Tag Archives for spirit airlines.
Expecting a woman to confront a tall man, when she’s pinned between him and the wall of an aircraft, without the assistance of cabin crew seems a bit rich. But not as rich as doubling down on the invasion of her personal space by looking over her shoulder at her phone screen. And somehow she’s being unreasonable for seeking comfort from a friend that she’s stuck next to him?
Spirit Airlines is an “ultra low cost carrier” with fees line extra charges for checking in (at the airport) and for bags (that you carry on yourself) often costing more than the fare itself. They’re the butt of late night comedy routines, but they also make air travel far more affordable – not just for those who fly them, but on routes and at times when legacy airlines have to compete with them.
So it’s weird that they offer a product that’s like domestic first class that you’ll find on American, Delta, United and Alaska Airlines. Except it’s not exactly like it. Spirit calls theirs “the Big Front Seat.”
want to see Spirit Airlines continue as a standalone company. I think that is better for airfares and for diversity in business models. I also don’t think buying Spirit is a good idea for JetBlue. They are operationally challenged to begin with and the complexity of a merger and integration won’t make air travel better. JetBlue is massively overpaying.
As a result I’ve maintained that the JetBlue deal to acquire Spirit is bad for customers and bad for shareholders. However bad business decisions are not in themselves, illegal.
Spirit Airlines flight 259 from Dallas to Orlando diverted to Jacksonville, Florida on Wednesday afternoon as smoked filled the cabin of the aircraft when the battery of a passenger’s electronic device caught fire in an overhead bin. Once on the ground, 10 passengers and crew were hospitalized.
Smoke also reportedly filled the cockpit. A retired fireman assisted cabin crew in dousing the flames. Meanwhile, air traffic control gave the flight’s captain a direct routing to get on the ground.
The federal government is preparing to sue to block JetBlue’s acquisition of Spirit Airlines. They’re paying a 40% premium over what Frontier Airlines was offering. And they even have to pay a lot of the money if the deal doesn’t close.
JetBlue is ramping up the P.R. side of the fight releasing a video that tells their story about how growing their airline is good for consumers.
Spirit Airlines flight NK1095 from Philadelphia to Orlando on December 26 cancelled, after a delay of several hours. Passengers in the boarding area were not at all happy, and Spirit gate agents have… their own way of communicating with customers. They let everyone know there would be refunds, or rebookings, but passengers would have to wait several days if they wanted another flight from Philadelphia. And don’t expect Spirit to pay for hotels!
This video of the announcements is… really something.
This underscores a major reason why Spirit Airlines launched a major revamp of its loyalty program, introducing a relevant program which replaced a completely irrelevant one.
This deal values Spirit’s loyalty assets, whose 2021 revenue totaled $96 million, at $4.2 billion, even though the market cap of the entire business is only a little over half that.
I find travel on Spirit to be a value but I am not likely to fly them in the next 3 months, and certainly not enough to requalify after the 3 month status match, so won’t pursue this myself – but several of you will find this helpful.
Yesterday Spirit Airlines shareholders rejected an agreement to sell to Frontier with JetBlue offering far more money.
Now Spirit’s board has agreed to sell to JetBlue under the same terms as the New York-based carrier’s last offer – a price 40% higher than Frontier was offering at the time it was made a month ago.
JetBlue wants to buy Spirit for parts – gates, slots (though they’d divest many of those), pilots and planes. And they’re willing to pay $400 million for the chance to get the deal to close in the face of government opposition.
Meanwhile the most likely way to get regulatory approval is to trade the American Airlines joint venture, which the federal government is also opposing. If they can make that deal quickly, they can presumably have Spirit.
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 »
