This airline is being fined $50,000 for tweets lying about $9 tickets

Spirit Airlines is in a heap of trouble after a few deceptive price advertising tweets. Market Watch reports that the Florida-based airline tweeted in June about the availability of $9 (USD) each-way fares to and from Los Angeles, a tantalizing offer sure to pull in easy traffic.

What Spirit Airlines failed to do, however, was mention the additional taxes, fees and added requirements needed to obtain these otherwise cheap tickets.

In response, The U.S. Department of Transportation saddled Spirit Airlines with a $50,000 fee for violating federal rules prohibiting deceptive price advertising.

“Only after visiting the airline’s website were the taxes and fees disclosed, but the amounts were still kept hidden until a second click. Also, Spirit didn’t print the tax and fee amounts on billboards and hand-held posters also used to advertise the new service.”

I find it interesting to note that although Spirit Airlines may have intentionally lured in prospective customers with deceptive pricing, it’s not as though they didn’t officially reveal the actual requirements during the purchase process. This makes me wonder: As a potential flight-goer, do you find the above worthy of a $50,000 fine, or do you see it as more of an annoyance than a blatant scam?

Regardless, laws are laws, and this is one airline suffering the consequences. I’d be interested to hear from those who may have actually gone through the entire purchase process without reading the finer details.