been a great value. Now bundled with lots of other benefits, including complimentary bags and Wi-Fi on board, the metrics have shifted a bit.
What’s in a name? That which we call a Big Front Seat
By any other name would smell as sweet;-Spirit Marketing, perhaps, were it a British operator a couple hundred years ago??
Likely more pointed a change is the rebranding of Go Comfy to Premium Economy. That product also changed recently, swapping from a couple rows of a blocked middle seat to more rows of extra legroom.
Economy seats, previously sold as “Go” are now being sold as “Value” seating.
Spirit will also revert to not selling a standard economy class seat. The company’s “Go Savvy” option, which included a seat assignment and either a carry-on or checked bag, is gone and not replaced with the new branding. Passengers purchasing a “Value” seat will once again face the ancillary fee gauntlet to secure those options for their travels.
This change belies the idea that the carrier wants to make it easier for passengers to compare offerings like-for-like. But at least the names of the premium products will make more sense to customers the carrier aims to poach from other airlines. Even if figuring out the economy seats remains a fuzzy process.
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I (kind of) understand Spirit’s rationale for renaming “Big Front Seats” as “First Class.” However, “first class” is also associated with a separate cabin. If NK doesn’t install some type of cabin divider, it’s possible some passengers may feel it’s not “real” first class.
I understand why Spirit may want to drop the “Go Comfy” product name in favor of something more intuitive, but wonder if “Premium Economy” may be a bit of an oversell.
While “Value” is slightly better (IMHO) than “Go” as a product name, I believe “Basic” would have been a better, clearer, and even more honest name. Some consumers might interpret “Value” as receiving something in addition to the fundamental product/service being purchased. “Basic” doesn’t. “Basic” also aligns with the broader industry trend of using “Basic Economy” to describe their least expensive, most stripped-down fares (created, ironically, to complete with ULCCs such as Spirit).
Fair point on name recognition as the carrier tries to sell more broadly. But I also question whether the issue is that people don’t understand what the product is or that they don’t think of Spirit as providing that offer. And it can’t only be an OTA thing, as if properly flagged in the distribution systems they’ll show in searches for F, regardless of what it is called.
I 100% agree that Premium Economy is overkill for Comfy. I’ve been fighting that (perhaps with Sisyphean levels of success) since Delta started pushing C+ as PremY for domestic/short-haul ops.