Spirit Airlines Fined for Deceptive Re-Accommodation Practices

Ultra-low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines has reportedly been caught treating its customers unfairly in terms of bumping them from overbooked flights and then under-compensating them in the bargain.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) fined Spirit $350,000 for mischaracterizing passengers who’d been involuntarily denied boarding as “volunteers” and then failing to inform them that they were entitled to receive cash refunds in lieu of travel vouchers during the period from January 2017 to June 2018.

According to FlightGlobal, passenger complaints registered with the agency’s Office of Aviation Consumer Protection prompted the ruling after investigations found Spirit to have demonstrated, “a pattern of non-compliance with the compensation scheme.”

“We determined that, in oversale situations, Spirit would first solicit volunteers to give up their seats in exchange for a future travel voucher, re-accommodation on Spirit’s next available flight or a flight on another airline, and hotel accommodations, if needed. If there were not enough volunteers, Spirit would then deny boarding to passengers involuntarily based on time of check-in,” the DOT wrote in its order.

Such passengers were, in fact, compensated as the airline saw fit and re-accommodated on other flights wherever possible. The problem lay in the fact that Spirit referred to this as taking the “volunteer option” and forced customers into signing an “acknowledgment form” that misrepresented the nature of the actual occurrence.

The DOT’s penalty did factor in a credit of $110,000 to Spirit for airfares that it purchased aboard other airlines to re-accommodate bumped passengers during the period in question, and another $85,000 of the $350,000 is to be paid only if Spirit again violates the provisions in the order, which the carrier assures it won’t.

A Spirit Airlines spokesperson told TravelPulse, “We have made appropriate changes to our processes and compensation offerings long since this period of review from January 2017 to June 2018. Our Guests’ experience means everything to us, and we continue to invest in every aspect of their journey.”