Facts about the country's cheapest and most complained-about airline.
Yes, Spirit Airlines can be, for some, the cheapest way to travel from point A to point B. To others it's a nightmare organization that has ruined vacations, destroyed business travel plans, taken money without offering agreed upon services and shocked unsuspecting travelers with hidden fees and questionably-ethical policies. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Spirit Airlines has seven times more official complaints against them than any other airline operating in the United States. Even the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation has recently warned travelers that Spirit Airlines doesn't care about its customers.
Spirit Airlines fans have learned how to travel within Spirit Airlines rules, and because of the perceived savings, they are happy to live with whatever inconveniences and indignities they are exposed to. If you are in this group, you will find yourself traveling at incredibly low prices, congratulations! But if you've never flown on Spirit before, and you're considering booking a flight, here is what you need to know:
Spirit Airlines extra baggage charges:
Here is an article by the Los Angeles Times investigating Spirit's many extra unadvertised fees. Here are the specifics, at a glance:
- Spirit charges $18-$43 for your first checked bag, per flight, depending on how and where you "purchase" the right to bring a bag. Additional bags can cost up to $100 per bag, per flight. The maximum weight for bags on Spirit is 40 pounds before you start incurring yet more charges. You will find these charges clearly stated on the Spirit Airlines site.
- Spirit charges $20-$45 per carry-on bag. You will find a full explanation of these carry-on bag charges on the Spirit Airlines site as well. (These prices will be going up $5 per bag, per flight as of November 6, 2012.)
Spirit Airlines check-in surprises:
- Most people find the Spirit website hard to use for check-in or completely unavailable. When the site is working, you will find it costs an extra $12 to reserve a
seat online.
- If you don’t reserve your seat online, you will often find yourself in a middle seat toward the rear of the plane when you get to the airport. If you’re traveling with someone and you didn't pay the $12 per reservation to reserve seats online in advance, there is no assurance you will be sitting together.
This means if a couple takes a round-trip flight, checks in online to reserve their seats, then each checks one bag and brings one carry-on bag, they’ll be adding an additional $160 to their travel costs, and that’s if they pay for their bags before the day of their flight AND they’re part of Spirit’s Fare Club. If they're not part of Spirit's Fare Club and they wait until they get to the airport to pay the extra bag charges, they could end up being confronted with an additional $400 in Spirit charges for the entire trip. And if they are traveling after November 6, 2012, it will cost even more than that.
Additionally, Spirit's new charge to print boarding passes at the airport adds $5 per traveler per trip. So a couple on a round trip will add yet another $20 to the original price of their airfare. While travelers can avoid these charges by checking in online before traveling, often travelers find the Spirit site is less than completely functional. CNN offers more on the new charges.
In all fairness to Spirit Airlines, despite persistent rumors, there are currently NO plans to charge travelers to use the bathroom on a flight.
San Diego's CBS affiliate does some investigating to discover how much a "$9 trip" from San Diego to Las Vegas trip really costs (hint: it's a LOT more than $9):
Spirit Airlines and “bumping” travelers:
Spirit Airlines, unlike all major airlines in the U.S., does not have a sister airline onto which they can move bumped travelers. This means that if you are bumped from a flight, you may not be flying to your destination on that day, or for several days, depending on the availability of seats on upcoming Spirit Airlines flights.
If you find yourself stranded in a city for extra nights, Spirit Airlines does not reimburse travelers for extra hotel nights, rental car or meals. See Spirit Airlines Contract of Carriage for more. You can download a PDF from their site.
Spirit Airlines service, or lack thereof:
The stories of terrible Spirit Airlines customer service are legendary, and they’re all over the internet. There are far too many to list here, but one of our favorite stories is of Spirit CEO Ben Baldanza responding internally via email about a complaint from an unhappy Spirit customer who wanted a refund. Baldanza’s thoughts on his customer:
"We owe him nothing as far as I'm concerned. Let him tell the world how bad we are. He's never flown us before anyway and will be back when we save him a penny."
The only problem is that Baldanza’s attitude toward his customers was broadcast publicly when he hit “Reply All” which included the customer in question, who then shared the email with the media. Baldanza’s attitude toward customers is illustrated at every level of the organization. Find more about this story here.
Here, Al Lewis of the Denver Post recounts just a few of the complaints against Spirit, from its employees to its customers to the Department of Transportation.
Here's a sad story originally written up in the Chicago Tribune illustrating how the inner-city teen choir at Alsip Church in Illinois was harmed by Spirit Airlines hidden fees. They raised about $25,000 to send 100 teens to Los Angeles on Spirit, and then they found out about the surprise baggage fees, which came out to an additional $6,000.
