A couple years ago, the CEO accidentally replied all to a customer complaint when he meant to forward it to a customer care manager. All it said was "get this bitchy asshole off my hands."
It does not surprise me that a company run by a guy with that philosophy would make such an error.
Spirit cancelled their original flight, booked them on USAir.
USAir is the carrier that employed the pilots and cabin crew that got everyone out, saved lives, etc.
Spirit then said "That'll be $90 cancellation fee, please."
(Spirit has since gone back on the very last point.)
That last point is merely the reversal of a wrong, which doesn't make it worthy of an "Atta boy, Spirit!" IMO.
I'm disinclined to cut them slack for this.
That IS the problem. They shouldn't be trained to blindly follow "rules," they should be trained to help customers. That means knowing when the rules shouldn't apply!
This same scenario has happened countless times in the past.
This incident was a tragedy for everyone involved. For the pilots and crew, the passengers and all of their friends and family -- many of whom were other spirit employees.
Cut them some slack.
Running a big company like that and reacting to a plane crash, which -- come on now, it doesn't happen often and look, they got everyone out. Everyone from Spirit /on/ the plane did exactly what they were trained to do perfectly and it saved lives.
And now, someone at the front line does what they were trained to do perfectly and you raise a fuss.