Help Wanted! Can You Help Spirit Air Find More Ways To Charge Customers?

Maybe you’ve heard of Spirit Air. Maybe you haven’t. Spirit bills themselves as an ULTRA low cost carrier. And they mean it. Their CEO, Ben Baldanza, doesn’t make any bones about it. He enjoy being the cheapest airline in so many ways. And, they find many ways to poke fun at themselves as well as other things happening in the world.

They’re also great at charging customers extra for….everything. If you book ahead of time, they’ll charge you $35 for a carry-on bag. Forget to buy it ahead of time and it will set you back $100 at the gate. No, not a checked bag, a carry-on.

And, if you somehow forget to print your boarding pass before you get to the airport and want an agent to do it for you, that will cost you $10.

There’s also a $10 fee to book a ticket through a phone agent. And, they don’t even have an 800 number, it’s a toll call.

That’s why I chuckled a bit when I saw they were hiring for a Director of Ancillary Revenue. Quoting from the job description:

Drive ancillary revenue via continued development and marketing of current products and creation of new sources of revenue. Reduce costs by introducing products and pricing that alter high-cost customer behaviors. Develop and manage a team of dedicated employees to attain the goals set for ancillary revenue. (bolding mine)

This is listed right at the top in the “Essential Duties” section. And, then for good measure, listed a bit lower:

Find ways to reduce costs by introducing and developing products and fee structures that alter high-cost customer behaviors.

You have to give them credit. Instead of serving the customer’s needs, they want to introduce fees that reduce the company’s costs. Find a customer behavior that costs the company money? Charge a big fee to make them stop doing those annoying things!

Don’t get me wrong. Spirit goes to a lot of cities people want to travel to.

Help SpiritJust not the way I actually want to get there.

Help Spirit

And, certainly not in the style I’d prefer. Optional seat cushion for your flight instead of plywood? That’ll be $15, sir!

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9 Comments

  1. Introduce “Flying class”, in which you are strapped in Superman position to a plank hanging from the ceiling. Spirit needs to maximize all that headroom above the seats that they’re giving away for free!

    1. Groobie, ROFL. I love it. Do you want me to contact Spirit on your behalf? You can put those Superman seats above the Standing Room Only section and get rid of the overhead bins.

      1. Flying Class is for children 12 and under, because they’d think it’s cool. Surcharge of $20 per passenger for the extra fun. Marketing tagline…”It’s Spirit Airlines – TO THE EXTREME!!!!!” 😉

        1. And hanging above the “Big Front Seats” are hammocks for “Lie-Flat seating.” I should quit my day job and apply for this position!

        2. Grooble, I think you can make the surcharge for Flying Class more and include a Superman cape. Maybe $35.

  2. Recline Fees? You have to swipe a card to recline your seat.
    Overweight person fees? Sensor in seat sounds an audible alarm embarassing heavy passengers until someone swipes a card to stop it.
    Window shade fees? Gorgeous view or tired of the sun in your eyes? Swipe a card to unlock the shade.
    Table fees? Don’t want to juggle your food or laptop? Swipe your card to unlock the seat back table.
    I could go on and on. Hah!

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