Ben Baldanza, the CEO for Spirit Airlines, made a big mistake while handling an emailed complaint from a disgruntled couple asking for compensation after a flight delay made them miss a concert. His jerky reply has become well known now.
A couple from Orlando purchased seats on Spirit Airline for the very first time. They were flying to see a concert in Atlanta, but when the flight was delayed they missed their concert. They wanted the $73.60 airfare to be reimbursed, as well as the money they were out for the concert tickets, hotel room, and airport parking fee, which added up to $376.84.
They emailed the CEO of Spirit and complained of poor customer service from the company along with the request for compensation. Baldanza told one of his staff in an email to handle the complaint and said,
"we owe him nothing as far as I'm concerned. Let him tell the world how bad we are. He's never flown us before anyway and will be back when we save him a penny."
Instead of only sending this to the staffer though, he hit "reply to all" and the Orlando couple got to see what the CEO really thought of their complaint. They sent his emailed reply to the
AlexRudloff.com blog, and it is now being picked up by many, many other
blogs.
Before the couple took their complaint to the top dog of Spirit Airline they were offered $200 in air travel vouchers, but they refused this because they wanted a cash reimbursement.
