RIP Spirit Airlines

Today, Explained

Vox

Politics, Daily News, News

4.3 • 10.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2026

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Lessons from the life and death of America’s most beloved, most hated, most bootleg airline. This episode was produced by Hady Mawajdeh, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Gabriel Dunatov, engineered by David Tatasciore and Bridger Dunnagan, and hosted by Noel King. Spirit Airlines planes parked on the tarmac in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at ⁠vox.com/today-explained-podcast.⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Spirit Airlines had many detractors.
0:04.0	They're the hidden fees airline.
0:06.0	They're the number one in complaints.
0:09.0	Like they literally just left people stranded.
0:12.0	Suck it on your extra fees.
0:14.0	Spirit also had many defenders.
0:16.0	Spirit Airlines doesn't have customer service.
0:19.0	You don't pay for customer service. Spirit always got me to where I needed to be.
0:23.6	I give them their gas money, and they drop me off in Kabul.
0:27.6	And then over the weekend, it shut down, stranding passengers.
0:31.6	I just woke up to the text message that Spirit has literally shut down,
0:35.6	so now I have to figure out a way to get home.
0:38.5	I hope the people who have created this inconvenience for people like myself,
0:43.4	they should ask God for forgiveness.
0:45.5	Breaking Pilots' hearts mid-flight.
0:47.7	I don't remember any the bad times. Just the good ones.
0:50.8	Coming up on today, Explain from Fox, lessons from the life and death of America's most beloved, most hated, most bootleg budget airline.
0:59.8	Support for her today's explaining comes from CNN.
1:02.1	Cool.
1:02.6	Cable News Network.
1:03.5	What's up?
1:04.1	Do you want to live forever?
	...

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