Is Spirit Airlines’ new club worth joining?
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This past weekend, I was a guest on Peter Greenberg’s radio show, talking about Spirit Airlines and their new luggage fees. (Shameless self-promotion alert!)
During the segment, Peter had his producer fire up the Spirit website to see how low their fares went. The answer: $9.
But there was a catch: She found a $9 fare, but only if you joined their “$9 Fare Club.” I had noticed this on their site Friday afternoon, but didn’t think anything of it, really, not realizing at the time that this members-only savings society was anything new. Since then, it has hit the news and blogosphere as something newsworthy.
I’m predictably skeptical. For starters, I’m not a fan of the new Spirit fare structure, so paying a membership fee to maybe — just maybe — have access to limited-availability ultra-low fares doesn’t seem like a good way to spend your cash.
That said, for now the club is relatively cheap to join. A 3-month trial is $9. Thereafter, it’s still pretty cheap, honestly, at $29.95 per year. If (and only if) that really gets you access to ludicrously cheap fares year-round, then it may be worth it. But I have my doubts. Besides, Spirit doesn’t shy away from sales with cutesy names.
I’d wait for the sale.
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March 14th, 2007 at 9:41 am |
Does air travel really have to be this complicated? I have never flown Spirit, and with all they have announced last week and with this new club, I don’t plan on booking with them.
mp/m
March 15th, 2007 at 2:55 pm |
Amen to that, Mike.
June 13th, 2007 at 8:22 am |
[…] “Is Spirit Airlines New Club Worth Joining?” Upgrade: Travel Better - March 14, 2007 […]
July 21st, 2007 at 8:18 am |
Please cancel my $9 club membership! I want a credit on my recent Discover bill where I was charged for $29.95 on July 11. I had no idea I was in a club and do not use your services nor do I plan to. Thank you. Patricia **** (name, address, etc., redacted)
July 22nd, 2007 at 9:22 am |
Dear Patricia,
Your request to get out of the Spirit $9 club is a fair one, but why are you e-mailing me about it? You sent it to a travel blog, not to the airline itself. This isn’t the Spirit Airlines website.
You should contact Spirit Airlines directly. Try this phone number for starters: 800-772-7117
Feel free to let me know if there are any problems getting credit. You’re not alone — several other people have complained about club memberships, and others have written to me, asking for information about their accounts.
Also, I removed all your personally-identifiable information from the comment. We don’t want that stuff out there for the world to see.
Good luck getting the refund.
July 30th, 2007 at 9:02 am |
[…] consider subscribing to the latest posts via RSS or e-mail. Thanks for visiting!Back in March, I posted about Spirit Airlines’ $9 fare club, which charges a $29.95 annual fee to provide members […]
August 1st, 2007 at 7:44 am |
Recently went up on line to check baggage (1 bag) I’m on a mac computer. After checking off my 1 bag I was not getting a confirmation of the transaction. So I continued to re enter my info. A few days later I received an alert from my credit card company of numerous credit entries. Needless to say I had 11 $5.00 charges from Spirit air. That was on the 18th of July and have called spirit air 12 times so far and cannot get through. Thier web site does not give you any other way of contacting them. Is anyone aware of another means of contacting them?
August 1st, 2007 at 6:34 pm |
Well, you could call your credit card and dispute the charges.
But first, you might try filing a request online:
http://spiritair.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/spiritair.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php
Here are Spirit’s contact numbers:
English: 800-772-7117
Espanol: 800-756-7117
Direct: 586-791-7300
In the Dominican Republic, please call 888-751-2275 to book reservations.
Good luck! And please report back with your results.
September 7th, 2007 at 4:16 pm |
I just joined the $9 club on Spirit Airlines because we always get good deals when we fly with them anyway and I figured we could save even more. Well, today I get the first club savings email and I can’t get those prices. I keep trying and don’t know if I’m logged in right and than I notice the date the sale is good for. It was for yesterday through tonight but I got it almost 24 hours after the sale was on. The cheap deals are probably already sold out. I called to complain because I feel it’s false advertisement and they are actually stealing my money if they aren’t going to send me the deals when they go on sale so I have a fair chance. The customer service rep said the manager was in a meeting, which almost always is the case when you need one and I couldn’t even understand him because he could hardly speak English. Nice. I may have to cancel the membership but will see if the manager calls me back about my complaint. I’m sure she will when the sale is for sure over! Isn’t that the American way! I’m not sure yet if this $9 club is worth is but so far, it’s not.
