Spirit Airlines has probably the worst reputation of any airline in America. The problem is that reputations lag reality. First of all Via Air is far worse. And second Spirit has made tremendous strides:
- They’ve joined PreCheck
- They’re adding wifi
- Their operation is much improved – they’re more likely to get you where you’re going around when you expect to get there
Spirit’s “Big Front Seat” (a domestic first class seat without any extra perks or fee waivers) remains one of the best values in travel.
Copyright: boarding1now / 123RF Stock Photo
Howeveer it’s easy to anchor on Spirit as the airline who believed their business model required customers thinking they offer a bad product, who refused a pregnant woman water during a two hour tarmac delay and that wouldn’t refund a Vietnam veteran cancer patient’s tickets when he became too sick to fly to see his daughter in the hospital.
It’s hard to think of Spirit as anything but the airline whose CEO accidentally included a customer in a reply instructing staff how to handle their complaint.
Please respond, Pasquale, but 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.
Not to mention that every Spirit flight seems to include at least one passenger representing every urban legend from Florida.
And that’s why this spoof video of a Spirit Airlines customer service center is so funny (albeit not entirely safe for work):
My 20-something daughter is a frequent flyer and for short-haul, cost is her primary concern. However, having flown Frontier twice, she says never again–Spirit is leagues ahead of Frontier.