Thanks for putting this article together. I would like to share my story from this past weekend with you. Typically, I don't do this but I don't want people to make the same mistake that I did in deciding to fly this airline. I did fly Spirit last year to the Bahamas from Orlando and decided to do try it again this past weekend reluctantly. My fiancee and I had a once in a lifetime experience to see Kenny Chesney live in the Bahamas at a small concert. Spirit Air's policy debacle started after we decided to book. The baggage and seat fees did pile up at the end where it made no sense to fly on this airline. Flying this airline before I should have remembered that. However the poor customer service and cloudy disclosure of fees was just beginning. Our flight from Orlando connected through Ft. Lauderdale and we decided to see if we could stay in Ft. Lauderdale on our way back home from the Bahamas to attend a high school graduation of my fiancee's sister. We felt like doing the right thing and cancel our seat however Spirit Airlines wanted $125 for each of us to cancel our short inexpensive flight to do this. After being extrememly dissatisfied we decided to keep our flights the way they were. After expressing my dissatisfaction the rep on the phone tried to twice get me to sign up for promotional offers. Our schedule departure date was Thursday May 24th. On Wednesday night at 11pm we received a call that our flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Nassau had been cancelled due to mechanical problems the next day. The next available flight out was Saturday. After voicing my displeasure I requested that they find another airline to get us down to Nassau on. Another one of there joyful and customer services policies came into play at this point. They don't help with booking other airlines regardless of the situation. To throw some humor on top of this situation they did offer us each a $50 voucher after cancelling our flight but only with the restrictions of "must be booked by July 6th and can only be used on base fares and not towards any fees or surcharges." Way to throw a little salt on the wound Spirit. My recommendation to anyone looking to find an airline to fly is to stay away from this one. While the fares look enticing the experience is not. Don't expect any flexibility, cleanliness, or cost savings. Pay the extra money upfront because if you don't you will pay in the end and may not even make it to your desired destination. This was certainly not the once in a lifetime experience we were expecting and hope that no one else will make the same mistake we did.
"This is the FILTHIEST, rudest and most arrogant Airline in service. Hope you can help us make a difference! "SHOCKING PHOTOS! CLICK LIKE and get informed! http://www.facebook.com/BoycottSpiritAirlines""
Oh, but there's the beauty of it: The same small bag that would fit under the seat of any other airline NO LONGER DOES BECAUSE SPIRIT HAS SHOVED THEIR SEATS 5" CLOSER TO EACH OTHER. HAHAHAHAHAHA. Gotcha!
After being duped into joining Spirit Air's "$9 Fare Club" we are simply trying to get out. Today I was informed by "Mindy 63133" that "Regretfully, I cannot cancel Mr. C____'s Membership without him emailing in. If Mr. C____ would like his membership cancelled, I would encourage him to write in requesting it to be cancelled."
So he e-mailed to cancel the membership. The message he got back was "Your recent incident update was from an email address not associated with the incident. In an effort to maintain the security of information, we cannot update the incident using this email address. If you are the incident owner and your email address has changed, or you want to be able to update the incident using this email account, please update your contact information using the following link, then resubmit your update."
They want MORE information from us just to get out of their system. No freakin' way!!
Next time I'm in the airport I'm going to follow their pitch for their Mastercard (which we didn't fall for, thankfully) by reading pages 3 and 4 of the agreement - which they conveniently don't have on their clipboards OUT LOUD. That's the part that details the 30% interest charges and the $60 annual fee even if you never use the card. Oh, and that's in exchange for 6 "free tickets" to the Caribbean after a "qualified purchase." HA! Wait til they try to shut this Grandma up.
If there is a lesson that we can take away from the Spirit Airlines debacle, it would be summed up in the last line of Michael Hess's excellent article: Doing things by the book is not always the same as doing the right thing. To get more specific... Empower employees to make good decisions. Let there be guidelines versus rigid policies. Hire the right people that are capable of making good decisions.
Regarding their pricing and up-charges for checked baggage, carry-on baggage, etc., the customer will ultimately decide if they want to play by Spirit's rules. That said, just being a low cost carrier will not be a good long term strategy. There are some customers that will buy just on price. However, many of them want and expect good service. And, when they don't get it, the customer will find another airline that gives them competitive pricing and much better service. Can you say, "Southwest." (I knew you could!)
