
Spirit Airlines announces extra legroom seats will be available starting this summer
Spirit Airlines announces extra legroom seats will be available starting this summer
Show Caption
Hide Caption
Spirit Airlines comes out of bankruptcy protection
Spirit Airlines announced plans to rebrand as a premium airline after emerging from bankruptcy protection.
Cheddar
Spirit Airlines is introducing extra legroom seats with 32-inch pitch, available for purchase this month and rolling out on most flights by July 2025.
The updated Go Comfy fare will include extra legroom instead of a blocked middle seat, along with other perks like carry-on bag, priority boarding, and snacks.
Spirit's loyalty program is also getting revamped, with perks like complimentary upgrades to Go Comfy and Big Front Seats for elite members, based on availability.
Spirit Airlines unveiled plans for new extra legroom seats, which it expects to have available across most of its fleet by the middle of this summer.
"Spirit's new premium options offer travelers exceptional value, and we're creating even more opportunities for guests to experience them with our new extra-legroom seating option," Rana Ghosh, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at Spirit Airlines, said in a statement. "We're also adding more value and perks for our loyalty members at a time when others are taking away benefits, giving our most loyal guests even more reasons to choose Spirit."
The new seats are on sale this month and will begin flying on some routes in June. Here's what travelers need to know.
Spirit Airlines' extra legroom seats
Spirit updated the way its Go Comfy fare bundle worked. Previously, that premium fare guaranteed a blocked middle seat in standard legroom rows, but now Go Comfy will come with extra legroom instead. Spirit Airlines typically has seats at 28-inch pitch, but Go Comfy rows will be arranged with 32-inch pitch instead.
"The new preferred seating will include seven rows near the front of the aircraft and more than 40 seats. The extra-legroom seating will be installed beginning June 2025 and roll out across the majority of the fleet by July 2025," the airline said in a statement.
As the extra legroom rows are introduced, Spirit will stop blocking middle seats for Go Comfy ticketholders. Go Comfy fares will still include a carry-on bag, no change or cancellation fees, priority boarding, reserved overhead bin space, a snack, and a non-alcoholic beverage.
The first flights with extra legroom rows will begin on July 9.
Spirit Airlines loyalty program updates
Spirit also announced updates to its loyalty program on Tuesday, including complimentary upgrades to Go Comfy and Big Front seats for elite status holders, based on availability.
The airline also expanded options for redeeming its loyalty points and announced a free checked bag perk with its co-branded MasterCard.
Full details of the loyalty program and seating updates are available on the airline's website.
Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He is based in New York and you can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Yahoo
Foundations likely to see increased requests from New Mexico nonprofits after federal cuts
Twenty-six trucks were set to deliver groceries to The Food Depot between April and December. Two weeks before the first truck was scheduled to arrive, however, staff at the Santa Fe food bank learned the goods — a mix of expensive and tough-to-source groceries like yogurt, milk, chicken and produce from a U.S. Department of Agriculture program — weren't coming after all, executive director Jill Dixon said. The Emergency Food Assistance Program was hit in March with $500 million in cuts, the latest in a string of federal food-related policy changes. 'Food banking requires planning, so it meant that there was just a gap,' Dixon said. 'For The Food Depot, that gap translated to approximately $200,000.' Such a loss is a common story for New Mexico nonprofits these days. A new report jointly commissioned by the Thornburg Foundation, Anchorum Health Foundation and Santa Fe Community Foundation surveyed more than 200 nonprofits across the state and found 'federal funding cuts may disproportionately affect New Mexico.' About 37% of the state's nonprofits receive some kind of federal support, the sixth highest level in the nation, with one in five getting the majority of their funding from federal grants. Some $1.1 billion has been awarded to those surveyed with only about half paid out so far. The other half of that money can be clawed back — and in some cases already has been terminated by the federal government. Philanthropic funders are likely to see a surge in requests from nonprofits competing for private dollars to offset their losses, the study found, estimating foundations would have to increase their giving by 282% to replace terminated grants. 060525_MS_Food Depot_002.JPG Eloy Almoner receives groceries from The Food Depot last week. Executive director Jill Dixon said previous federal aid cuts were "small potatoes" compared to proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in President Donald Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill," which wants to strip $267 billion in SNAP funding by 2034. Foundations would spend down their savings in short order to fill those gaps, said Allan Oliver, president of the Thornburg Foundation. 