Spirit Fingers!

This post is in response to this blog by Mark Collier: http://www.whatsnextblog.com/archives/2007/10/post_112.asp

I love that the Spirit Airlines CEO started this whole thing simply by accident, and I applaud Mr. and Mrs. Rudoff for spreading the word of Spirit’s low regard for customers- although they were asking for quite a lot for a late $35 flight. Ever heard the term “you get what you pay for”? It has never been truer.

What Spirit has made obvious is that they are cheap. Not only do they offer cheap tickets to their customers, they treat their customers as cheap objects- unworthy of their airlines. Tip for Spirit Airlines: You wouldn’t be in business if it weren’t for your “cheap” customers.

As a PR student, I have a few ideas on what I would do as Spirit’s PR representation.
First, the CEO would give a public apology to the Rudoff family and a year worth of free Spirit flights would be supplied to them. Secondly, a blog by the company would be started, and the CEO would appologize on Mr. Rudoff's blog as well. If they learned anything from this, it’s that bloggers have some power (oh, and don’t hit “reply to all” when replying to a customer service e-mail). This corporate blog can be used to answer complaints and talk about good experiences that people have with Spirit Airlines. Thirdly, the CEO and some crucial members of the Spirit team would take some public responsibility courses, which would include some media training to deal with instances such as these.

Apparently, Spirit’s spokeswoman Alison Russel said “We wouldn’t respond to a blog post” – cheap company, cheap representation (who doesn’t understand the value of blogging).