Saturday, June 12, 2010

Spirit Airlines Strike Is On: Flights Cancelled, Travelers Stranded

On Saturday, Florida-based Spirit Airlines cancelled flights systemwide, leaving thousands of travelers stranded. The reason: A strike called by the airlines' pilots who have long argued their pay lags their competitors, such as JetBlue and Air Tran. On the company website, the airline announced they would offer refunds to all customers who had flights cancelled Saturday, and provide an additional $100 voucher valid for future travel. But this has been little help to some as the cost to repurchase a last minute ticket on a different airline is as much as 2 to 3 times more than the Spirit ticket - leaving some stranded.
No word yet whether flights will operate Sunday.

Spirit normally flies about 150 daily flights throughout the United States - mostly east coast, and throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. The airline briefly operated flights to/from San Francisco in 2006.