Spirit Airlines Tasteless Oil Spill Humor?

Appearing on the spiritair.com website this morning are a series of ads inviting customers to visit select cities the airline serves - including Ft. Lauderdale.

Pretty tasteless considering oil has already made landfall in other parts of Florida.

Spirit Airlines Apologizes, Offers 5,000 Free Miles

As a result of last weeks strike and associated flight cancellations, Spirit Airlines is giving thanks to its customers by giving away 5,000 Free Spirit miles to all members. Simply fill out this form by midnight on June 30th to earn the bonus miles. Note: You must be an existing member of the frequent flyer program to qualify.

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.

ManyBag and LapChildren Fees from Spirit Airlines

By Mike Grasso

Spirit Airlines currently permits checked bags on their flights for a $5-$10 fee (the lower reflects bag payment made online versus the airport). Effective February 20th, that fee doubles; $10-$20 per bag. More than 3 bags will cost an additional $100 bucks each. You may haul a free carry-on and one personal item onboard the plane free of charge.

While other airlines charge excess baggage fees, Spirit takes it to a higher level. American and United for example charge $80 and $85 respectively, for a 3rd checked bag. Southwest, even with the introduction of charging a fee for the 3rd bag (effective January 29), it will set you back only 25 bucks. Spirit is truly leading the way in higher baggage fees.

Want to bring a LapChild along during your Spirit flight? (They don't count as the free carry-on). Children under the age of 2 are not required to purchase their own seat, but come May 1st if they're going to sit in your lap, those little people incur a LapChildren fee of $25 bucks each way on Spirit Airlines.

To compare LapChild fees, SkyBus, often referred to as the lowest of low cost carriers operating in the U.S, charges $10 for each segment a child is parked on your lap, but they also charge as little as $10 bucks for a flight; the added fee seems reasonable there. Otherwise, this type of fee doesn't really exist with other airlines in the United States. So in sum, that infant of yours will soon pay for his/her share of onboard oxygen and fuel costs when flying Spirit Airlines.

In defense of these fees, the airlines are struggling to cut costs, and a few pounds of infancy do add a few bucks to operating costs. It's possible then, in the larger airline world, we might expect other airlines to follow Spirits move on similar LapChildren fees, and modify their existing ManyBag fees.

Background on Spirit Airlines:
Spirit Airlines inaugurated flights from San Francisco Airport in 2006, but does not currently offer routes from the Bay Area; it's unknown whether the airline pulled out completely, or seasonally. Spirit offers a huge network of routes throughout the East Coast and the Caribbean.

Hurricane Dean Travel Advisory
Among others, Spirit and Delta Airlines have issued travel advisories and relaxed travel rules for passengers with travel plans into the Bahamas and Caribbean over the next few days.

As of 10am Saturday, Hurricane Dean, a Category 4 Hurricane was expected to rip through the island of Jamaica later Sunday, then head toward the Gulf of Mexico in the U.S.

Anyone planning travel into the Southeast U.S over the next several days should also monitor the storm track of Dean.