See a wide range of reviews of Spirit’s service on Yelp. Don't miss the experience filed by Michelle W. on October 11, 2009, in which a she was forced to sit in a vomit-soaked seat by a Spirit Airlines flight attendant.
Here are yet more reports directly from Spirit customers at ConsumerAffairs.com.
And here are yet more.
You'll find more happy stories like these all over the internet with a simple Google search.
The United States Department of Transportation vs Spirit Airlines:
In September 2009, the U.S. DOT slapped Spirit Airlines with a record $375,000 fine for violating consumer regulations citing, among other violations “unfair and
deceptive practices”:
“The Department’s Aviation Enforcement Office found that Spirit bumped passengers from oversold flights but did not provide compensation or a written notice of their rights to compensation, as required by DOT rules. The investigation also revealed that Spirit failed to resolve baggage claims within a reasonable period, on one occasion taking 14 months to provide compensation. Spirit also was found to violate DOT rules by providing compensation for delayed baggage only for the outbound leg of round-trip flights and only for purchases made more than 24 hours after arrival. In addition, Spirit violated baggage liability laws governing international travel by refusing to accept responsibility for missing laptop computers and certain other items it accepted as baggage.”
The violations go on. Click here to read more directly from the DOT's site.
Download the DOT’s original consent order against Spirit Airlines here.
Other Spirit Airlines inconveniences:
- Spirit Airlines freely admits they squeeze as many seats on each of their airplanes as is allowed by the Federal Aviation Administration. For example, on their Airbus A319, while most airlines feature 125 passenger seats, Spirit has 145. This means substantially less legroom than all other airlines offer.
- As is noted above in the DOT consent order, Spirit Airlines is still known for being remarkably uncareful with their passengers’ luggage. And even when compensation is compelled by DOT regulation, Spirit Airlines seldom offers that compensation easily or quickly.
- Unlike most major airlines, Spirit Airlines does not have extra planes on call in case one has mechanical problems. This means that a small problem with one plane can cause many hours of delay for every traveler who has booked a flight on that plane for the rest of the day.
- Spirit Airlines is remarkably poor at communicating flight delays and flight cancellations to their passengers, as is illustrated in this story.
More information on Spirit Airlines:
- Nightline’s story on Spirit Airlines, including their interview with CEO Ben Baldanza.
- The New York Times report on Spirit Airlines.
- The story of a woman who sued Spirit in small claims court … and won!
Know as much as you can before you make any travel purchases. Knowledge is power. We have cited independent sources to back every fact on this site, complete with links. You may hear paid representatives from Spirit Airlines make blanket statements that all claims made against them online are false, or that they have some special ownership of the "real facts." A smart traveler will ask that they bring independent sources to back what they say as well.
Happy travels!
Spirit Airlines fans have learned how to travel within Spirit Airlines rules, and because of the perceived savings, they are happy to live with whatever inconveniences and indignities they are exposed to. If you are in this group, you will find yourself traveling at incredibly low prices, congratulations! But if you've never flown on Spirit before, and you're considering booking a flight, here is what you need to know:
Spirit Airlines extra baggage charges:
Here is an article by the Los Angeles Times investigating Spirit's many extra unadvertised fees. Here are the specifics, at a glance:
- Spirit charges $18-$43 for your first checked bag, per flight, depending on how and where you "purchase" the right to bring a bag. Additional bags can cost up to $100 per bag, per flight. The maximum weight for bags on Spirit is 40 pounds before you start incurring yet more charges. You will find these charges clearly stated on the Spirit Airlines site.
- Spirit charges $20-$45 per carry-on bag. You will find a full explanation of these carry-on bag charges on the Spirit Airlines site as well. (These prices will be going up $5 per bag, per flight as of November 6, 2012.)
Spirit Airlines check-in surprises:
- Most people find the Spirit website hard to use for check-in or completely unavailable. When the site is working, you will find it costs an extra $12 to reserve a
seat online.
- If you don’t reserve your seat online, you will often find yourself in a middle seat toward the rear of the plane when you get to the airport. If you’re traveling with someone and you didn't pay the $12 per reservation to reserve seats online in advance, there is no assurance you will be sitting together.
This means if a couple takes a round-trip flight, checks in online to reserve their seats, then each checks one bag and brings one carry-on bag, they’ll be adding an additional $160 to their travel costs, and that’s if they pay for their bags before the day of their flight AND they’re part of Spirit’s Fare Club. If they're not part of Spirit's Fare Club and they wait until they get to the airport to pay the extra bag charges, they could end up being confronted with an additional $400 in Spirit charges for the entire trip. And if they are traveling after November 6, 2012, it will cost even more than that.
Additionally, Spirit's new charge to print boarding passes at the airport adds $5 per traveler per trip. So a couple on a round trip will add yet another $20 to the original price of their airfare. While travelers can avoid these charges by checking in online before traveling, often travelers find the Spirit site is less than completely functional. CNN offers more on the new charges.