I saw the CEO's interview, and if you step only a little into crazy-world, he sounded really logical - but businesses usually consider good will and reputation as real assets, and he was absolutely destroying his on the air. Yes, his policy does a service to those who fly like I might use a car or bike (just ship your luggage ahead), but mishandling what doesn't have to become a high visibility issue can cost you 100x what you profit. I wonder how many cases like this get handled "off the radar" and save everybody some lost expense.
[Doing things by the book is not always the same as doing the right thing.] ---------------------------------------------- or said another way ... there is a difference between what you 'can' do ... and what you 'should' do.
I recently purchased tickets for my husband and me to travel (on different days) to Las Vegas. I'm going on business and he is joining for a couple days afterwards. I had never heard or booked with Spirit before but loved the pricing. However, by the time I added all of the "amenities" I wanted (just basics like an assigned seat and one checked bag), I didn't noticed (until too late) that the price was actually HIGHER than traditional carriers! Still, I accept that this was my own fault. However, after booking my husband he later discovered that he could get away a couple days earlier to join me so I needed to change his ticket. I found a couple of references on the website about change fees but couldn't find ANYWHERE that listed what they were (and I spent over an hour looking through their FAQs and doing site searches). All I could find was a mention that if the fare is different you pay the additional (and there seemed to be a mention that if it was less you would get a credit, although it was kind of vague). Since I know Southwest doesn't charge change fees, I thought maybe this was the case with Spirit too. Before I went through with the change I decided I HAD to call them to ask... Oh yes, there IS a change fee... $105 -- or $125 if you change the ticket on the phone). Now, this doesn't seem like a HUGE amount until you realize that a one way ticket is only $68!!! So, we're not changing the ticket, we're just buying a one way for him to use outbound and will use the other ticket as a return only (the agent assured me that this is doable and that the return ticket won't be cancelled if we don't use the outbound leg... although I"m very nervous about it).
I will not be using Spirit again after this trip and (as a travel agent) I certainly won't be recommending it to any of my clients. They just feel very slimy to me. Travel should be FUN, you shouldn't have to be watching your back every second and that's exactly how dealing with Spirit has made me feel.
You are absolutely right that there are some people who travel with nothing more than the allowed "personal" item (i.e. handbag or briefcase). However, as a frequent flier (and I think other regular travelers would agree), they are a very small minority. Basically you're talking about business people taking same-day trips, and within that group, women who manage to carry both their personal items and business items in one bag (very atypical). It also means that business people traveling together can't necessarily sit together (which is often important on the way to a meeting), unless they pay for assigned seats.
And even in those rare instances that you refer to, it can be difficult to avoid surcharges. If you look at the "booking-related" fees section of the company site, for example, you'll see that even the most disciplined saver has to work pretty hard to avoid any add-ons. Something as simple as needing to print your boarding pass at the kiosk dings you a couple of bucks.
So my point was not at all that it's *impossible* to get the rock-bottom published fare, but I think it is very much the exception and not the rule; kind of like the weight loss ads that show extraordinary results with the tiny caveat "results not typical." While the people shown may be real customers -- just like the one-bag traveler -- the vast, vast majority of buyers will not have the same experience. And therefore, to me, it's questionable practice to make such claims the core of your advertising.