'The need is really, really significant,' he said, noting 'not all nonprofits wish to be public about the situation with their federal funding.' Nonprofits — which provide about 8% of the jobs in New Mexico's private-sector workforce, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — 'are making extremely hard decisions right now,' Oliver said. 'These are agreements that the federal government made with these nonprofits — and the nonprofits are holding up their end of the deal,' he added. 'It's really up to the federal government to hold up their end of the deal.' 'Extremely hard decisions' Programs in the state focused on food security have seen a significant toll. The National Center for Frontier Communities, a 30-year-old nonprofit based in Silver City, hasn't been able to draw down about two-thirds of a four-year, nearly $400,000 Community Food Project grant from the Department of Agriculture since January, CEO Ben Rasmussen said. The grant funded a project supporting the local food landscape in the small, remote towns Frontier Communities serves. Among its initiatives are the development of an agricultural training center and assistance in increasing local producers' sales to a self-sustainable level. Rasmussen takes pride in serving communities that are often 'quite literally the last stop on the road,' he said. The center's home base in Silver City means the southwestern corner of New Mexico often serves as a 'testing ground' for new initiatives that could have a nationwide impact on remote communities — many of them Indigenous and agricultural, with low-income populations. 'We are still in compliance with the grant, and we are still moving forward,' Rasmussen said of the federal funding. But, he added, 'What's at risk is this momentum. ... It really forces you to think about what's important to you and your organization.' 060525_MS_Food Depot_001.JPG Volunteers load groceries into a waiting car during a food distribution effort at The Food Depot last week. Executive director Jill Dixon says federal cuts to food stamps will create an untenable demand at The Food Depot and other food banks. 'We are not built to be first line for food-insecure families,' she said. 'The writing on the wall' Ladona Clayton's organization hasn't yet experienced any direct federal funding cuts, but she fears revenue might dry up — and with it, Eastern New Mexico communities. Clayton is executive director of the Ogallala Land & Water Conservancy, a nonprofit working to ensure water security for Clovis, the Cannon Air Force Base and parts of Curry County by compensating landowners for retiring their irrigation wells and putting conservation easements into place to keep water underground. The stakes couldn't be higher, Clayton said: 'If we don't save, preserve, store as much groundwater as we possibly can, we don't survive.' But it takes federal dollars to make that work happen. 'We can see the writing on the wall,' she said, referring to the potential for federal funding cuts. The Ogallala Land & Water Conservancy is primarily funded by the U.S. Department of Defense's Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program — thanks to the Air Force base — and the Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service, Clayton said. She's been warned to expect steep competition for the next round of Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program dollars. About a year ago, the conservancy contracted with a consulting firm to search for other federal grant options. In the months since, Clayton said, 'Every one of those doors closed on us.' She's also applied for and received approval for seven conservation easements through the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Three have already been funded; money for two more is set to come through. But two remain unfunded. 'That is where we find ourselves, but we're working aggressively to do what we can. If the funding's not out there ... I think my greatest concern is everyone's now turning to foundations,' Clayton said. 'If we're all moving in that direction ... competition's just going to amp up,' she added. Fight for private funding Competition has amped up. Nonprofits are feeling that, said Leah Ricci, interim executive director of the Santa Fe-based Quivira Coalition, an organization focused on implementing holistic farming methods known as regenerative agriculture. The sustainable practice aims to improve land and ecosystems through biodiversity. The Department of Agriculture in April canceled the group's Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program — an initiative Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins criticized as an effort to 'advance the green new scam.' At the time, the Quivira Coalition was about a year into a five-year, $3.9 million grant, Ricci said. The organization had planned to use the money to help livestock producers transform waste products, like woody debris or carcasses, into soil amendments, such as compost or biochar. With the Climate-Smart Commodities funding now gone, Ricci said the Quivira Coalition has pared down its program. It continues to train the 13 producers already recruited. Nevertheless, the coalition still relies heavily on federal funding, with 65% of its 2025 budget coming from five big federal grants, four of which remain in place. 