Need help from Spirit Airlines? It’ll cost you now: the company that brought us carry-on bag fees is cutting corners yet again, by switching its customer help numbers from the toll-free 800 area code to the not-so-free 801 area code. Of course, that change will likely only affect customers calling from a landline, at about $0.05 to $0.18 per minute. In any case, we’re not surprised.

As the Los Angeles Times notes, Spirit currently has a plethora of fees for passengers — over 70 of them — all of which are the airline’s way of continuing to offer low basic fares. Basically if you’re flying without any bags whatsoever and don’t need to dial customer help from a landline, you’re good to go.

“Our new numbers are allowing us to keep our costs low, which we in turn continue to pass along to our customers by way of the ultra-low fares they have come to know and love,” airline spokeswoman Misty Pinson told the LAT.

When Consumerist contacted Spirit for additional comment, she added:

“We introduced new telephone reservation numbers in order to better serve customers based on their specific calling needs.  Customers are now able to choose from a selection of dedicated numbers depending on their calling needs, which provides a more efficient and better overall customer experience.”

She also points out that most people use cell phones these days, and plenty of us are on unlimited calling plans anyway, so no harm done there.

But the fact remains is that there are customers out there who don’t want to pony up pennies on the minute just to get help from any company offering a service, much less Spirit.

What do you think?

Spirit Airlines switches toll-free lines to not-free 801 area code [Los Angeles Times]

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