Tag Archives for spirit airlines.
Spirit Airlines has plenty of stories people will mock, but one flight attendant’s farewell to the airline’s final passengers was unexpectedly gracious. As Spirit shuts down after 43 years in the air, he told passengers he did not remember the bad times — just the good ones — and thanked them for staying with the airline until the end.
The final Spirit Airlines commercial flight to land asked DFW Tower whether any other Spirit flights were coming in behind it. When the answer came back that they might be the last one, the crew signed off with grace — “it was a pleasure working with you guys” — a quiet, dignified ending for the employees who stayed until the end.
Spirit Airlines could stop flying with little warning, leaving ticket holders scrambling for refunds, replacement flights, hotel costs, and answers about stranded trips. If you have a Spirit reservation, this is the moment to screenshot everything, consider a backup flight, understand your chargeback rights, and accept that Free Spirit miles may have no real escape route.
Spirit Airlines flights are still operating — but possibly not for long. A rumored shutdown could come as soon as tonight after talks over a $500 million federal bailout failed, leaving creditors, the government, and the bankrupt airline unable to agree on who gets paid first.
Robert Isom addressed the airline deal rumors employees were already talking about internally: United, Alaska and Spirit. United is a hard no, Alaska is the partnership American wants to expand, and Spirit is not a fit — though American would consider assets and stranded passengers.
The simple story about Spirit Airlines is that the Biden administration killed the carrier by blocking JetBlue’s bid to buy it, but that is too neat and mostly wrong. Spirit was already failing because its costs rose, its product stopped matching what customers wanted, and the antitrust move that really undercut any plausible rescue came earlier, when the government killed JetBlue’s alliance with American.
The White House is trying to justify a $500 million Spirit Airlines rescue by claiming the carrier is somehow essential to national defense, even though Spirit is a failing ultra-low-cost airline with no obvious military necessity.
President Trump is now openly floating a federal rescue of Spirit Airlines, saying “I think we just buy” the carrier even as his administration still has no clear legal path to make that happen. Here’s what betting market odds look like on the outcome.
Spirit Airlines told a bankruptcy judge it could run out of usable cash next week, even after carving out restricted funds for payroll, taxes, and creditor-controlled accounts. Spirit is not presenting a real path back to profitability — it is asking the court to help it survive long enough for a legally dubious government bailout to arrive (which it may quickly burn through).
Flight attendants union head Sara Nelson is now urging President Trump to throw Spirit Airlines a lifeline, a remarkable turn for one of organized labor’s most prominent progressive voices. Her appeal doubles as an argument that the Biden administration’s antitrust decision helped push Spirit to the brink, even as the bailout now being discussed appears to have no real basis in law.
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 »
