Spirit Airlines, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, only needed one day to give away all 13,400 seats on its 90 flights slated for Sept. 11 in a promotion marking the anniversary of terrorist attacks. Travelers booked all available seats in only eight hours, and Spirit fielded one million phone calls and Web site hits. The Freedom to Travel promo will cost the airline about $2 million, reports “The Detroit Free Press.” “Had it not been for the support of our passengers and their willingness to get back in the air after the tragedy last year, then Spirit Airlines may not have survived,” says ceo Jacob Schorr, who will visit airports that day along with other Spirit execs to shake passengers’ hands.
To complement Spirit’s promo, the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau will give free lodging on Sept. 11 to visitors with an airline ticket and reservations in the area for two or more nights; 38 local hotels are participating.
Travelers who already paid for Spirit flights on Sept. 11 (about 20 percent of seats had been sold before the Aug. 7 offer) will get vouchers for what they paid for the portion of travel that falls on Sept. 11. (American Airlines and United Airlines cut their Sept. 11 schedules due to weak bookings; Delta Airlines cut back its schedule for that whole work week, the Associated Press reports.)
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