There’s a good profile of Spirit Airlines CEO Ben Baldanza in yesterday’s New York Times, and it’s worth reading to get a sense of the mindset behind one of the most successful airlines in the US.

The problem with Spirit is not that it is cheap. It’s not even that it takes a hard line with its policies (sure, a little compassion would be nice… but it’s fine to be consistent). It’s also not even a problem when the airline says its only obligation is to get you from point A to point B safely.

There are three problems with Spirit.

First, the company has been using deceptive practices to get consumers to buy their stuff. There’s the fare club that customers automatically (and often unwittingly) signed up for. Another example:

[C]ustomers have unprintable things to say about the way Spirit charges for seat assignments and checked bags. To wit: your credit card is charged for your ticket, and only then are you asked if you’d like to spend more to pick a seat and check a bag. If yes, your card is charged again.

Second, the airline leaves you hanging when it cancels a flight. If the next available flight isn’t for another few days, that’s your tough luck. That’s not adequately clear when you go to buy a ticket from the airline.

Finally, a problem with the airline is that its ideas have caught on among its competitors. That’s not their fault, or even their own exclusive province — Ryanair, anyone? But Spirit’s competitors have been taking pages from their playbook and making their fees and practices commonplace.

Each of the (many) complaints I hear about Spirit Airlines mirrors one of these issues. But when it comes to their CEO, the complaints obviously fall on deaf ears.

Baldanza, a board game enthusiast with a whopping 1700 games in his collection, seems to think that every fee and every bilking of the customer is just part of a game. He even posted a list of board games that approximate the talents and skills of running your own airline.

Games, I can appreciate. But not when the rules aren’t fair. If Ben Baldanza wants to spend an evening playing Settlers of Catan, Power Grid, or Agricola, while discussing the ethics of his airline’s “gotcha” sales methods, he should consider himself invited to come on over to U:TB headquarters. I won’t even charge him for a beverage.

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