'We are fortunate, even with 65% of our income coming from federal grants, to have fairly diverse income from foundation grants and from donors,' Ricci said. 'We're being really careful and thoughtful about how we use those general operating support dollars so that we have the opportunity to pivot if needed,' she said. Going forward, though, foundation grants may become harder to get. Every grant program the Quivira Coalition has applied for this year has seen an overwhelming number of applications, Ricci said. The local foundations' new report includes a lengthy list of recommendations for private funders as they prepare for the surge in requests, noting philanthropy 'can and should step in' to support nonprofits. 'They want to be as helpful as possible,' Ricci said of philanthropic funders. 'They also have a limited amount of money, and they're having to make tough decisions about who to award their grant funds to.' 060525_MS_Food Depot_004.JPG A line of cars wait for food from The Food Depot last week. The Congressional Budget office estimates more than 4 million Americans would lose SNAP benefits entirely as a result of proposed cuts. Cuts so far: 'Small potatoes' From Dixon's perspective at The Food Depot, there's more to worry about. She described the losses of federal assistance the food bank has already weathered as 'small potatoes' in comparison to proposed congressional cuts to critical food aid known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly called food stamps. 'The proposed cuts to SNAP [are] really what we're focused on now,' Dixon said. President Donald Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' of spending priorities is expected to strip $267 billion in SNAP funding by 2034, according to analysis by the Congressional Budget Office. The bill has already passed the U.S. House and is now being considered in the Senate; Trump wants the bill on his desk by July 4. The Congressional Budget office estimates more than 4 million Americans would lose SNAP benefits entirely as a result of the cuts, while monthly benefits would be reduced by about $15 by 2034 for all remaining participants. Food stamps are meant to be the 'first and best line of defense' against hunger, Dixon said, while food banks work to fill the gap when SNAP benefits run out. For every meal a food bank provides, SNAP provides nine, according to the nationwide hunger relief organization Feeding America. Slashing SNAP will likely result in untenable demand for The Food Depot and other food banks, Dixon said. 'We are not built to be first line for food-insecure families,' she said, 'and the proposed cut in the bill as it stands today is the largest and deepest cut to the SNAP program in its history.'


The Hill
2 days ago
- The Hill
Sunday shows preview: Trump-Musk spat leaves admin reeling; ‘Big, beautiful bill' hits speed bump
President Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk's feud spilled out in public on Thursday, with the world's richest man and the world's most powerful leader trading barbs that engulfed news cycles in Washington and abroad. Musk, a Trump ally, was vocal about his disappointment with Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' currently sitting in the Senate. Musk, who spent millions during the 2024 presidential campaign to help elect Trump, called the massive piece of legislation a 'disgusting abomination.' Trump then weighed in on Thursday at the White House during German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's visit, saying, 'Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will anymore.' The spat intensified, with Musk floating the prospects of creating a third party, claiming that without his political contributions, Trump would not be victorious against ex-Vice President Harris in November and accusing the president of having ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump threatened to cut off federal contracts awarded to Musk's companies. Later on Thursday, Musk signaled he might be open to brokering a truce with the commander-in-chief. After speaking with several news outlets Friday morning, Trump suggested he is ready to move on and indicated that he will not be speaking with Musk for a while. Trump told CNN Friday morning that he is 'not even thinking about Elon' and added that the SpaceX and Tesla CEO has 'got a problem. The poor guy's got a problem.' In the Senate, Trump's agenda bill, which passed the House chamber last month, has sparked concerns and criticism from GOP senators. The first group of GOP Sens., which consists of Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), are arguing they could vote against the bill if it slashes Medicaid benefits. Others, including Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) have previously said they would not back the legislation if it retains the current debt and spending levels. The GOP can have three defections total if all Democrats vote against the legislation. Sen. Johnson will be on CNN's 'State of the Union where he will likely discuss if any of his concerns regarding the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' have been addressed. As part of a push to root out waste, fraud and abuse within