Spirit Airlines

After my professor reviewed my post on exceptional customer service from Zappos, she tipped me off to a story that is of a complete opposite nature. Word of mouth works both ways. The culprit at hand was Spirit Airlines. Now, this entire conversation has stemmed from a blog post (just as with Zappos) and it has gotten just as much coverage and talk as Zappos. However the “spirit” of the conversations is quite different. The writer of the blog said to please not comment on his blog without proper knowledge of the situation at hand. Therefore, I’m taking this into account as I write a post for my own blog and will try not to be too critical.

It all began with Alex Rudloff having a very bad experience with Spirit Airlines. His personal blog gave a play by play of what happened. You can find the story here. As a result, past complaints have been highlighted. These include awful stories about baggage check-in fees, customer service, and airways club. Not to mention the some 100 comments made on Alex’s blog. These comments are mostly sympathetic ones or exclamations of “Thanks for the warning.” Alex also points us towards an article written by the Orlando Sentinel, which highlights the shocking story of how Jim and Christy Boswell received an email from the Spirit Airlines CEO that was not intended for customer eyes.

The overview of Alex’s experience stressed me out. It sounded terrible. I am typically a person who finds the cheapest flight and buys it. However, at this point Alex has changed my ways and I would change my routine if the outcome turned out to be Spirit Airlines. When I’m traveling it feels like I’m spending enough time organizing and money. To have my flight plans be skewered and asked for additional money to check a bag, basically, would cause me to need a flight straight to the Caribbean.

I feel this is a vital moment to plug-in for a good airline I’ve experienced. I was traveling in Australia last year and I did a lot of my flying via Quantas. Overall my flights were superior to ones I’ve had in the U.S., a lot less hassle and better services. Once, 5 hours before a flight, a Quantas representative called me and said they had overbooked my flight and that if I was willing to take one just 40 minutes later, I could fly first class the whole way home. Don’t have to ask me twice. It was great that they had an incredibly easy and wonderful option already prepared for me when they called. Maybe Spirit Airlines should take a tip or two from the land down under cause right it looks like WOM is dragging them under. Never underestimate the power of an unsatisfied customer.

http://consumerist.com/consumer/opt_out/read-before-you-click-spirit-airlines-signs-you-up-for-club-membership-and-travel-insurance-283968.php
http://stuckonthepalmetto.blogspot.com/2007/03/why-spirit-airlines-sucks.html
http://consumerist.com/consumer/lawsuits/woman-sues-spirit-airlines-in-small-claims-court-and-wins-279202.php
http://www.alexrudloff.com/2007/08/04/do-not-fly-spirit-airlines/
http://www.alexrudloff.com/
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-spirit2407aug24,0,6113192.story