Spirit Airlines Quietly Brings Back Change Fees for Some Flyers

After dropping change fees in a marketing push for more flyers last year, ultra-low-cost-carrier Spirit Airlines quietly brought them back earlier this month, as first reported by One Mile At A Time. 

Spirit will now charge change fees for its “Go” fares, its lowest fare tier. The amount of the fee varies depending on when a customer makes a change—the closer to departure date, the higher the fee. 

The highest change fee, too those cancelling within six days of departure, is $99 and it goes down from there—those changing their flight between 7 and 30 days out will pay $79; and those doing so between 31 and 59 days will pay $59. 

Spirit will continue to offer no change fee to those who want to change more than 60 days before departure. 

It has been rough going for Spirit Airlines since the pandemic, a stretch that came to a head last week when it received approval for its plan to convert $795 million in debt to equity, a major step in the airline’s effort to emerge from bankruptcy as a private company.

The airline has been the target of two failed acquisition attempts in the past three years. JetBlue first bid $3.8 billion for Spirit before a federal judge blocked the deal. Last month, Frontier made an offer, but Spirit rejected it in favor of bankruptcy restructuring.

During its announcement last week, Spirit President and CEO Ted Christie said that upon emerging from bankruptcy, the airline will be “stronger” and able to operate with significantly more financial flexibility.

“As we move forward, our leadership team remains focused on reducing costs while also advancing our strategic initiatives to transform our guest experience and position Spirit for success,” he said.