Spirit Airlines is in bankruptcy for the second time in less than a year. A lot of ink has been spilled over the reasons why, but I do think a part of it is something simple everyone is missing.
- They’re a low cost carrier, but they’ve been facing rising costs. Some of that is pandemic wage increases. That reduces their cost advantage against other airlines. They’ve also lost cost discipline, going so far as to open an extravant new campus just before heading to the courthouse the first time.
- They haven’t had the products people have wanted to buy. Increasingly people have been willing to spend more for a differentiated product. They’ve wanted to fly to Europe, too. Spirit doesn’t fly long haul and they don’t have a true premium product. Even where they brand the Big Front Seat now as first class, they are still Spirit Airlines.
- Other airlines are competing better. They used to be loathe to match Spirit’s fares, out of concern that the people who are going to buy their tickets anyway would just spend less for them. But those customers don’t want basic economy, so they offer Spirit-style fares as basic economy, and some customers choose United, Delta and American instead of Spirit now but they don’t undercut the revenue they earn from everyone else in the process.
None of that’s controversial. But something much simpler is also at play. They are just too hard to do business with. I tried to buy Spirit Airlines tickets just now and it’s just not worth the hassle.
- The website isn’t letting me log in. I want to log in so the ticket I buy credits to my Free Spirit account.
- I am trying to buy travel for my family. To search for a child, they make you enter the child’s date of birth. But on the passenger information page, it transfers that date of birth to the child one day off and the field isn’t editable.
- If I search for adults only, to avoid having Spirit enter the wrong date of birth for my daughter, then when I enter her correct date of birth on the passenger information page it tells me she’s a child, I didn’t search that way, so I must start the whole search over.
Other times when I select my flights and try to buy them I just get:
And nevermind that you also can’t book first class (Big Front Seat) on their website or using their mobile app if you have a lap infant, because not all of their seats are certified for lap infants and their own systems can’t tell the difference.
I guess I could try booking over the phone, but that’s also the point: their cash register doesn’t work.
Spirit Airlines has a revenue problem, and maybe even just a small part of that problem is that it’s too hard to give them revenue.
It’s happening!!! (Gary, they’re toast.) Not good. Bad for competition. Bad for workers. Bad for consumers. Bad.
Spirit and Frontier’s websites are awful. The best website by far is Southwest, very simple
A lot of the domestic routes where I’ve gone with a super-budget airline, there was a choice – Spirit, Frontier and then one other line Sun Country or Allegiant. Often, Spirit had the superior schedule option, but Frontier would make a seat assignment and carry on a smaller upcharge, like $20. However, most of the time it was the godawful website. Try again, come back later, start over … So even if I managed to complete the booking, I had zero confidence that it would show up correctly on their end. So if Spirit is reading this – GARY IS 100% RIGHT!
Their website and mobile app are clunky. And god forbid you need any customer service which is woefully inadequate.
I used reservation credit to buy a ticket last night using the web browser on my iPad. This morning I booked a mileage ticket using the website through Microsoft Edge. Had no issues at all.
No, the website doesn’t know which specific tail number is operating your flight. It won’t let you select Big Front Seat with a lap infant if there are not seat assignments available in row 2 for your whole party. If only row 1 is available, it is inhibited until check-in and final aircraft assignment is known. Or would you rather book, get row 1, then on day of departure find out an A321ceo and neo were swapped and now unless the people in row 2 want to swap with you, you’re going to coach?
I just tried 3 mock bookings with a lap infant, had no date of birth issues, and it allowed me to select a seat in row 2 only. On the flight where it wouldn’t let me book Spirit First, I could book it without a lap infant and saw only 1A and 1F were available.
I feel like they grew too quick too fast. Also them scrapping the no change fee policy really made me lose interest.
I’m still trying to find a Delta economy fare that is equal to Spirit. A lot has been written about this. Somebody help me out.
@ Gary — Their website/app has always sucked. You just learn how it works and wonder why they dont fix it. It can’t be that expensive to fix some of the basic issues.
Even DL and AS websites go flakey at times. So that might be a sort of red herring.
But it is sad to see the wheels fall off any business, as slow motion decline accelerates rapidly.
We have looked into all the issues you have stated in your article and after numerous attempts to replicate we are unable to find any deficiencies. By any chance are you using a “anti tracking” browser? Sometimes these browsers are too restrictive and prohibit the coding to run as designed. We are in the process of implementing a combined reservation system/network with a soon to be announced partnership. Try using google or safari browser.
Please reach out to customer service directly if you’re still having issues.
So, if I read this correctly, I can’t book a flight on their website. But what if I don’t want to book a flight?
@ AlanZ — You CAN book a flight on their website. Gary couldn’t book what he wanted on their website.