Spirit Airlines is doing away with both change and cancellation fees, effective immediately, days after Frontier\u2019s similar announcement, part of an overhaul of the country\u2019s biggest discount carriers\u2019 longtime strategy.<\/p>\n
Prior to the new rule, Spirit used to charge anywhere between $69 and $119 for ticket changes and cancellations, depending on how close to departure the customer made the change.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis new policy is among the best in the industry because it applies to each and every guest,\u201d Spirit said in a statement to CNBC. \u201cWe have many other enhancements in the works and look forward to sharing more soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
The changes mark a shift for budget airlines\u2019 longtime pricing approach, which includes low base fares to attract customers and add-on fees for advanced seating assignments, bottled water and cabin baggage. Ancillary revenue routinely surpasses those airlines\u2019 ticket prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we continue to see the demand and competitive environments develop, we know that we must also change with the times,\u201d Spirit\u2019s Chief Commercial Officer Matt Klein said on an earnings call earlier this month. \u201cWe will continue to test out new merchandising strategies, which we anticipate will change how we think about the components of total revenue generation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Spirit and Frontier are trying to return to profitability in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, while larger airlines that offer both bare-bones fares to domestic destinations and big international networks have posted profits.<\/p>\n
Most larger rivals such as Delta, American, Alaska and United got rid of change fees during the pandemic except for the cheapest, most restrictive tickets. Southwest Airlines does not charge customers a flight-change fee.<\/p>\n
Along with getting rid of change fees, Frontier also announced Friday that it will start offering bundles that include add-on options such as early boarding and checked baggage that they previously offered a la carte. <\/p>\n
Spirit is also offering bundled packages with varying prices that include perks such as checked bags.<\/p>\n
President Joe Biden and the Department of Transportation have been cracking down on what they deem \u201cjunk fees.\u201d As part of that push, the DOT issued a new rule requiring airlines to be upfront about add-on fees such as those for checked or carry-on baggage, which was subsequently challenged by a slew of airlines.<\/p>\n
Spirit said the end of cancellation fees were not tied to the new rules.<\/p>\n
The Biden administration also recently issued a new rule requiring airlines to offer automatic cash refunds for cancellations rather than in response to a customer\u2019s request.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Spirit Airlines is doing away with both change and cancellation fees, effective immediately, days after Frontier\u2019s similar announcement, part of an overhaul of the country\u2019s biggest discount carriers\u2019 longtime strategy. Prior to the new rule, Spirit used to charge anywhere between $69 and $119 for ticket changes and cancellations, depending on how close to departure the customer <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3484,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}