Spirit Airlines is notorious for its cheapness, its bare-bones service and its lackluster customer service. It's no surprise, then, that the carrier is the most-hated airline in the industry -- earning a rate of complaints three times higher than other U.S. airlines, according to a major study [PDF] released earlier this year.
But Spirit isn't afraid of that. The company is well aware why people fly on its planes regardless: Low prices.
The airline asked travelers to share what they hate about air travel in general, and it got about 30,000 respondents. The responses have been compiled into an oddly-named study: "State of Hate".
According to the report, 60% of the responses to Spirit's survey mentioned other airlines. Air travel is a hassle "no matter which airline you fly," Spirit concluded.
"I think if any organization asks for feedback you would expect the vast majority of responses would be directed at the company that seeks it, but in this case we were surprised that most consumers chose to share their frustrations about other airlines," President and CEO Ben Baldanza said in a statement.
Some stats from the report:
20% of people hate everything about airline seats, from the size to the war over reclining
16% of people hate lost bags and baggage policies
15% of people hate delays and airline customer service
Spirit itself came in "first" (i.e. worst) in the report when it came to complaints about extra fees.
“We don’t look at them as fees, they are options that our customers can choose or not depending on how much money they wish to save,” Baldanza said. “But this clearly shows we need to continue educating our customers about our business model.
"Our experience shows once customers understand how much money they save with our model, they like it a lot.”
Spirit was not surprised that people complained about fees, but they were surprised about the "level of vitriol and expletives used in many of the hate messages."
The report includes a "vulgarity index," with a graphic that -- strangely enough -- does not include mentions about Spirit.