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Thanks for putting this article together. I would like to share my story from this past weekend with you. Typically, I don't do this but I don't want people to make the same mistake that I did in deciding to fly this airline. I did fly Spirit last year to the Bahamas from Orlando and decided to do try it again this past weekend reluctantly. My fiancee and I had a once in a lifetime experience to see Kenny Chesney live in the Bahamas at a small concert. Spirit Air's policy debacle started after we decided to book. The baggage and seat fees did pile up at the end where it made no sense to fly on this airline. Flying this airline before I should have remembered that. However the poor customer service and cloudy disclosure of fees was just beginning. Our flight from Orlando connected through Ft. Lauderdale and we decided to see if we could stay in Ft. Lauderdale on our way back home from the Bahamas to attend a high school graduation of my fiancee's sister. We felt like doing the right thing and cancel our seat however Spirit Airlines wanted $125 for each of us to cancel our short inexpensive flight to do this. After being extrememly dissatisfied we decided to keep our flights the way they were. After expressing my dissatisfaction the rep on the phone tried to twice get me to sign up for promotional offers. Our schedule departure date was Thursday May 24th. On Wednesday night at 11pm we received a call that our flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Nassau had been cancelled due to mechanical problems the next day. The next available flight out was Saturday. After voicing my displeasure I requested that they find another airline to get us down to Nassau on. Another one of there joyful and customer services policies came into play at this point. They don't help with booking other airlines regardless of the situation. To throw some humor on top of this situation they did offer us each a $50 voucher after cancelling our flight but only with the restrictions of "must be booked by July 6th and can only be used on base fares and not towards any fees or surcharges." Way to throw a little salt on the wound Spirit. My recommendation to anyone looking to find an airline to fly is to stay away from this one. While the fares look enticing the experience is not. Don't expect any flexibility, cleanliness, or cost savings. Pay the extra money upfront because if you don't you will pay in the end and may not even make it to your desired destination. This was certainly not the once in a lifetime experience we were expecting and hope that no one else will make the same mistake we did.
So he e-mailed to cancel the membership. The message he got back was "Your recent incident update was from an email address not associated with the incident. In an effort to maintain the security of information, we cannot update the incident using this email address. If you are the incident owner and your email address has changed, or you want to be able to update the incident using this email account, please update your contact information using the following link, then resubmit your update."
They want MORE information from us just to get out of their system. No freakin' way!!
Next time I'm in the airport I'm going to follow their pitch for their Mastercard (which we didn't fall for, thankfully) by reading pages 3 and 4 of the agreement - which they conveniently don't have on their clipboards OUT LOUD. That's the part that details the 30% interest charges and the $60 annual fee even if you never use the card. Oh, and that's in exchange for 6 "free tickets" to the Caribbean after a "qualified purchase." HA! Wait til they try to shut this Grandma up.
Regarding their pricing and up-charges for checked baggage, carry-on baggage, etc., the customer will ultimately decide if they want to play by Spirit's rules. That said, just being a low cost carrier will not be a good long term strategy. There are some customers that will buy just on price. However, many of them want and expect good service. And, when they don't get it, the customer will find another airline that gives them competitive pricing and much better service. Can you say, "Southwest." (I knew you could!)
Yes, his policy does a service to those who fly like I might use a car or bike (just ship your luggage ahead), but mishandling what doesn't have to become a high visibility issue can cost you 100x what you profit. I wonder how many cases like this get handled "off the radar" and save everybody some lost expense.
----------------------------------------------
or said another way ... there is a difference between what you 'can' do ... and what you 'should' do.
I will not be using Spirit again after this trip and (as a travel agent) I certainly won't be recommending it to any of my clients. They just feel very slimy to me. Travel should be FUN, you shouldn't have to be watching your back every second and that's exactly how dealing with Spirit has made me feel.
You are absolutely right that there are some people who travel with nothing more than the allowed "personal" item (i.e. handbag or briefcase). However, as a frequent flier (and I think other regular travelers would agree), they are a very small minority. Basically you're talking about business people taking same-day trips, and within that group, women who manage to carry both their personal items and business items in one bag (very atypical). It also means that business people traveling together can't necessarily sit together (which is often important on the way to a meeting), unless they pay for assigned seats.
And even in those rare instances that you refer to, it can be difficult to avoid surcharges. If you look at the "booking-related" fees section of the company site, for example, you'll see that even the most disciplined saver has to work pretty hard to avoid any add-ons. Something as simple as needing to print your boarding pass at the kiosk dings you a couple of bucks.
So my point was not at all that it's *impossible* to get the rock-bottom published fare, but I think it is very much the exception and not the rule; kind of like the weight loss ads that show extraordinary results with the tiny caveat "results not typical." While the people shown may be real customers -- just like the one-bag traveler -- the vast, vast majority of buyers will not have the same experience. And therefore, to me, it's questionable practice to make such claims the core of your advertising.
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.