There’s quite a bit of buzz around the web today about Spirit Airlines announcing that they’ll be increasing bag fees for travel around the holidays. Spirit will be charging an extra $2 per bag for travel booked after August 19, 2014, for travel between December 18, 2014, and January 5, 2015.
They phrase the announcement as follows:
Winter is coming… and that means holidays. Which means more people than ever will be flying with Spirit to visit their loved ones. To make sure we have room for everyone’s bags, we’re encouraging customers to pack a bit lighter. So, for travel booked after 8/19/14, for flights between 12/18/14 and 1/5/15, standard checked bags will be $2 more than listed below. Spend less time packing and more time laughing with family and friends this holiday season. Remember, $9 Fare Club members will keep their great prices and save even more during this period!
As a reminder, Spirit is one of the only US airlines to charge for carry-ons, so this applies to both carry-on bags and checked bags.
People seem to be missing the real reason Spirit is doing this. It’s not for an extra $2 (though that doesn’t hurt either), or because they want to make sure they have “room for everyone’s bags.”
It’s because Spirit is a lean, mean, marketing machine, and doing this generates buzz. Whether you agree with it or not, Spirit believes any publicity is good publicity.
Don’t believe me? This is the airline that ran the “Hate Thousand Miles” campaign, whereby they gave you 8,000 miles for complaining about them!
http://vimeo.com/94439452
Spirit’s hope is that seeing this story in the news will remind you to book your holiday travel, and if nothing else, will at least convince you to look at what Spirit is charging.
While I don’t have any interest in flying Spirit, I commend them on being one of the most transparent and innovative airlines in this country.
What do you think? Agree or disagree?
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