Yahoo Finance Travelers can save money as Spirit Airlines joins Frontier, other rival airlines in fee updates
May 21 (UPI) -- Two American budget airlines have in recent days announced a series of deals and other price restructuring policies aimed at saving travelers money to get the two companies on par with their larger rival competitors.
Spirit Airlines said Monday they are getting rid of cancellation and change fees effective immediately, a change which could save travelers up to $119 depending.
"As we continue to see the demand and competitive environments develop, we know that we must also change with the times," Spirit's Chief Commercial Officer Matt Klein said earlier in the month on a company earnings call.
"We will continue to test out new merchandising strategies, which we anticipate will change how we think about the components of total revenue generation," Klein said. Spirit's new change this week follows Frontier Airlines announcement on Friday they would be taking similar steps by eliminating change fees and offering bundles or other add-on choices.
"Today marks the beginning of a new era for Frontier -- one with transparency in our prices, no change fees and the lowest total price," Barry Biffle, Frontier Airlines CEO said Friday in the company statement outlining the new changes.
This cost-saving measures for customers is the latest in a series of moves or other changes by both airlines over the last few months and years with the goal to return the company's to higher profitability.
In May 2023, the Biden administration, amid its crackdown on "junk fees," announced new federal protocols that for the first time now require all commercial airlines to compensate passengers for controllable cancellations or significant delays.
The Denver-headquartered Frontier Airlines in March said they would guarantee an empty middle seat on some of its flights in a new upgrade deal.
But in November 2022, the budget carrier Frontier was ordered to pay $222 million, along with five foreign carriers that operate in the United States, to collectively pay back more than $600 million to passengers who were denied cash refunds after their flights were canceled due to COVID-19 lockdowns. It happened the same month Frontier switched to a digital customer service platform that limits customer interactions via phone.
In January, a federal judge blocked a planned $3.8 billion buy of Florida-based Spirit Airlines from JetBlue in a proposed merger that would have created the fifth-largest airline in a deal the two companies said would help them grow and compete against its larger rivals, such as United and Delta.
This past month in April, Spirit Airlines announced that it was deferring the planned delivery of new Airbus jetliners and were furloughing 260 of its pilots in a move "to bolster profitability and strengthen our balance sheet," Spirit President and CEO Ted Christie said at the time.
But later Tuesday afternoon the airline posted on X that Spirit had welcomed their newest Airbus jet to the company's fleet.
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