As one of the most iconic video games characters ever said, “ah naughty word here we go again”. Why here we go again that is? Well we are returning to Cali, Colombia 
once again for yet again ANOTHER party, it seems like partying is the main factor in the trips I take at this point but hopefully this’ll change soon. If I were actually being honest however regardless of a party, I was still planning on coming to Cali to spend time with my family I have there either for Summer, Spring or Holy Week and that’s when I was trying to fly on American Airlines since I really wanted to try their Boeing 737MAX8 but as these dates came closer, my family got wind of the party and sure enough told me that we’d go together instead me solo which kind of sucks but it’s no big deal. We actually kind of have a small problem, ever since Spirit Airlines filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy a few months ago they’ve been reducing flights from the looks of things FLL → CLO used to be available on Fridays but not anymore as when went to book nothing showed up. Fortunately we found a workaround to layover in Cartagena before continuing to Cali and it’s that connecting flight that has me the most excited to be honest. Another reason we chose Spirit is that we have had extra points with them for a long time but my parents never learned to use them until now so we practically payed nothing just for a checked bag and my single seat so let’s get to the airport and get this trip started!
After a quick stop at Publix, we arrived at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airports terminal 4 which houses Spirit’s home at FLL and in general since like I’ve said plenty of times by now, Spirit is Fort Lauderdale’s 
home airline as its headquarters are in a plaza just south of the airport, we already checked in on line so all we had to do was drop off our bags and get through security which only took 10 minutes which was shocking considering it’s spring break and plus the majority of the wait was felt waiting for the TSA agent to look through my bag. Once airside we went to have breakfast at a Cuban restaurant which was really good and off to our gate to await our aircraft’s arrival.
FLIGHT INFO:
Origin: Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Intl (KFLL) 
Destination: Cartagena Rafael Núñez Airport (SKCG)
Flight Time: 2:28
Airbus A321neo (Spirit Airlines)
Server: None (Real Life)
When we initially booked this flight, it was to operated by a standard Airbus A321 but yesterday morning when I looked up my flight on flightradar24, it showed an A321NEO and I super excited since it’s the only Spirit aircraft I’m yet to fly on so here at gate G12 taking me to Cartagena fresh from Nashville this morning is N721NK a 7 month old Airbus A321neo delivered new to Spirit in July 2024 it’s barely half a year old will it still contain the new plane smell? We’ll find that out once we get on board.
Boarding wasn’t the smoothest process at all, for starters no announcements were made and everybody simply started lining up and clogging the area so we aren’t off to a great start for this flight but hopefully the actual flight will be better!
Spirit Airlines crams 235 seats into their Airbus A321neos yikes
8 of them in the first 2 rows are the well known big front seats which are like domestic first seats but 12 news ones are known as “Go Comfy” which are rows 4-6 and are the basic economy seats with middle seats blocked kind of like an inter European business class. My seat is 23A which is a normal economy seat I reserved during booking for myself while my parents are not too far behind in row 24. I’ve already flown on this seat the last time I flew spirit back in August and I really like it especially the addition of the headrest it’s not the comfiest one but it definitely is an upgrade to having none at all. I didn’t luck out with a row by myself since I got seated with a family of 4 with 2 next to me and the another 2 on the other side and while they seem like friendly people, their kids didn’t really bring me the best first impression of them. Boarding was completed quickly thanks to our delay and we pushed back on this reverse ops morning to FLLs runway 28R for take off!
Till the next time Fort Lauderdale!
After our reverse ops departure out of FLL and flying over northern Broward, we reached our cruising altitude of 35,000ft and we’d stay there for the entire duration of the flight and here we are passing by Cuba 
The crew came around with their traditional buy on board service in which I got nothing like I always do but they were still pretty friendly with most passengers and even came around to collect trash frequently so they earn 5 stars! 
In terms of entertainment, there is no streaming entertainment available so download something before departure. WiFi was available but like always for fee and also like always didn’t pay for it. But simply connecting to Spirit WiFi without paying for it allows you to access their website which provides a really good moving map free of charge which is really cool considering Spirit is an ultra low cost carrier and they provided this complimentary. One thing that is unfortunately still missing is power ports, I get if they don’t want to install them if they only did short haul flights with the A321neo but they had plans to send them deep into Brazil 
which goes into the 5 and maybe even the 6 hour mark and having no power for 6 hours wouldn’t be pleasant but I simply enjoyed the views out the window.
Greetings Jamaica!
We started our descent in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean just a bit off the coast of Cartagena. We flew flew in the same direction passing the city and airport on left downwind before turning base over the Bahía de Cartagena before coming to land on RWY 01.
Out first view of the city of Cartagena and it screams Miami
already, I’m really looking forward to coming back here Wednesday to actually enjoy it.
Our initial view wasn’t the best but once we got onto final for RWY 01, everything changed for the better!
TOUCHDOWN! Welcome to Cartagena, Colombia
and before we get to the actual final thoughts, the one shocking thing is that NOBODY clapped usually it’s nonstop clapping when arriving into the motherland but today was just different.
I honestly enjoyed this flight on Spirit apart from the very complicated boarding process and slightly late arrival, the flight itself was smooth, seats were decent, crew was great and the plane was really modern and clean. The only thing holding Spirit back in terms of hard product is power ports, come one guys it’s 2025 many ultra low cost carriers have installed them even one of your competitors Allegiant recently installed them on their new Boeing 737MAX8-200s and if they installed them an no extra charge to passengers, I think you guys can to.
The highlight of this flight for sure was the deplaning why? Well Rafael Núñez International Airport is one of few in Colombia
that I’m aware of that don’t use jet bridges and instead use air stairs and it allowed to get up close and personal to this banana rip off pencil neo which is just absolutely GORGEOUS I can’t to fly this beauty in IF once she finally comes out.
Passport control 
wasn’t exactly the best experience, I say it’s the worst out of the 3 airports I’ve experienced in terms of time, it took us roughly 35 to 40 minutes to get through and there was still a good amount of officers so I got no clue what was the issue.
Luckily, this allowed time for our bag to come as once we finally left, it was right there ready for us and we quickly proceeded to customs and soon went to find a place to grab a small bite to eat and meeting with the rest of my family before returning for our next flight to Cali on JetSmart which I think is the flight I’m most excited for
That will be regarding this flight on Spirit Airline’s Airbus A321neo from Fort Lauderdale to Cartagena, Colombia stay tuned for not only the next leg on JetSmart but also for a Video version of this trip report coming to my YouTube channel once I come back to the US and as always between now and the next time, see you in the sky! 
