Archive for the 'Spirit Airlines' Category
July 21 2008
I’ve been quite supportive of Spirit’s fee-driven low fares. If they want to keep fares very low and charge passengers for everything else, go for it. But I’m going to draw the line here: the airline is now tacking on a $10 “web convenience fee” for booking a roundtrip ticket online. Of course, there are additional fees if you purchase on the phone. So you may be wondering, if Spirit advertises a $59 each-way fare, but it’s going to cost you $64 each way, why can it be advertised as $59? The answer? Um, because those are the rules. It’s nuts, and it’s not fare to consumers.
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June 24 2008
Spirit Airlines has been widely reviled online (see the comments here, for example) for providing less-than-stellar customer service. Let’s move past that for a moment. My father had a problem booking a ticket and, as the commenters above noted, calling the call center apparently wasn’t an option (as they don’t seem to pick up the phone).
So, I did what you guys should do when you have an airline problem - I visited Chris Elliott’s great customer service pages where he lists email and phone contacts for individuals at most of the airlines. In this case we contacted a customer service manager listed named Heather Harvey (Heather.Harvey (at) spiritair.com). She could not have been more helpful, calling us back and resolving our issue within hours. Well done.
That they don’t answer their customer service number is pretty much inexcusable, but now you have a way to actually get your Spirit Airlines problems resolved. Then again, when you’ve paid $9 for a ticket, maybe you shouldn’t expect anything. Or Spirit should do what a couple of European airlines do and just charge people to speak to customer service, so at least their costs are covered.
Just thought I’d pass along a nice word (for a change) about Spirit…
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December 03 2007
Spirit Airlines is classing up the joint with a "Many Islands, Low Fares" sale, which, on their website, they’re calling their "MILF" sale. Stay classy San Diego.
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August 31 2007
Taking a page from the SkyEurope playbook, Spirit Airlines is offering a deal where they’ll pay you up to $4 to fly (you’ll have to pay taxes and fees). Only a handful of dates are available for each city pair, but you can construct round trip flights where you’ll just pay taxes minus $8. Cute gimmick.
FOLLOW UP: Now this is interesting: that page and that promotion have disappeared from their website. One of two things happened: 1) Technically, they were having trouble with negative dollar fares (entirely plausible); or 2) Some regulator called and told them they can’t say that they’re paying you to fly when, because of taxes, you’re still paying to fly. While the first is highly possible, I’m going with number 2. Any updates are appreciated.
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August 08 2007
A passenger on a Spirit Airlines flight from Lima, Peru to LaGuardia (connecting in Fort Lauderdale) was caught hiding a monkey in ponytail (that’s not a euphemism…he actually had a monkey under his ponytail). During the flight to LaGuardia the monkey got loose from the ponytail (where he must have been hanging out for 7 or 8 hours) and the passenger was forced to hold the monkey on his lap. Passengers and staff easily detected the monkey, as it was sitting in the guy’s lap. Health officials (that’s what the story says) confiscated the monkey upon his arrival in New York.
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May 25 2007
Spirit Airlines announced new service to Managua, Nicaragua, beginning in August. Normally, I don’t bother sharing new routes, but this marks a rather significant expansion into Latin America for the little-airline-that-could. The past year has seen Spirit announce new service to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti and Peru, among other destinations. What’s interesting, is that US Airways tried to launch many of these same (or similar) services from its Ft. Lauderdale hub (or focus city) a couple of years ago, without much success. Spirit has created buzz by offering seats to new cities for $.08 and keeping regular fares extremely reasonable. Launching from Lauderdale was gutsy, as American has much of Latin America sewn up from Miami, but their ridiculous introductory fares have put a bit of buzz around the airline and gotten them noticed by the ethnic communities they’re hoping to serve.
Always good to see an airline take a bit of a different approach…well done.
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March 13 2007
Say what you will about Spirit Airlines, but you cannot deny that have been pretty innovative on the marketing front lately. In their latest move, they have introduced what they’re calling the $9 Fare Club. Basically, you pay $30 a year (or $10 for a 3-month trial), and you’ll get access to their super low sale fares before anyone else (by "super low" I mean "$1"). I have no idea if this is a good deal, as those $1 fares (and $8 fares and whatnot) generally aren’t available as part of a reasonable roundtrip. But, if you live in a market with a fair amount of service from Spirit, it may be worth the $10. Either way, has any other airline thought of making you pay to get low fares? Brilliant.
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March 07 2007
It was early yesterday when I read about Spirit Airlines, so I missed the most important piece of news buried in their press release: Soda and coffee will now cost $1, and checked bags will cost $5 if done in advance online or $10 if done at the airport. In return, Spirit has said they have lowered fares across the board up to 40%. Yes, this sounds like Ryanair. Look for other carriers to follow soon enough.
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March 06 2007
Spirit Airlines has quietly downgraded its business class product to something it’s calling "Big Front Seat." Basically, you get a business class (ish) seat with no frills. Considering how cheap it is (NYC to Florida round trip can be in the $400 range, or less), it’s still a great deal. But I thought you’d want to know.
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February 07 2007
Pack well if you’re going to fly on Spirit Airlines: The carrier will begin charging $10 for the second bag you check and $100 (yes, $100) for the 3rd bag. Leave those bulky sweaters at home…
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Spirit’s $10 Web Convenience Fee