Have you bought a Spirit Airlines ticket on Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity or any other third-party website? Would you like to be responsible for taking millions of dollars from Spirit Airlines? If so, you may be interested in participating in this investigation that could evolve into a class-action law suit.

It seems as if Spirit may have been selling tickets on third-party sites for more than those same tickets have been selling on their own site. There is some question as to the legality of this practice. I am in contact with a Washington D.C.-based consumer-rights law firm that is looking into Spirit's practices. Right now they are ONLY looking for people who bought a Spirit ticket on Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity or any other third-party website.

They're also looking into one specific aspect of Spirit's online baggage charges. Have you paid online for your luggage on your outbound trip, but been unable to pay in advance for your return trip? If you have experienced this, this law firm would very much like to talk to you. 

If you would like to participate, please email us at: SpiritAirlinesFacts@gmail.com. Or simply reply to this post. 

A new government study has revealed that only 49.9% of Spirit Airlines flights arrive on time. The industry average is 74.8%. Spirit's 49.9% on-time arrival rate is the lowest among the airlines monitored by the United States Department of Transportation. That 49.9% on-time rate is the worst recorded by the U.S. DOT in a decade.

The AP reports: Spirit performed poorly at nearly all airports it serves but was worst in Philadelphia, Chicago's O'Hare Airport and Detroit, where on-time percentages were in the 30s ... On six routes, the Spirit delays averaged more than two hours.

United Airlines comes in second-worst, with a significantly higher 66.3% on-time rate. 

Also interesting from this study: Spirit Airlines had by far the highest complaint rate of the 14 airlines covered in the report. Spirit passengers were 43 times more likely to file a complaint than passengers on Alaska Airlines, which had the lowest complaint rate.

And then there's this: the overall rate of complaints against airlines jumped 45 percent from June 2014, but Spirit alone was responsible for more than half the increase.

Thanks to AP for getting this story out! Read more here.

Over the past four years, I have divided up the reasons to avoid Spirit into three categories:

1. Travelers get fooled by Spirit's unique pricing model.
It seems like they charge you for everything. Because they do. And once they do, you might as well fly on any other airline. You won't save any money.

2. General rudeness.
Spirit tries to save money everywhere. Including the salaries of their employees. And you get what you pay for.

3. It may take you 3-4 days to get to your destination.
Spirit is the only national airline that doesn't provide backup jets, or crew or have agreements with other airlines. This means that if your aircraft is unable to fly, you won't be going anywhere. This can (and often has) lead to travelers being forced to wait three or more days for the next available seat on a Spirit flight with little or no reimbursement for meals, hotel stays or rental cars throughout the days you're waiting for your flight.

Issue #1 can be overcome if you understand their pricing model and work within it.

Issue #2 is a pain, but travel is often a pain.

Issue #3, however, is a fundamental violation to the pact between an airline and a traveler. An airline has only ONE responsibility, that is to get you safely to your destination in an appropriate amount of time. And Spirit has repeatedly and without apology violated this pact again and again, week after week, month after month, year after year. This is not about a several-hour delay. This is about being forced to miss entire vacations, business meetings and family functions because Spirit doesn't care enough to get you there.

That is ... until this weekend! On August 8, 2015, we received information from travelers flying from both Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and from LaGuardia Airport that, after cancelling flights, Spirit was buying tickets on other airlines for the travelers who were supposed to be on those cancelled flights.

If this is the beginning of a new Spirit policy, this is BIG, BIG news. And if it's not a new Spirit policy, it's big news that, on at least one day in their existence, Spirit Airlines did the right things for passengers in at least two cities.

So, a rare kudos to Spirit! Please keep up the good work.

We will be watching and reporting on whether this policy continues.


UPDATE: It's two days later and Spirit is still stranding their passengers for three days at a time at airports across the U.S.