Tag Archives for spirit airlines.
According to a form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, JetBlue has served notice that it may opt to terminate its agreement to buy Spirit Airlines. This termination could happen as early as Sunday.
A passenger on a Spirit Airlines flight reportedly removed his pants and shirt and walked through the aisle while the seatbelt sign remained on. The flight had been delayed for several hours, and the man apparently hadn’t sobered up, but though he was obviously intoxicated at the start of the trip a passenger says that the airline didn’t remove him.
When JetBlue lost, their stock soared. This is a bad deal for JetBlue shareholders, with the airline overpaying ($3.8 billion) for access to planes and pilots, and taking on the distractions, costs, and capital expenses of a merger and retrofit of Spirit Airlines aircraft. The federal government was doing them a favor by suing to block the deal.
Excited, yet nervous, James Finnister turned to alcohol – shots – to calm his nerves over the first airline flight of his life from Detroit to Orlando on Spirit Airlines.
He drank.. heavily before the flight. Up in the air, his behavior becomes.. questionable. He asks flight attendants to join the mile high club. He reportedly pulled a flight attendant into his seat. And then passes out.
Spirit Airlines sent a 6 year old flying alone to the wrong airport in Florida. They wound up hundreds of miles away from their waiting family. The child’s first time ever on a plane was taking a trip from Philadelphia to Fort Myers. The airline sent them to Orlando instead. The airline told his grandmother, who was waiting at the gate, that he “missed his flight.” Despite security protocols, she said that she “ran inside the plane to the flight attendant” and asked her, Where’s my grandson? He was handed over to you at Philadelphia? The flight attendant said “No, I had no kids with me.” Then the child called (impressive for a six year old!) saying he’d landed. His luggage went to Fort Myers, his grandmother drove to Orlando to collect him. Spirit is…
Sunday afternoon police officers removed a Polish man from Spirit Airlines flight 239 prior to departing Barranquilla, Colombia to Fort Lauderdale.
The man was judged to be inebriated, and any doubts about this were quickly quashed when he attacked the officers on board the aircraft who were trying to remove him.
Footage captured a Spirit Airlines passenger climbing over the man in the aisle after the plane landed and taxied to the gate. He didn’t want to wait to get off the plane, and the man between him and standing and waiting to deplane wasn’t moving fast enough for his taste. Matters escalated quickly.
The middle seat man, in black hoodie and mask, was visibly agitated and in a rush to exit the aircraft. Most passengers were still seated, but some had already gotten into line to stand in the aisle. He climbed over the orange shirt passenger in the aisle that wasn’t moving yet.
The federal government argued that JetBlue is an important competitor to keep independent, in part for its low prices and for the passenger demand that it stimulates, when they wanted to break up the carrier’s partnership with American Airlines. JetBlue was the antidote to major airlines, and wanted to keep them from being co-opted.
Now, JetBlue says in court, the government shouldn’t be allowed to switch positions as it seeks to prevent them from acquiring Spirit Airlines.
Investment banking firm T.D. Cowen says that with the airline not appealing the anti-trust ruling against their American Airlines partnership, an anti-trust settlement allowing their Spirit Airlines acquisition to move forward may be in the offing after Labor Day or at least in advance of a trial set to begin in October.
JetBlue’s deal to buy Spirit Airlines isn’t just being challenged by the government. There’s a civil suit as well, because why not piggy back on government opposition for a payday? Only lawyers made an oops in redactions – and as a result exposed “internal company estimates of plans to hike fares on Spirit planes by as much as 40%.” And this could make JetBlue’s defense of the deal against government anti-trust charges that much harder.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