September 19th, 2007 at 4:58 pm |
Finally received credit on charges for baggage. Going thru their customer web site was the only way it got resolved.
September 19th, 2007 at 7:33 pm |
Thanks for the update! Glad you were able to get the luggage fee refunded.
December 1st, 2007 at 10:46 am |
I had posted a comment earlier about not getting the $9 club prices until 24 hours after they starte the sale. I never did hear back from the manager and the reason I couldn’t understand the costumer service rep is because Spirit outsources now and the Costumer service is in the Phillipines. Nice! THat is also the “American Way”. Since that sale, every sale I get anymore is over and gone before I even get it in my inbox. I’ve called to complain and have spoke to many in the Phillipines that don’t even understand how to handle the problem, including their “supervisors”. They will not transfer you to America for assistance, even when they can’t help. They gave me one number that wasn’t even legit to try and than phone numbers for the Spirit credit cards and said they could help me. The credit card company would give me another number and so on. The funniest part of it all is that after about 9 calls, including one to the office in West Palm Beach and they gave me the number for Detoit control tower!!!! That was wierd. That man than forwarded me to a number there that could help me and than when I pressed what my need was and figured I would finally get an actual person, I was given the stupid automated center that gave me the 1- 800 number for Spirit back in the Phillipines. I screamed and than hung up I cancelled my $9 club and refuse to fly on Spirit. We have always flown Spirit or Northwest or Delta because of great prices but we will start something new and drive to Michigan from now on. Customer Service is everything and Spirit needs to bring the work back here and start providing good service.
December 3rd, 2007 at 10:27 pm |
[…] to Democrats: Drop Dead - Downgrades: Spirit Airlines to charge for ALL luggage, coffee, and soda - Is Spirit Airlines’ new club worth joining? - Spirit Airlines’ CEO flips his customers the bird SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Spirit Airlines […]
December 31st, 2007 at 3:41 pm |
I have had issues on all airlines in the US. It is the price of deregulation; capitalism’s ugly side. Gone are the days of meals, service, drinks and legroom. Now it’s sardines in a plane instead if a can.
January 2nd, 2008 at 9:10 am |
Hi Julie,
I wonder where you are from but I couldn’t resist replying to your email because you mentioned you couldn’t understand costumer service rep from the Philippines.
Well, after reading your comment for the second time I now understood why you couldn’t understand the “costumer” service rep. That is because you cannot spell correctly! It should be CUSTOMER.
And btw, your grammar is awful. I wonder maybe it’s the other way around, meaning, maybe the CUSTOMER REP couldn’t understand when you speak.
Last time I checked Call Centers are booming in the Philippines which only shows how well they speak English. I’m sure a grade 1 student from the Philippines can spell better and create grammatically correct sentences than you.
January 3rd, 2008 at 10:46 pm |
Sorry, but I have to agree with Julie. I have called Spirit several times to complain about their “Travel Insurance” when you buy your ticket. I could hardly understand any of the reps. I used to fly Spirit all the time because they were a lower price, reliable airline. I will never fly them again. I flew from O’Hare to Fort Meyers and had a horrible experience with them. For starters, when you purchase a ticket online there is a check-box for travel insurance that is automatically checked yes. When you try to get a refund (even before the flight), no one at the customer service phone number has no idea what to do. I finally just wrote them a letter, though I doubt I will get a response. At O’Hare, there are no automatic kiosks so every person needs to actually be checked in by an agent. Normally I prefer this, however Spirit had 2 people working to check in hundreds of travelers. It took 1.5 hours to check in. On the plane itself, I swear they added 2 extra rows of seats because that is the least amount of legroom I have ever had on a flight. The worst part is the nickel and dime hijinks. They charge $10/bag, automatically enroll you in a yearly recurring cost club unless you notice to uncheck the box, they have NO customer service, they even charge $2 for a can of soda on the plane. Also, we brought our dog on the plane. She is small enough to fit under the seat in front of us, yet they charge $75 (EACH WAY!). They have no extra time or cost involved in me carrying on my own bag, I still do not understand this one. I WILL NEVER FLY SPIRIT AIRLINES AGAIN!!!