Medicare, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said this week that a bill sponsored by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), that would crack down on Medicare Advantage overpayments known as 'upcoding,' could be inserted into Trump's massive legislation. Cassidy will be on NewsNation's 'The Hill Sunday,' where he will likely discuss the latest on the reconciliation package along with his recent visit to the White House. NewsNation's 'The Hill Sunday': Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.); Rep. Sarah Elfreth (D-Ma); U.S. Chamber of Commerce chief policy officer Neil Bradley. ABC's 'This Week': Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy; House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). NBC's 'Meet the Press': Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.). CNN's 'State of the Union': 'Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), and Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.); Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.). CBS' 'Face the Nation': National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett; Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.); Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas); Save the Children U.S. President and CEO Janti Soeripto. 'Fox News Sunday': Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought; Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.); Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas). Fox News' 'Sunday Morning Futures': Secretary Of Interior Doug Burgum, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.); House Ways And Means Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.); Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Is Musk Starting a New Political Party Amid Trump Feud?
Elon Musk speaks during a Town Hall event at the KI Convention Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on March 30, 2025. Credit - Joshua Lott—The Washington Post In an escalation of Elon Musk's fractured relationship with President Donald Trump and his Republican allies, the Tesla CEO has floated the idea of starting a new political party to rival the two-party system. Musk conducted a poll via his social media platform X (formerly Twitter), asking his 220 million followers: 'Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?' The public results show that around 80% of respondents voted yes. 'The people have spoken. A new political party is needed in America to represent the 80% in the middle!' Musk said, reacting to the results of his Thursday, June 5, poll. 'And exactly 80% of people agree…This is Fate.' On Friday, Musk shared a potential name: "The America Party." The moniker echoes that of his super political action committee (PAC), America PAC, which was founded in 2024 to support Trump's efforts to return to the White House. The super PAC reportedly spent around $200 million to help elect Trump. Musk's donations made him Trump's largest, and most prominent, donor in the 2024 election. Read More: 5 Things To Watch As the Trump-Musk Meltdown Proceeds In 2016 and 2020, Musk voted for Trump's Democratic opponents—Hillary Clinton and former President Joe Biden, respectively. But during the 2022 midterm elections, Musk said he intended to vote Republican, and that later developed into him becoming Trump's close ally, which was cemented when the President positioned him as lead of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a role he held until recently. However, Trump and Musk have now had an explosive fall-out, which has played out in the public arena via social media over the past few days. It started with Musk's disapproval over Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill,' which he called an "abomination" and told his social media followers to 'call your Senator, call your Congressman… kill the bill.' On Thursday, the back-and-forth between the two influential men escalated, with Musk alleging that Trump is listed in the files related to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. 'That is the real reason they have not been made public,' Musk said. He did not provide evidence pertaining to this and, as of early Saturday morning, the post has been deleted. Musk also, in another since-deleted X post, endorsed a message that said: "Trump should be impeached" and that Vance "should replace him." Trump has argued on his own social media platform, Truth Social, that "Elon was wearing thin" and that he asked the Tesla CEO to leave the White House. Read More: Musk's Major Allegation Against Trump Disappears From Social Media: 'That Post Has Been Deleted' Meanwhile, when talking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday night, Trump said he didn't have any plans to speak with Musk. But some lawmakers are convinced that the feud between Trump and Musk will soon thaw, and that the latter's idea for a new political party won't come to fruition. On Friday, Republican Rep. Jimmy Patronis of Florida told NewsNation's Blake Burman: 'Elon Musk is not gonna create a new political party... Trump knows that sometimes you're going to have [a] falling out with those that you trust, you like, that you're friends with. It happens with us in D.C. all the time. Mark my words, about a month from now, these guys will be hanging around again.' Contact us at letters@