Spirit Airlines Bait-and-Switch-Nightmare: Never Fly Spirit!
So, I was attempting to board on a Spirit Aircraft (namely, Flight# NK 675), on my way from Orlando, FL to Newark, NJ, when I was told that I would have to pay $100.00 extra because I had two weight-and-size-limited carry-ons, which I had previously carried on previous airlines free of charge.
The more I tried to make sense out of the situation by asking reasonable questions the more incompetent the Spirit representatives (including the supervisors) sounded. Eventually, I resorted to paying the fee in order to get to my destination and upon arriving there I continued to communicate and argue about the following:
There was no conspicuous indication on the ticket purchased on Travelocity.com that I would have had to pay extra fees for carry-on luggage
There was no reasonable explanation as to why that was necessary when spirit was charging nearly the same if not more as other competitors that don’t charge any extra fees that luggage that meet all necessary size criteria.
There was no reasonableness to what seems to amount to Spirit Airlines’ “Bait and Switch” approach and misrepresentation
Spirit Airlines has the duty to make its policies as conspicuous and reasonably understandable as possible as to not appear to have the intent to self-misrepresent and deceive its customers.
Based on my experience, and that of other Spirit users, it appears to me that SPIRIT has engaged on a scheme to defraud or at least mislead or bait-and-switch on its passengers/flyers by advertising comparably low rates only to charge carry-on fees that are often the same or more than that of the price of the airline tickets themselves.
Having used ample other Airlines in the past, I have reasonably and consciously concluded that there is a substantial evidence from my experience and that of others to infer that SPIRIT AIRLINES does have the intent to mislead and deceive its passengers/flyers by not having its third-party vendors conspicuously display its bag policies and not making it overtly clear for every Spirit customer that s/he will be charged either no fees, or variable fees that change with time.
As buyers shop online through web sites like “Travelocity.com” and “CheapTickets.com”, they have the right to be aware of any information that is either misleading, or that can be viewed as a bait-and-switch tactic. After all, why would SPIRIT opt not to disclose such information through all channels or so require it, especially if it does not indent to misrepresent its policies or unfairly charge people by advertising competitive rates with the intent to charge the customer when s/he is at the point of no return, in other words, right before boarding the Airplane.
Spirit has the duty to use the best possible business practices, and that includes refrain itself from misrepresentations for purposes that could be none other than that of benefiting from customers while they are in a vulnerable state – when their arrivals to their destination depend on an airline like SPIRIT, which seems to have the sole intent of overly-charging desperate and paying customers that want nothing more than professional service and the right not to be scammed by a low-class and scamming airline like Spirit Airlines.
While there were a couple of long-term Spirit flight attendants that empathized and confirmed that Spirit has become a scammer type of airline and were rather apologetic, the rest of the Spirit employees appeared to be incompetent at best!
SPIRIT – should be induced to become out of business if it continues on this trend of unprofessionalism or at least face a class-action law suit to that end. For this reason, it is getting an "F" on the criteria listed in the Lorins Business Excellence Quotient
Dr. Pete Lorins is the Chief Editor of LorinsPOST.com. This article is sponsored by LORINS.biz
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