Spirit Airlines staff fed up being called DD MILF’S by their employer

by Scott Carmichael on

The hard working cabin crew at Spirit Airlines are fed up – they are annoyed that their boss is inviting passengers to check out their DD’s, and asking people to come book a “MILF”.

For those that missed out on a “movie classic”, MILF is a reference from American Pie, and the abbreviation means “Mother I’d like to F**K”.

That’s right – Spirit is using that cheeky reference as a way to get passengers on their low cost flights. In the world of Spirit Airlines, MILF means “Many Islands Low Fares”, a reference to their $9 island flights.

Oh, and DD? It doesn’t refer to the breast size of their staff, it’s just a way of saying “deep discounts”.

Still, the cheesy innuendo has become so much of an issue that the staff have asked their union to force Spirit to pull the series of ads.

Another hot issue is ad placement – Spirit began selling ad space on tray tables, cups and napkins. The next item in line for ads was the staff apron which has become a placard for Bud light, and the crew is fed up with it.

Union reps claim that flight attendants will have a hard time telling drunk passengers that they will be cut off from booze sales, when they are walking around as walking beer commercials – and I happen to agree with that.

Of course, the airline says the initiatives help the company grow, and secure jobs, but there have to be better ways to make a few bucks, especially if it is annoying your staff this much.

(Via: Foxnews.com, image from Zazzle.com)

Fat finger deals – should your airline or hotel honor them?

by Scott Carmichael on

A fat finger deal is the name given to airline deals where someone “with fat fingers” missed a zero, or put a comma in the wrong place when entering air or hotel prices.

The deals pop up more often than you’d think in this day and age, but airlines are starting to fight back. In recent years, some of the better fat finger deals would get you from the US to most European destinations for $20, or from LA to Fiji for just $50.

The mistakes are human, and despite all the computerized air fare systems, at the end of the day there is still someone locked away in an office who is responsible for loading the thousands of various air fare combinations into a computer terminal, and I’m sure we all know that when people get involved, something will eventually go wrong.

In the past, airlines would do one of several things;

  • Ignore the problem and let people benefit from the screw-up
  • Let people know the deal would be honored, but only on a smaller scale, hotels would let people stay a few nights instead of the months they’d often book
  • Let people take the trip AND try to benefit from all the good PR they create by honoring it

Nowadays airline are in a world of hurt, and any kind of screw-up that could cost them money has to come to an end. When passengers grab one of these fat finger deals, the airline will simply cancel it, and in most cases won’t even bother to inform them.

A natural reaction to this behavior is that the airline is perfectly within its rights to do so – it was an honest mistake, and they have page after page of fine print protecting their business practices. But there is one very simply reason why I don’t think the airlines deserve to get off easy – mistakes are not a one way street.

If you book a non refundable hotel room and made a mistake entering the date, you are screwed. If you book a ticket on the airline, but make a spelling error in your name, some airlines will charge you $90 to fix it. Airlines have perfected the art of making money off your mistakes, but when they mess up, they simply make the problem go away.

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How to get cheap deals for that Las Vegas trip

by Jamie Rhein on

Depending on which part of the U.S. you live, Las Vegas can be a very cheap vacation. As a person who would not put Las Vegas on my top 10 list, I’ve been here five times, partly because it has been an inexpensive get-a-away with careful planning.

These days, with careful planning, Las Vegas can still be an affordable, doable trip, but the planning takes a bit more work because of the number of flights being cut from airlines’ schedules. In an article in the Dallas Morning News, Tom Parsons compares travel packages from Southwest Airlines, US Airways, and American Airlines and showed the price difference between them, as well as what the trips would cost if the plane tickets and hotel had been booked separately. The price difference was substantial, although in a few cases, booking separately snagged him a better deal.

The cheapest deal was on US Airways, but Parsons said to register for e-mail programs from the hotels where you would like to stay in order to receive e-mails about an upcoming deal. (He said the timing is usually two months in advance.)

Be persistent is the motto of Parson’s missive. He was able to get a cheaper room deal at the Mirage by calling the hotel directly after he found out that the room rates had dropped from the time he originally booked a reservation. He actually did this twice. The result was a $344 savings.

Here are other tips:

  • Plan your stay for days between Sunday and Thursday
  • Avoid the second week of January when conventions are plentiful and prices go up
  • He also says to be aware of cancellation policies so you don’t get stuck having to pay a higher price if the price drops later.

My advice to cut costs is to stay at a cheaper hotel, eat at cheaper places most of the time based on which casinos are giving out meal deals, and then use the extra money to take in a show, but only consider the ones that are offering discounts. Make snagging the best deals part of the fun.

As Grant’s recent post on his first hand experience in Las Vegas indicates, the number of folks in Las Vegas has gone way down so hotels will be looking for you. Their need could be your gain financially. Keep an eye out.