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I've flown on Spirit twice, as a side effect of living in Miami. The last time I did they canceled my flight overnight at 2:30am and forced me to rebook my ~$300 flight at twice the cost -- and it was leaving the same airport at the same time to the same destination. And it was a miracle that I woke up to the email alert and was able to rebook my flight before it sold out anyway.
And of course such a thing could have happen only with Spirit, right? Could not be any other airline. Like United would never cancel a flight without an ample notice and helpful customer success agents rebooking you trip hassle free.
It does seem like post-Covid all of the airlines are racing to the bottom for quality.
I've had canceled flights before but no other airline has ever forced me to rebook effectively the same flight at double the rate and wait the 8-10 days for the refund on my original flight to my credit card. Back when I was a brokie (you know, Spirit's main customer base) that kind of shit would have been trip-ending.
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I've flown on Spirit twice, as a side effect of living in Miami. The last time I did they canceled my flight overnight at 2:30am and forced me to rebook my ~$300 flight at twice the cost -- and it was leaving the same airport at the same time to the same destination. And it was a miracle that I woke up to the email alert and was able to rebook my flight before it sold out anyway.
And of course such a thing could have happen only with Spirit, right? Could not be any other airline. Like United would never cancel a flight without an ample notice and helpful customer success agents rebooking you trip hassle free.
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Yes. But this is super transparent on their site. You can get super cheap flights if you don’t care about checking bags, in-flight sodas, and so on.
To add credence to that statement… LAX to LAS is a $20 flight one-way through spirit. It’s cheaper to fly a family of four than drive. It’s wild how cheap spirit becomes on certain routes, especially short hops where you can trivially get away with nothing extra
I am personally happy with this decision. I don’t love flying spirit but I respect them, ever since hearing their former CEO speak on a Planet Money podcast. He said straight up that Spirit Airlines is aiming to be the Dollar General of the skies. If you want something luxurious, go elsewhere. But he called out the other airlines who pretend like they are the Nordstrom of the skies, but don’t actually live up to that…
But without this deal they will go bankrupt and then there will be no Dollar General of the skies and the customer loses. Maybe allowing private markets to work would have been a good idea?
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So it's a bad ruling because previous administrations didn't try to enforce anti monopoly laws? Why not view it as, this is a good start and hoping it continues to prevent even more consolidation and monopoly in airlines and other industries? The notion that there has to be more consolidation to compete is only good for the companies monopolizing - not the consumer. Why should we be helping them make more profit by a…
It’s bad because the government is artificially manipulating market forces and prevents price discovery. Imagine you’re thinking of starting a small airline, like a Jetblue or Spirit, but investors know that if the business ever plans to exit through an acquisition, the government will intervene. Well, as an investor I’d be a lot less likely to invest. As a result, you stifle the free market and prevent the emergence…
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While true, it is equivalent to shareholders in that they get wiped out.
I don't feel sorry for shareholders here. There are risks with all investments and its not as if Spirit mislead investors or acted fraudulently. Sometimes, investments go bad, thats the risk. We shouldn't prioritize shareholders over the general health of a marketplace
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To add credence to that statement… LAX to LAS is a $20 flight one-way through spirit. It’s cheaper to fly a family of four than drive. It’s wild how cheap spirit becomes on certain routes, especially short hops where you can trivially get away with nothing extra
For Spirit, a carry-on is considered an extra. That's an extra $35 right there, which brings it pretty much inline with Southwest's pricing.
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But without this deal they will go bankrupt and then there will be no Dollar General of the skies and the customer loses. Maybe allowing private markets to work would have been a good idea?
Sounds like spirit is not a sustainable business and that is an issue unrelated to the merger. Unsustainable businesses fail, so let them fail
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I've flown on Spirit twice, as a side effect of living in Miami. The last time I did they canceled my flight overnight at 2:30am and forced me to rebook my ~$300 flight at twice the cost -- and it was leaving the same airport at the same time to the same destination. And it was a miracle that I woke up to the email alert and was able to rebook my flight before it sold out anyway.
And of course such a thing could have happen only with Spirit, right? Could not be any other airline. Like United would never cancel a flight without an ample notice and helpful customer success agents rebooking you trip hassle free.
I've never felt jerked around with any of the majors when it came to rebooking travel. They can't conjure up an empty seat that doesn't exist, but I've also never been required to pay a higher fare for them to take me on the itinerary that I originally booked.
Delta in particular I think is quite good at recovery from irregular ops (at least for their higher tier frequent fliers), but on the few instances with other carriers, I expect (and have received) decent and fee-free service when the airline cancelled a flight or missed a connection due to airline fault. I fully expect to have a crappy experience on Spirit whether or not they cancel the original flight.