In The "Spirit" of Decency....

Over the last couple of days I’ve read several accounts of a story involving 76 year old Marine veteran Jerry Meekins, of Clearwater, Florida. Meekins, also a Vietnam veteran, suffers from advanced esophageal cancer. He purchased a ticket to fly from Tampa to New Jersey to be with his daughter while she had surgery. After he purchased the ticket, Meekin’s doctor told him his condition was too precarious to fly since he would be exposed to a closed environment and the chance of infection was far too great. It could kill him. Mr. Meekins cancelled his plans to fly to New Jersey and requested a refund from the carrier, Spirit Airlines. The ticket purchased by Mr. Meekins was apparently non-refundable – regardless of the reason. It sounds, however, like Spirit didn’t really care much about the reason because they refused to refund the $197 to Meekins because, as a spokesperson allegedly put it, “Spirit will not make customers who follow the rules pay for those who don’t.” Most airlines I’ve heard about make exceptions, even to the “non-refundable” rule, because of certain conditions, such as a death, illness, etc. Apparently Spirit Airlines doesn’t make exceptions for catastrophic occurrences, such as “if you fly in your medical condition it could easily kill you.” Obviously Mr. Meekins is simply a selfish individual who thinks his irrelevant status as a Marine veteran who happens to be a dying cancer patient should earn him special consideration from the airlines. The nerve of the man! How could a company such as Spirit Airlines be expected to refund the huge sum of $197 simply because the man’s doctor told him flying could kill him? The nerve of some people who want something for nothing! Oh, wait… he doesn’t want something for nothing. He wants to be reimbursed for a ticket that he had to cancel through no fault of his own and for something he did not expect. OK, I realize if Spirit refunds this man they may be asked to refund money for other, selfish customers – like when someone dies and can’t use the purchased ticket and their 80 year old spouse would like a refund because they’re living on a fixed income and could barely afford the ticket in the first place. I can understand how something like that could bankrupt the company. So let’s never give refunds regardless of the reason. That way you never have to make a compassionate decision. Whatever happened to compassion in business? Whatever happened to keeping your customers happy? What Spirit Airlines obviously doesn’t understand is that their refusal to refund this man’s money is hurting them far more than the $197 it would lose for the ticket. Several veterans’ groups are considering a boycott of Spirit Airlines and the negative publicity their already getting has gone nationwide. I’d like to believe this decision, and the accompanying (alleged) statement of the spokesperson, were made at the bottom level and that the company executives will prove that Spirit Airlines really does have a heart. We shall see. I can’t recall ever flying Spirit Airlines but I can tell you that if this isn’t resolved in a positive manner for Mr. Meekins, I won’t be doing so in the future. Any airlines that shows so little compassion to a dying man won’t be one that I give any money to. Spirit Airlines – you have the chance to do something good and right. Please do so. We are watching….