Spirit CEO accidentally hits ‘reply to all,’ tells flier ‘we owe him nothing’

Spirit is generating headlines in the blogosphere after its CEO apparently accidentally hit “reply to all” while addressing a customer-service complaint the airline received from a first-time customer. The incident began with a letter from “James and Christine” of Orlando, with the pair asking for compensation because they missed a concert in Atlanta after their Spirit flight was delayed by about three hours. They also cited poor customer service in asking to reimbursed not only for their $73.60 airfare, but also for their hotel, concert tickets and airport parking -– a grand total of $376.84.

The couple’s request seemed unremarkable, but thanks to a post on the blog AlexRudloff.com, the complaint got new life this week after the couple e-mailed Spirit CEO Ben Baldanza directly, copying several other Spirit employees on the complaint. That’s when Baldanza hit “reply to all” -– presumably by accident. According to AlexRudloff.com, Baldanza asked a staffer to get back to the couple, saying in the reply that “we owe him nothing as far as I’m concerned. Let him tell the world how bad we are. He’s never flown us before anyway and will be back when we save him a penny.” Prior to the couple’s e-mail to Baldanza, the e-mail chain posted on AlexRudloff.com indicates the couple was offered up to $200 in Spirit travel vouchers, but the pair said they instead preferred to be reimbursed in cash.

Unfortunately for Spirit, Alex Rudloff’s post on the story has been gaining momentum. It’s now been picked up by several other blogs, including The Consumerist, Jaunted, Gadling, elliot.org, Upgrade: Travel Better and on a blog by FareCompare.com CEO Rick Seaney.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/sky/2007/08/spirit.html

This entry was posted on August 29, 2007 at 7:04 am and is filed under Travel, USA Today. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.