The Scoop: After Spirit folds, other airlines step in to win loyalty

Budget airline Spirit abruptly ceased operations and grounded its planes on Saturday after attempts to reach a government bailout failed. This left thousands of travelers without a way to get to their destination — or even to get home, for those mid-trip.

Most other American airlines stepped into the gap to help people get home, and undoubtedly to try to earn a bit of brand loyalty from former Spirit passengers.

The most popular form of assistance was in the form of price-capped replacement tickets for those holding Spirit confirmation numbers. While Spirit said that passengers would receive refunds, it was unclear how long that would take.

One typical statement came from American Airlines:

To help customers whose travel may be disrupted, we immediately put rescue fares into place on Spirit routes where American also offers nonstop service. American serves 70 of the 72 airports Spirit presently serves, and 67 of the specific routes Spirit currently operates. We are also reviewing opportunities to add additional capacity — including utilizing larger aircraft and adding flights on critical routes — to support as many affected passengers as possible.

United specified that its rescue fares would mostly be $199, and no higher than $299. Frontier, Spirit’s main low-cost competitor, touted “up to 50% off base fares,” though a look at the fine print showed this only applied to flights on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday and must be purchased at least 21 days in advance, which doesn’t help anyone currently in the lurch.

Many of the airlines’ statements also offered help to the estimated 17,000 displaced Spirit employees. Delta offered Spirit flight attendants and pilots standby assistance to get home, while also creating a special job application portal to flag ex-Spirit employees’ applications for priority consideration.

Why it matters: An airline going out of business overnight is a crazy circumstance — but it was also a foreseeable one. Spirit had been in negotiation with the government for weeks in  hopes of securing a bailout deal. There was always the chance that it would fail. These airlines, in partnership with the federal government, were ready to step in and help travelers, which undoubtedly will earn them goodwill and a chance for customers to try out an airline they perhaps had not considered before.

However, will ploys like Frontier’s backfire? When examined closely, their offers were far more scant than the other airlines’, with plenty of fine print and caveats. They were also the most overtly promotional in their language, also touting their basic “Go Wild” all-you-can-fly pass. This might turn customers off … or it may not matter as the most price-sensitive customers fly what they can afford.

Preparation paid off here for many. While the situation is still chaotic and unsettling for many, airlines took the opportunity to help people get home for reasonable rates, recruit new employees and hopefully earn some goodwill.

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Allison Carter is editorial director of PR Daily and Ragan.com. Follow her on LinkedIn.