{"id":2012654,"date":"2023-08-25T23:34:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-26T03:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/spirit-airlines-enters-8-25-million-settlement-for-hidden-baggage-fees\/"},"modified":"2023-08-25T23:35:22","modified_gmt":"2023-08-26T03:35:22","slug":"spirit-airlines-enters-8-25-million-settlement-for-hidden-baggage-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/spirit-airlines-enters-8-25-million-settlement-for-hidden-baggage-fees\/","title":{"rendered":"Spirit Airlines agrees to pay $8.25 million in settlement for undisclosed baggage fees."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fspirit-airlines-enters-8-25-million-settlement-for-hidden-baggage-fees%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2012654&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div data-post-content=\"true\" class=\"post_content\" id=\"post_content\">\n<h2>Spirit \u2062Airlines Settles Class\u2063 Action Lawsuit Over Baggage Fees<\/h2>\n<p>Spirit \u200bAirlines has reached an $8.25 million\u200d settlement \u200cin \u200da \u2064<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/psaki-defends-treasury-secretary-janet-yellen-for-taking-money-from-citadel-wont-commit-to-recusal-in-gamestop-scandal-video\/\" title=\"Psaki Defends Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen For Taking Money From Citadel \u2013 Won\u2019t Commit to Recusal in GameStop Scandal (VIDEO)\">class action lawsuit<\/a> that \u2062accused the low-cost carrier of deceiving passengers with hidden baggage fees. The lawsuit, filed by plaintiff\u200b Thomas Cox in 2017, alleged\u200b that Spirit misled consumers into believing they were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/spirit-airlines-enters-8-25-million-settlement-for-hidden-baggage-fees\/\" title=\"Spirit Airlines agrees to pay .25 million in settlement for undisclosed baggage fees.\">purchasing low airfare<\/a>, only to\u200d charge them fraudulent and unwarranted fees.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cIn some \u200cinstances, a carry-on piece of luggage costs as much \u200cas four times the\u200c cost of a checked piece. Spirit\u2019s bait-and-switch and \u2018gotcha\u2019 tactics are designed\u200c to confuse, trick,\u2063 and trap consumers to\u2063 the public\u2019s detriment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>Fee\u200b Structure\u200c Controversy<\/h3>\n<p>The lawsuit claimed that Spirit did not clearly disclose its fee structure to customers \u200bwho purchased tickets through third-party vendors. The \u2063nature\u200d of the airline\u2019s baggage fees was deemed misleading. Customers\u2063 who paid their baggage fees \u2062online before arriving at the airport paid the least amount, \u200bwhile \u200bfees increased incrementally for those who paid at \u200cthe airport, sometimes reaching up to $100. Bags checked\u2062 ahead of time usually cost around $40.<\/p>\n<p>Former\u2062 Spirit\u200c CEO Ben Baldanza referred to the $100 baggage fee as a \u200dpenalty, but customers were\u2062 not informed in advance that they would\u2062 be subject to this penalty.<\/p>\n<h2>The Settlement<\/h2>\n<p>The settlement, agreed \u200bupon by nine plaintiffs, \u200bincludes first-time fliers of Spirit Airlines who purchased tickets \u2064between Aug. 31, 2011, and May \u200c3, 2017, from online travel agents such as Expedia, Travelocity, Kiwi, CheapOair, CheapTickets, and BookIt.\u200b Class members will receive up to 75 percent of the\u2062 carry-on \u2064bag \u2062fee they paid, covering all\u2064 potential\u2064 costs.<\/p>\n<p>Attorneys involved in the case\u2062 could receive up to $2.75 \u2062million, while each class representative may receive a \u200dmaximum of $7,500. The settlement is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/donald-trump-trial-former-president-faces-aug-10-arraignment-in-florida-case\/\" title=\"Donald Trump's trial: Ex-president to be arraigned in Florida on August 10.\">pending court approval<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Class Members and Damages<\/h3>\n<p>Spirit has identified over 800,000 \u200bpotential\u200d class members, but approximately 350,000 of them do not have a known mailing address. The\u2063 settlement estimates that the list of \u200cclass members could be lower by 10 percent, resulting in around 720,000 members. The average carry-on \u200dfee paid by potential \u200bclass members was $45.83, which, when\u2063 multiplied by 720,000, would amount to approximately \u200c$33 million in damages.<\/p>\n<p>However, the actual number of class members with non-time barred claims is unknown, so a claims process would have been necessary\u200d post-trial.\u200d Therefore, Spirit&#8217;s trial exposure could \u200dhave been higher or lower \u200bthan\u2064 the agreed settlement \u200bamount.<\/p>\n<h2>Airline Baggage Fees and \u2063Regulations<\/h2>\n<p>Airlines are required by the Code of Federal Regulations to clearly disclose baggage fees to passengers who book tickets online.\u200c They must promptly and prominently display any increases in carry-on or\u2062 checked bag fees on\u200b their websites. Additionally, airlines or their \u2062ticket agents must clearly and prominently disclose \u2063any additional baggage fees\u2063 during \u2064the fare quotation process.<\/p>\n<p>Passengers should also be informed about \u200ctheir free baggage allowance and any applicable fees. The U.S. Department \u200dof Transportation holds airlines responsible for repairing lost, delayed,\u2064 or damaged baggage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spirit Airlines has settled a class action lawsuit for $8.25 million. The lawsuit accused the airline of deceiving passengers with undisclosed baggage fees. Plaintiff Thomas Cox filed the lawsuit in 2017, claiming that Spirit misled him and other consumers. The airline has been accused of ongoing deception.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":186,"featured_media":2012655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2012654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/186"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2012654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2012655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2012654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2012654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2012654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}