We owe him nothing as far as I’m concerned.

[General Apathy]

Spirit Airlines CEO Ben Baldanza is in hot water this week for talking too much smack.

The story goes like this:

A couple by the name of James and Christine of Orlando wrote a letter to Spirit Airlines asking for compensation because they missed a concert in Atlanta after their Spirit flight was delayed by about three hours. The couple also cited poor customer service when they asked to be reimbursed not only for their $73.60 airfare, but also for their hotel, concert tickets and airport parking…for a grand total of a company crippling $376.84.

Then fellow blogger Alex Rudloff wrote about the story on his blog. That’s when the complaint started to pick up new momentum.

The couple took their complaint one step further by emailing Spirit CEO Ben Baldanza directly. But here’s the thing…they also copied several other Spirit employees on the complaint.That’s when the email challenged CEO hit “reply to all” in his response.

And his reply?

“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.”

According to the USA Today, 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 a blog by FareCompare.com CEO Rick Seaney and now by CEOSmack.

This lack of judgement by Baldanza is now starting to come back to haunt him. The comment trail on blogs far and wide is starting to grow, USA Today has gone national with the story and it won’t be long until the small airline CEO’s arrogance and downright rudeness starts to affect ticket sales.

Well it's probably true - I mean the airlines probably owe thme nothing and they probably would fly again if it were the cheapest route. Not sure if this is much of a suprise. Still, CEOs should be nice.

http://www.ceosmack.com/2007/08/24/s...mail-faux-pas/

[Jack]

Oh the joy of "reply to all".

[Alto Reed on a Tenor Sax]

Hate to side with the CEO, but...

If I am flying in to see a concert, I would make sure the schedule the flight such that a 3-hour delay would not result in my missing the concert. Did they plan on being at the concert half an hour after the sceduled landing? What if there had been 3 hours of traffic getting to the concert?

[openminded]

James and Christine are whiny ass holes and they need to be biatch slapped.

[Jack]

Originally Posted by Alto Reed on a Tenor Sax

Hate to side with the CEO, but...

If I am flying in to see a concert, I would make sure the schedule the flight such that a 3-hour delay would not result in my missing the concert. Did they plan on being at the concert half an hour after the sceduled landing? What if there had been 3 hours of traffic getting to the concert?

The CEO is not wrong he's just a dumbass for putting something like that in a e-mail and even dumber for pressing "reply to all".

[SamTheEagle]

From now on, I will only patronize Sprint Airlines.

[notreallyme]

I side 100% with the CEO.

These people got fair compensation for a not at all uncommon situation. Then they tried to milk to it as far as possible, sometimes it's nice to see the squeaky wheel get told to "Shut the $#&@ Up!"

[Brutus Buckeye]

its also nice to see CEOs who don't want to bend over for their customers take it up their rear once in a while...

...not that Spirit or the CEO owe this guy anything, but to treat their customers with such disrespect, even behind closed doors, is just p*ss-poor.

The CEO should know better. His subordinates take clues from him. His attitude will surely trickle down to those below him.

Even if he meant to keep that email internal, I for 1 and glad to see this guy getting this bad press.

[MountainHawk]

I think the first airline that routinely gave credits for poor service (say, 10% refund of fare per 30 minutes late on arrival) would easy sell out all their seats. Airlines seem to have forgotten they are a service industry, and the whole point of them existing is to make people's life easier.

[Standtall]

Originally Posted by MountainHawk

I think the first airline that routinely gave credits for poor service (say, 10% refund of fare per 30 minutes late on arrival) would easy sell out all their seats. Airlines seem to have forgotten they are a service industry, and the whole point of them existing is to make people's life easier.

I think the airline that sells their flights for a few bucks less than the one you describe (yours), since yours would be forced to raise prices to pay for this guarantee, would destroy your airline competitively.