Spirit Airlines agreed to pay up to $8.25 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by passengers who said the low-cost carrier blinded them with surprise charges for the hand luggage on tickets purchased through third-party travel services.
This concerns Spirit travelers who have booked their flights via Expedia, Travelocity, CheapTickets And BookIt between August 2011 and May 2017, when the complaint was filed. Lawyers for the passengers disclosed the deal in a motion Wednesday night in federal court in Brooklyn and asked a judge to approve it, saying it “represents a fair compromise”. Eligible travelers who request a refund under the agreement will receive up to 75% of their costs, although this amount may be lower depending on the total amount of refunds requested by all group members. The maximum payout of $8.25 million will include attorney’s fees, according to the petition.
Like other low-cost airlines, Spirit, based in Miramar, Florida, relies on extra charge to compensate for lower base fares. Plaintiffs in the 2017 lawsuit accused the carrier of misleadingly advertising low prices on websites of journey that concealed baggage fees “gotcha”, which travelers had to pay at the airport. They claimed that these fees were sometimes as high as the tickets themselves. The plaintiffs initially sought $100 million in damages, though that sum was dropped in a later version of the lawsuit.
