One of my favorite Southern expressions has to be “Bless your heart…” For those who aren’t familiar with the linguistic convention: That simple phrase, typically uttered by a Southern female (Southern as in the South of the United States), frequently substitutes for an insult of the person’s intelligence. For example:
“Bless her heart, she bought tickets on Spirit Airlines…”
Bless all of your collective hearts, Spirit Airlines customers, as your airline of choice has been shut down from Saturday through Tuesday, thanks to a walk-off by the pilots, who are protesting low wages and work rules.
A few thoughts on this latest chapter in the Spirit saga:
- Interline? What interline?
Spirit Airlines doesn’t have any interline agreements, which effectively means that another airline won’t offer to transport you on a Spirit ticket. If you’ve got a Spirit ticket, you can get credit for the unflown amount, plus some customer service credit. But that’s it. Spirit won’t cover the cost of buying another ticket on a separate airline, and you’re not getting a refund (at least not without paying a $100 change fee.) - No room at the inn… or on the plane
Other airlines haven’t made any efforts to add flights or do anything extraordinary to win over Spirit passengers. Maybe that’s because there aren’t many of them: Spirit accounts for less than 1% of all domestic airline traffic, so it’s a small blip on the overall radar. But it’s also because planes are full, and there isn’t much leeway to add flights or passengers. Spirit Airlines customers are in for a tough run, and will need to get creative with routings. - Shocked, shocked!
Pilots have been telegraphing this strike for some time, so it’s not exactly news — though who besides the travel-obsessed would have noticed? The threat of the strike was blogged here in May. This is the culmination of a long-simmering battle. - Shocked, shocked! (part deux): Lousy communication
But the airline’s communication with its customers has been rock-bottom shabby. They told customers they would fly, and would find replacement aircraft. They didn’t. Carl Unger runs it down, and he’s absolutely right on. This is lousy customer service. And that’s not a surprise. - What did you really expect?
Anyone who has watched this company isn’t taken aback by this. The airline has a long track record of being gimmicky to lure in customers, but doing everything to squeeze money from the customer post-purchase and being absolutely horrendous when anything goes wrong and customer service — or even politeness — is required.
So for those who were educated consumers and avoided Spirit to begin with, congratulations. Your comeuppance is at hand. Try not to gloat too much, because not everyone is as informed as you.
For those who had Spirit tickets and are stuck in the midst of a trip, good luck getting home. For those who will need to rebook a trip, good luck getting a good price. And bless your hearts.
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June 14th, 2010 at 6:08 pm
You write, “you’re not getting a refund (at least not without paying a $100 change fee.)”
Point me to somewhere that shows customers aren’t getting refunds on unflown tickets when the carrier fails to operate? I can’t imagine that’s the case.
June 14th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Gary, how about Spirit’s own website and its strike-related info page:
http://marketing.spiritair.com/strikeupdate.html
Credits — not refunds — are also referenced in the press release:
Edit (I clicked submit too hastily): The $100 fee applies to flight changes beyond Wednesday, the 16th. The airline is not charging a fee for flights changed before that date.
June 15th, 2010 at 5:26 am
Spirit can offer flight credits all day long, and folks who don’t know better may accept those credits, but anyone who pushes for a refund will get one. (Agree that folks shouldn’t have to push.)
June 15th, 2010 at 11:23 am
Reasonable expectations would be that the average passenger should be able to obtain a refund without having to press a CSR for one (especially in these circumstances). According to CNN this morning, “Passengers who opt for a full refund may call 1-800-772-7117″ but no notes about fees are mentioned. In a carefully crafted marketing spin, it seems that the release about the credit towards future travel (but very little to nothing about refunds) is designed to encourage Spirit’s unfortunate fliers to think about a future flight with them. It seems a bit outrageous that they can try to pass that off as an opportunity to sell seats down the road.
June 15th, 2010 at 11:51 am
Spirit was initially denying refunds. Now they are granting them, but only to those who ask. From their website:
“Customers who prefer a full refund instead may call 1 (800) 772-7117 for assistance.”
June 15th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Die, Spirit Airlines. Die! A company this contemptuous of its customers does not deserve to exist.
I only flew Spirit once and they made me this bitter about them. I can’t imagine how they get repeat business, and if so, how those customers must feel (bless their hearts).
June 21st, 2010 at 10:27 pm
[...] only because their strike is on hold for the time being. If you were a passenger during the strike, it sucked. And if, at this point, you decide that you’re willing to be a Spirit customer in the future, [...]
July 6th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Stranded by the strike at 6 am in Detroit,
with an 11:30 am appointment in NYC,
I had to spend $700.00 for the last seat on Delta
in order to make my appointment.
The woman at the counter was unnecessarily rude and dismissive
since I was the only customer there.
Spirit’s travel credit–not refund–of $277.55
even with a $100.00 travel voucher,
doesn’t begin to cover the cost of the replacement ticket.
Apparently there was an offer of 20,000 miles of credit on their website as an inducement to purchase further tix.
I wasn’t aware of this offer, however, even though I had been in email correspondence with their rep during this time, trying to get some compensation. Why wouldn’t the rep mention this offer?
The offer has now expired, and Spirit refuses to make it available to me.
Lots of apologies.
I’m not sure what good can come of abusing customers,
but it’s obvious that Spirit doesn’t need our business.