I presume they generate millions in profits on the insurance premiums (also known as higher refundable fares).
If they publicly give in, lots of people will decide not to pay the premium, on the assumption that they can wine loudly enough for a freebie.
Doesn’t EVERYBODY know about non-refundable fares?
First of all, I think the refusal is a public relations nightmare. They could have gotten some goodwill by backing down and in hindsight, probably will wish they would have.
But OTOH, if this is their policy and the policy is known and in writing that the person acknowledges it when the person purchases the ticket and it is further known that there will be no refunds or exchanges under any circumstances what so ever unless the additional $14 flight insurance is purchased, and they treat everybody exactly the same, i.e. not refusing to make an exception in Mr. Meekins’ case where they have made similar exceptions for others; then I’m having a bit of a hard time seeing why this is so outrageous.
Yes, Mr. Meekins is surely a sympathetic character; a former cop, a Vietnam veteran, a cancer patient. So are a lot of other people too; a lot probably just as deserving, and some perhaps not so much. If Spirit publically makes an exception for him, how many others will want their “exceptions” too?
But then there is also something about this story that doesn’t quite make sense to me, doesn’t pass the ‘ole “smell test”.
So after Mr. Meekins, who has been battling his cancer for many years BTW, purchased his ticket and supposedly already knowing how sick he was, refused to buy for a mere $14 more, the insurance that would have allowed him to exchange or get a refund for his ticket for “unforeseen circumstances”, and two weeks later his doctor supposedly told him he couldn’t fly because of his cancer, his “compromised immune system”, that he was “too sick to fly”. Yet he was able to drive himself from his home in Florida to visit with his “sick” daughter in New Jersey before her surgery and was also able to make the trip into NYC to make a personal appearance on Fox and Friends.
I’m sorry, but I really have to question just how sick he really is and what sort of doctor would tell him that it’s not OK for him to fly; to take a +/- two hour flight, yet was perfectly OK with him making a 10 to 12 + hour drive on his own, by himself to visit his “sick” daughter and then drive into NYC and meet and shake hands with the TV hosts? Really?
We might want to paint the Spirit Airlines CEO as a mean “spirited” SOB, but here is what he said:
A lot of our customers buy that insurance and what Mr. Meekins asked us to do was essentially give him the benefit of that insurance when he didn’t purchase the insurance,” Baldanza told FoxNews.com by phone. “Had we done that, I think it really would’ve been cheating all the people who actually bought the insurance … and I think that’s fundamentally unfair.”
Baldanza said the $14 insurance covers a “wide range of unexpected events” and would have enabled Meekins to recoup his money.
Ben Baldanza acknowledged the “tragic situation” of Jerry Meekins, 76, of Clearwater, Fla., who has terminal esophageal cancer, but stood his ground on nixing the Vietnam vet's request. Making an exception would be like an insurance company paying to fix a fire-ravaged home even though the owner didn't have a policy before the fire, he said.
The Florida-based budget carrier offered Meekins a credit voucher that would have enabled him to change the flight for a fee, Baldanza said, but the former police officer solely wanted a cash refund.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/03/spirit-airlines-ceo-dying-veteran-didnt-get-refund-because-didnt-buy-insurance/
So in other words, Spirit Airlines is willing to let him change the flight - I’m guessing that also means changing the name on the ticket to be used by someone else, something he (Meekins) said he wanted the airline to do, for a fee of $14, the cost of the insurance after the fact, that if he had purchased when he initially bought the ticket, would have enabled him to do that in the first place. So for a lousy $14 that the buyer could have purchased, we beating the band for this business to go out of business?
And I’m pretty sure that driving from FL to NJ and then into NYC cost a lot more than $197. So for Mr. Meekins it’s not about him needing the $ and this all seems to be about “principle” and that’s what Spirit Airlines is claiming as well.
I’m rather inclined to side with the company on this one.