Trip Report: Spirit Airlines A319 Big Front Seat Houston to Las Vegas

Trip Report: Spirit Airlines A319 Big Front Seat Houston to Las Vegas

When it comes to early flights, there’s nothing quite like staying in an airport hotel that is connected directly to the terminal. I went from room to gate in less than 15 minutes, which kind of threw me off a bit because I wasn’t expecting to have to sit and wait very long for my Spirit Airlines A319 Big Front Seat flight out of terminal A. I ended up getting to the gate with a bit over an hour to spare, which wasn’t so bad I guess. A 1 hour layover is definitely enough time in Houston!

I also got to witness an entire boarding process for another Spirit flight that was departing at the gate adjacent to ours. One thing that I thought was interesting about it was that they allowed those who printed their boarding passes at home to board right after zone 1. That’s a nice little perk.

NK193
Houston, TX (IAH) – Las Vegas, NV (LAS)
Sunday January 25 2015
Aircraft: A319
Seat: 2F (Big Front Seat)

side view drawing of a spirit airlines a319 in the pixel livery
Spirit Airlines A319 N529NK side view illustration
route map for Houston to Las Vegas
The route from IAH to LAS today: BNDTO2 CRGER ELP J86 PGS TYSSN3
spirt airlines check in counter Houston intercontinental airport
Check in counter for Spirit Airlines in terminal A at IAH
inside terminal A IAH
Terminal A is about as bland as it gets
spirit airlines IAH to LAS boarding pass
My boarding pass

Our flight to Vegas started to board a few minutes behind schedule, and I think they were trying to expedite the process because they didn’t even call for pre boarding first. They kicked things off right with zone 1, which may have caught many people off guard because nobody lined up. The gate agent then went right to zone 2, and still I ended up being the third person on the plane.

spirit airlines a319 empty cabin
Full cabin of this A319
Spirit Airlines Big Front Seats 2E and 2F
Big Front Seats 2E and 2F
Spirit Airlines A319 forward bulkhead wall
Just a few moments of peaceful tranquility before things got rowdy
spirit airlines a319 big front seat leg room
No changes in leg room since yesterday’s flight…

It was only 5 minutes after I sat down in my seat that I remembered why I dislike flights to Las Vegas so much. To say there was a party mood in the air was putting it mildly, and the lead flight attendant played right along. Oy vey. Normally I don’t mind this kind of stuff, but this was a 7am flight and I was dead tired and looking forward to some sleep. So yeah, the guys sitting next to me giggling and messing around were making me think that this was going to be one heck of an annoying flight.

The good news is that everyone seemed to settle down after the comedy-routine safety briefing by the lead FA, and it was looking to be a beautiful morning out side. Things were looking up!

We departed runway 9 to the east, then made a long gradual turn west before I took a few pics and pulled the hood on my jacket over my head to get some sleep.

runway 9 departure at IAH
Starting our takeoff roll down runway 9
departing IAH headed to LAS
And we’re off!
climbing out of houston on a spirit airlines a319
I didn’t think the light was going to be bright enough for pics, but the sun came up over the horizon just as we took off
houston intercontinental airport from the air
One last look at IAH as we pointed west
sunrise over texas from the air
This is my favorite time to fly, and you can see why
sunrise from an airplane window
Such a beautiful sunrise!

Cabin service started shortly thereafter, but once again I passed. I did hear quite a few people in the rows behind me ordering some stiff drinks, which didn’t really surprise me at all despite the early hour. Vegas, baby. Woo hoo!

I think the drinks were starting to take effect about two hours into the flight. The guys beside me in my row were completely knocked out, but the folks one row behind were getting loud. Sleep was not happening at this point, so all I could do was pull out my iPad to work on this trip report – in between to listening to the conversation behind me of course. It was a middle age Indian couple in 3E and F, and a (drunkish) caucasian woman across the isle. They were getting into some deep conversation, and at one point she said that she spends about $1000 a month partying. And she has a 19 year old daughter who is dating a guy with a 5 year old child. But the Indian couple were playing right along (the husband did most of the talking), and it was a pretty annoying exchange.

Ok then, let’s have a look at the in flight menu, shall we?

Spirit Airlines in flight menu
Front cover of the in flight menu
inside front cover spirit airlines menu
Inside cover: Eat, Drink and Save Bundles
spirit airlines entire menu
The entire menu
spirit airlines menu back cover
The back cover

Despite all the activity, the 3 hour flight time passed very quickly and I was surprised when we started our initial descent. With the sun directly behind us, there weren’t many opportunities for photography – though we did fly right past the Hoover Dam:

descending into Las Vegas
Starting our descent into LAS
view of the Hoover Dam from my window seat
The Hoover Dam

Once on the ground, they announced that we made up some time in the air and it resulted in being 20 minutes early! That was actually a disappointment for me, because I already had a four-hour layover ahead of me. Oh well. It was also about this time that I realized that the comedy-routine announcements are somewhat scripted on Spirit Airlines – yep, I heard a lot of these same jokes on yesterday’s flight.

arrival at LAS
On the ground in Vegas
southwest and spirit airlines at LAS
So far on this trip, the only Spirit Airlines livery I had seen was the gray and silver pixel version (the oldest of them all).

So two flights down in this itinerary with one more to go!

Comments (2)

  1. Kyle

    June 13, 2019
    • SANspotter

      June 14, 2019

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