Consumer victory: Spirit reverses its “web convenience fee”

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Air travelers have been taking a number of hits lately, but one of the most egregious was Spirit’s recent “web convenience fee,” whereby they charged an extra $10 for booking a roundtrip ticket online.

“Was”? Yes, “was.” They killed it. Sean O’Neill of Budget Travel pinged me to let me know that the newly updated Spirit contract of carriage no longer includes the fee. He posted about it earlier today.

And sure enough, the fee is gone. I walked through their site as if buying a ticket, and poof! It’s disappeared. Thank goodness. Let’s hope it doesn’t rise from the dead again.

Now, do those who paid the web convenience fee over the last week get their money back?… Don’t hold your breath.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 8:10 pm and is filed under Spirit Airlines. You can subscribe to the comments left on this individual post through this RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Consumer victory: Spirit reverses its “web convenience fee””

Artie says:
July 24th, 2008 at 7:41 am |
If I am not mistaken, doesn’t Allegiant also charge a web convenience fee? I remember having to pay $7.50 or something like that, per way, for their “convenience” fee to book online.

I think you should also push them to drop that fee…because while there was ZERO chance I would ever fly Spirit, I do enjoy taking Allegiant to Vegas every now and again from my small town!
Seth says:
July 25th, 2008 at 9:22 pm |
Allegiant’s web site indicates that they will charge for an online booking:

A convenience fee of $11.50 per traveling customer will be applied when booked on allegiantair.com or through an Allegiant Air call center. Travel purchased through Allegiant Air call centers will cost an additional $10.00 per segment.

and also

For the convenience of using any of Allegiant Air’s booking services (inclusive of call center) there is a fee of $11.50 per traveling customer. Purchases made at any of Allegiant Air’s Airport Ticket Offices will not incur a Convenience Fee of $11.50 per customer. All fares are subject to change until confirmed and purchased.

They do allow for no-fee booking at the airports, so I guess that gets them past the FTC, though the online booking fee can’t be seen as anything more than a cash grab from any reasonable point of view.

Just another reason to not fly those carriers…

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