Spirit airlines "optional fees" - unintended consequences fee??

[mieuxmew]

Someone mentioned this on another thread, so I looked this one up on Spirit.com and sure enough- it is listed under optional fees under booking

"Unintended Consequences of DOT Regulations Fee $2.00 per customer, each way"


Does anyone have a clue what this is??? I know they have a checked bag fee, and oversize/overweight fee/seat assignment fee, print boarding pass fee, carry-on bag fee, food fee, change of flight fee, etc.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Someone mentioned this on another thread, so I looked this one up on Spirit.com and sure enough- it is listed under optional fees under booking

"Unintended Consequences of DOT Regulations Fee $2.00 per customer, each way"


Does anyone have a clue what this is??? I know they have a checked bag fee, and oversize/overweight fee/seat assignment fee, print boarding pass fee, carry-on bag fee, food fee, change of flight fee, etc.

It is the fee they charge because the government told them they had to show fares including all taxes etc....

No basis in anything but being greedy

 

[Lewisc]

It's designed to coverage "spoilage" which occurs when Spirit has to issue a refund under the new 24 hour refund rule and could have sold the fare to another customer.

Spirit lies. It's not optional. It's not really a fee. It's an arbitrary number which has no verifiable relationship to any specific costs.

 

[jsilvers]

It's not optional.

While I'm no fan of Spirit, I note that it is possible to avoid paying this fee:

Unintended Consequences of DOT Regulations Fee: Unintended Consequences of DOT Regulations Fee of $2.00 per one way travel per traveling customer applies to most reservations. No fee will apply to certain discount fares. No fee applies to bookings completed at Spirit Airlines’ airport locations.
​

http://www.spirit.com/content/documents/en-us/General_Terms_and_Conditions.pdf (emphasis added).

 

[Lewisc]

Spirit's website says:

optional services for a fee (shown below), allowing customers the freedom to choose only the extras they value.

You have the option of not paying to check a bag, not paying for a drink etc.

You don't have the option of refusing DOT required standards.

We can play with semantics. I guess paying the fee might be consider avoidable but the way Spirit is explaining it is a lie.

I don't think Spirit wants to offer 24 hour "price protection". Your fare goes on sale the next day and you'll call and either ask to get a credit for the fare difference or a refund. I wouldn't be surprised if Spirit finds away to finesse these requests.

edited to add--I've read the DOT and members of congress had an issue with the way Spirit was communicated the new policies with their customers on the website. I suspect the language in the link you posted was an attempt to comply with the letter of the law.

While I'm no fan of Spirit, I note that it is possible to avoid paying this fee:

Unintended Consequences of DOT Regulations Fee: Unintended Consequences of DOT Regulations Fee of $2.00 per one way travel per traveling customer applies to most reservations. No fee will apply to certain discount fares. No fee applies to bookings completed at Spirit Airlines’ airport locations.
​

http://www.spirit.com/content/documents/en-us/General_Terms_and_Conditions.pdf (emphasis added).

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Have you ever actually seen anyone at an airport location to sell you a ticket? They won't sell while checking in for a flight and the counters are empty at all other times.

Good luck avoiding that fee LOL

 

[MAH4546]

Have you ever actually seen anyone at an airport location to sell you a ticket? They won't sell while checking in for a flight and the counters are empty at all other times.

Good luck avoiding that fee LOL

In Miami, where Spirit Airlines is based and they focus their network on routes to the Caribbean and Latin America, many people are immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean. Many don't have credit cards, not because they can't afford them, but because it's just a culture thing. One uses cash.

As such, it is insanely common for people to buy tickets at the airport in certain areas; for some airlines, you do not need to go to the airport since major airlines run ticketing centers throughout the city, including Spirit. They are in downtowns, strip malls, etc., just like you'd find a Starbucks.

Kudos to Spirit for this fee: Government regulation of airfare, such as the overreaching and consumer damaging new rules that went into effect recently, hurt the consumer and make flying more expensive. Spirit is recouping that behind-the-scenes cost it must spend to follow the ridiculous new regulations. Other airlines are recouping it, too, they just are doing it by raising airfare, instead of directly telling you what it is.

I would never fly Spirit, ever, but the airline is honest and upfront about its fares and services, far more than others.

 

[Lewisc]

I would never fly Spirit, ever, but the airline is honest and upfront about its fares and services, far more than others.

There was nothing honest about promoting $9 fares. There was nothing honest about putting older fees for checked luggage, without listing the end date and then listing the newer fees, with the effective date, on the next screen.

I don't think charging extra for bags weighing 41-50 lbs is honest. Industry standard is 40lbs. JMO but I think the intent is to take advantage of passengers who don't read the fine print.

There is nothing honest with including an "intended consequences fee" in a list of optional fees for optional services such as drinks and luggage.

There was nothing honest in the way Spirit first phrased their objections to the new policies. Face it. Spirit has a history of wanting to promote a fare lower then the total fare passengers are required to pay if they want to take that flight.

Spirit wants to offer a bare bones, low cost airline. Nothing wrong with that. They also want to promote fares lower then what passengers are required to pay. Not honest.

Again $9 fares was not an honest way to market flights.

 

[Ed J]

For all your complaining about honestly and Spirit, just how many times have you flown with them?

 

[Ed J]

Have you ever actually seen anyone at an airport location to sell you a ticket? They won't sell while checking in for a flight and the counters are empty at all other times.

Good luck avoiding that fee LOL

I have.

How many times have you gone up to the counter to buy a ticket and were not able to do so?

This is rhetorical because you never have, unless you were not telling the truth in the past when you have said you would never fly Spirit even if it were free.

 

[Brian Noble]

the airline is honest and upfront about its fares and services

In part because they are now required to be. Prior to this "overreaching" regulation, they routinely buried fee disclosures until very late in the purchase process.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

For all your complaining about honestly and Spirit, just how many times have you flown with them?

Heck hasn't frozen over... No flights on Spirit LOL!

I have.


How many times have you gone up to the counter to buy a ticket and were not able to do so?

This is rhetorical because you never have, unless you were not telling the truth in the past when you have said you would never fly Spirit even if it were free.

I walk past a Spirt counter about once a week as I fly out of a local airport. There has NEVER been anyone there. They have a bell. I have seen people BEATING on that bell, but.... no one ever seems to come out. (Just last week a man was SCREAMING at the empty counter... no humans )

Sorry, but you get what you pay for in this case and you didn't pay for someone to come out and deal with you at that counter!

 

[MAH4546]

In part because they are now required to be. Prior to this "overreaching" regulation, they routinely buried fee disclosures until very late in the purchase process.

Absolutely false. All fees were fully disclosed on a fee page, as they are today.

 

[Geoff_M]

Absolutely false. All fees were fully disclosed on a fee page, as they are today.

Surely you jest... or at least miss-state the issue. Just Google the term "Spirit Airlines hidden fees" and see the fire hose volume of travel articles that go into great details about how Spirit took the frustration of comparison shopping airfares to new heights prior to the Government requiring fares to be shown post-taxes and fees UP FRONT. Here's a great example: New airline rules give meaning to price tags.

The bottom line is that Spirit's "Unintended Consequences fee" could be more correctly called an "Spirit Airline Temper Tantrum Fee" that they hoped would trigger travelers to bombard Government regulators with anger e-mails blaming them for the charge and demanding a return to "$9 fares".