January 24th, 2008 at 12:51 am |
I also had a horrible time with every single call to Spirit. They do NOT speak english well and they do NOT know how to help you when a problem arises. Heck, I had trouble with them confirming flights, the rep got it wrong and I was only able to get help after 3 calls.
Their english speaking employees have problems also.
At my departing airport the ticket agent checked my tickets then told me I had the wrong date on my (confirmed) ticket and forced me to buy a new one right then for a flight that had been planned for months.
I looked more closely at the ticket and saw that he could not understand the numbers. He misread their typeface and couldn’t tell the difference between a 3 and an 8. He then gave me a huge fight when I pointed out the error and asked for a refund on the new ticket he made me buy.
Most of the time you cannot even speak with them on the phone. I was stuck in Disneyworld with return ticket problems and had to spend most of the day on the phone while standing in lines. Their website was down or else I would have taken that route.
So attacking the spelling ablility of someone who has a valid complaint is childish. Whatever substandard outsourcing company Spirit contracted with has very low standards for employees.
January 25th, 2008 at 11:09 am |
Balot, I really couldn’t resist responding to your email to me as you missed the entire point of my email in trying to draw attention to a misspelled word vs. discussing obvious flaws and problems with Spirit Airlines customer care. When did your supposed superior intelligence by catching a word spelled incorrectly, turn to disrespect that had nothing to do with the entire message? I apologize for my spelling error of customer but you fogot to mention that I also forgot my “d” at the end of started as well. I will surmise from your email that you must be from the Phillipines, or an angry Spirit worker?! (perhaps an owner of your own outsourced business or just another uninformed American)
First of all, Spirit outsources their call center to the Phillipines because it’s cheap, NOT because they are truly great at their jobs OR speak english well! That is a joke! They are outsourcing just like all the other big names that are doing it.(Target does it too, but they will transfer you to the US when asked). I would like to know who, other than balot, checks to see how the customer call center boom in the Phillipines is going on a regular basis?(or ever)
Do I think it’s wrong? Absolutely! If we aren’t getting the quality of customer service where the work is being outsourced to, why outsource in the first place?
Another example would be that it is extremely difficult and sometimes impossible to find things made in the USA anymore. Do you watch the news and see all the recalls out there? I have 3 children and guess how many toys they got for Christmas that were actually toys? 1! I do not trust what is brought into our country anymore or from other places that are “cheaper” to have things made. We are a greedy nation as far as coming up with inventions, toys, clothes and so on, and than selling out American citizens in the process and giving jobs that should be here to places like the Phillipines, China and any other slave labor country out there. After getting their cheap labor, the companies who did the outsourcing do not keep up on quality control, even at the risk of upset customers or to the other extreme, death or sickness of our children.
You obviously missed the entire point in my email to attempt to belittle me in yours, balot, so let me rephrase my comment so you may be able to understand it better. Spirit Airlines customer service center in the Phillipines provides below average customer service at best and my calls to their center proves that. Years ago, and we have flown often, when they used to have call centers with U.S. employees behind the phones, I never had a problem correcting a situation or primarily making changes to our tickets. They knew what to do and fixed it. If, and when, you finally get through to the center in the Phillipines, they truly don’t know enough about the company, procedures and what to do in different situations that arise. They do not speak english well enough to provide an outstanding and excellent customer service experience that most USA companies strive for.
If you find this to be false,(balot) I believe you truly are working for Spirit or you’ve never actually had a problem and called the customer care number for assistance. I’m starting to wonder where you live?
FYI, last time we flew on Spirit, I made a comment about the call center in the Phillipines to the ladies behind the ticket counter. We paid for our luggage ahead of time and it only charged us one way so we ended up paying more for our bags and they both said simultaneously, “Oh, no. Don’t call them. They won’t be able to help you.” They proceeded to tell me how I needed to handle it but we never did because it was just one more hassle to deal with on our trip. They said that we have to send in complaints to the company about these things or they will never be changed as long as the airline is making money.
Thank you JP and Allieloopy for sharing your own experiences of what fine Customer care Spirit has and for excusing my spelling errors.