In all fairness to Spirit Airlines, despite persistent rumors, there are currently NO plans to charge travelers to use the bathroom on a flight.
San Diego's CBS affiliate does some investigating to discover how much a "$9 trip" from San Diego to Las Vegas trip really costs (hint: it's a LOT more than $9):
Spirit Airlines and “bumping” travelers:
Spirit Airlines, unlike all major airlines in the U.S., does not have a sister airline onto which they can move bumped travelers. This means that if you are bumped from a flight, you may not be flying to your destination on that day, or for several days, depending on the availability of seats on upcoming Spirit Airlines flights.
If you find yourself stranded in a city for extra nights, Spirit Airlines does not reimburse travelers for extra hotel nights, rental car or meals. See Spirit Airlines Contract of Carriage for more. You can download a PDF from their site.
Spirit Airlines service, or lack thereof:
The stories of terrible Spirit Airlines customer service are legendary, and they’re all over the internet. There are far too many to list here, but one of our favorite stories is of Spirit CEO Ben Baldanza responding internally via email about a complaint from an unhappy Spirit customer who wanted a refund. Baldanza’s thoughts on his customer:
"We owe him nothing as far as I'm concerned. Let him tell the world how bad we are. He's never flown us before anyway and will be back when we save him a penny."
The only problem is that Baldanza’s attitude toward his customers was broadcast publicly when he hit “Reply All” which included the customer in question, who then shared the email with the media. Baldanza’s attitude toward customers is illustrated at every level of the organization. Find more about this story here.
Here, Al Lewis of the Denver Post recounts just a few of the complaints against Spirit, from its employees to its customers to the Department of Transportation.
Here's a sad story originally written up in the Chicago Tribune illustrating how the inner-city teen choir at Alsip Church in Illinois was harmed by Spirit Airlines hidden fees. They raised about $25,000 to send 100 teens to Los Angeles on Spirit, and then they found out about the surprise baggage fees, which came out to an additional $6,000.
See a wide range of reviews of Spirit’s service on Yelp. Don't miss the experience filed by Michelle W. on October 11, 2009, in which a she was forced to sit in a vomit-soaked seat by a Spirit Airlines flight attendant.
Here are yet more reports directly from Spirit customers at ConsumerAffairs.com.
And here are yet more.
You'll find more happy stories like these all over the internet with a simple Google search.
The United States Department of Transportation vs Spirit Airlines:
In September 2009, the U.S. DOT slapped Spirit Airlines with a record $375,000 fine for violating consumer regulations citing, among other violations “unfair and
deceptive practices”:
“The Department’s Aviation Enforcement Office found that Spirit bumped passengers from oversold flights but did not provide compensation or a written notice of their rights to compensation, as required by DOT rules. The investigation also revealed that Spirit failed to resolve baggage claims within a reasonable period, on one occasion taking 14 months to provide compensation. Spirit also was found to violate DOT rules by providing compensation for delayed baggage only for the outbound leg of round-trip flights and only for purchases made more than 24 hours after arrival. In addition, Spirit violated baggage liability laws governing international travel by refusing to accept responsibility for missing laptop computers and certain other items it accepted as baggage.”
The violations go on. Click here to read more directly from the DOT's site.
Download the DOT’s original consent order against Spirit Airlines here.
Other Spirit Airlines inconveniences:
- Spirit Airlines freely admits they squeeze as many seats on each of their airplanes as is allowed by the Federal Aviation Administration. For example, on their Airbus A319, while most airlines feature 125 passenger seats, Spirit has 145. This means substantially less legroom than all other airlines offer.
- As is noted above in the DOT consent order, Spirit Airlines is still known for being remarkably uncareful with their passengers’ luggage. And even when compensation is compelled by DOT regulation, Spirit Airlines seldom offers that compensation easily or quickly.
- Unlike most major airlines, Spirit Airlines does not have extra planes on call in case one has mechanical problems. This means that a small problem with one plane can cause many hours of delay for every traveler who has booked a flight on that plane for the rest of the day.
- Spirit Airlines is remarkably poor at communicating flight delays and flight cancellations to their passengers, as is illustrated in this story.
More information on Spirit Airlines:
- Nightline’s story on Spirit Airlines, including their interview with CEO Ben Baldanza.
- The New York Times report on Spirit Airlines.
- The story of a woman who sued Spirit in small claims court … and won!
Know as much as you can before you make any travel purchases. Knowledge is power. We have cited independent sources to back every fact on this site, complete with links. You may hear paid representatives from Spirit Airlines make blanket statements that all claims made against them online are false, or that they have some special ownership of the "real facts." A smart traveler will ask that they bring independent sources to back what they say as well.
Happy travels!