Concerning flying with your dog. We used to fly with our dog who will not fit under the seat. Spirit used to charge us $30 each way to put her in cargo that was temperature controlled and pressurized but they no longer provide this service. Most of the other airlines won’t either. The airlines that we fly currently make you pay to keep your dog under the seat also. Another money maker. Northwest charges about $400 round trip to put our dog in cargo. That’s more than what we pay for our own tickets when we fly! Very unreasonable and fortunately we have a great family that watches her for us when we fly now. That has made traveling so much easier for us. A real blessing.
January 26th, 2008 at 9:20 am |
I was charged $29.95 twice. The $9 Club website has no phone number, or contact email address. I’m going to try calling the 800-772-7117, but guess this won’t be easy. I’ll probably drop this membership, I don’t like charges like this just “showing up” without authorization.
January 26th, 2008 at 12:00 pm |
John,
You should probably drop the club but also contact your credit card company and dispute the charge. I know something similar happened to us once and we disputed the charges after calling our credit card company and than we sent a letter in writing upon their request. We ended up getting our money back.
February 20th, 2008 at 1:52 pm |
How do you know if you are logged on to get the $9 fare? I booked tickets this morning just like they informed me to on the e-mail and now it is showing that i owe the full amount? Customer service line is busy and nothing pisses me off more than bad service!!
February 28th, 2008 at 8:49 pm |
Believe me, they don’t need your booking! Their flights are always full!
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:47 pm |
I am furious at Spirit Airlines .
I bought a RT ticket for $317 in January 2008 for a flight in April. This included a return fare with a higher price due to a feature: “A Big Front Seat” (we didn’t care, but that was all that was left that day.)
The airfare just dropped today to $222 ($95 less)… for the regular sized seat.
I decided that the $60 online change fee was warranted, since I would net approx $35. I wouldn’t do it otherwise.
I entered the change online, but when the final total came up- it was $264.
I called their 800 number.
The rep said the low price has gone up already.
I went online again while we were talking; it was still there. I asked him to check and he verified that the $222. fare was still available.
I told him I was in the middle of processing a change, but did not want to complete it till he could tell me why the lower fare wasn’t coming up.
He stuck to that higher price being the only one available when changing, and offered to do the change for me for $70- which is their correct change fee when not going online.
I said I will pay $70 change fee but only if I can get that $222 price.He said he couldn’t do that.
I asked for a supervisor.
I was put on Hold.
I stayed on hold 45 minutes.(thankfully on an 800 line and with a speaker phone!)
I hung up and tried again; same run-around, no reason.
Offered to put me through to a supervisor.
After another 20 minutes on hold, I hung up again.
The next person I spoke to gave me their direct Customer Service line. I tried that and when I pressed 3 for Customer Relations, it was busy for 5 hours.
I tried every Voice Mail option- no one answers there. I left two messages; none returned.
I finally called their direct line in Miramar Florida- nearby, and same voice mail choices.
I decided to try different extensions and finally got a human being.
I explained my concern. This person said “that’s the rules” .
I said “what rules, where?”
She said in the Terms and Conditions; I told her I was looking at the Terms, and there was nothing there to describe why a price that is available is not available when you Change online.
She said “That’s the rules, the price is different; I can’t help you.”
She said she was a manager and I could go no higher.
I flew Spirit a few times when they first started out; they were Ok, and a good value back then.
Two months agao I was warned by a friend who used to fly SPirit 10 times a year for business. He warned us not to use them anymore.
Now I know why.
March 7th, 2008 at 4:25 pm |
it is definitely not worth it. it’s very complicated and there are very few flights and if there are any, they are full. unless you travel every other day and have lots of time and very flexible life, i wouldn’t recommend this at all.
southwest is the best
April 15th, 2008 at 10:48 am |
HOW DO I CANCEL MY MEMBERSHIP?
April 15th, 2008 at 11:16 am |
To cancel your membership, follow the instructions here:
http://www.upgradetravelbetter.com/2007/07/30/this-is-not-the-spirit-airlines-website-and-i-cant-cancel-your-club-membership-so-why-are-people-asking-me-for-refunds/
May 1st, 2008 at 10:24 am |
Spirt air Lines, is a good air line no problems with my flight from Forth Lauderdale to Agudilla P.R