If you are a student wanting to save money on commercial airline flights, consider this warning: one student membership automatically renews at regular price after you save 30 percent on airfares during the first year of membership unless you proactively cancel your membership prior to the renewal date.
Warning: This Student Membership Automatically Renews at Regular Price
The airline in question is Spirit Airlines; and the membership program is the Spirit Saver$ Club, which used to be known as the $9 Fare Club. A student who is currently going for her undergraduate degree in college contacted me about what she experienced, which I then forwarded on to the official Twitter — er…X — account of Spirit Airlines:
Greetings — I know a college student who joined the Spirit Saver$ Club last December because she was planning on traveling a lot this year with her ex-boyfriend. They only went on one trip before they broke up; so it really was not a payoff — but as a student, it is a discount of 30 percent; so it was relatively affordable. She guesses that it renewed because she did not cancel her membership on December 2. Worse is that it renewed at the regular rate and not at the student rate for some reason; and they never sent a e-mail message to verify once again that she was still a student as some other companies do; so she recently called to obtain a refund. A representative of Spirit Airlines responded that that cannot be done; but her membership can be canceled. They claim that she will receive her refund as long as she has not used the benefits yet. Is this true?
Regardless, what should she do?
The response from Spirit Airlines was the following:
Hi – We’re saddened to hear that you were caught off guard by the renewal charge of your membership. Please know we are committed to taking care of our Guests. we’re doing all that we can to bring you much better service.
Please be reminded that to enroll you had to agree to the terms and conditions of the Spirit Saver$ Club (previously known as $9 Fare Club), which state that memberships are non-refundable, non-transferable, and are automatically renewed yearly. I’ve included the link below regarding Spirit Saver$ Club terms and conditions.
https://content.spirit.com/Shared/en-us/Documents/ssc-terms-and-conditions.pdf
If there is anything else we can assist with, please let us know. We’re here to help.
Xxxxx
**Social Media Support**
Saddened?!? I am sure that the customer service representatives at Spirit Airlines were sitting at their desks in tears.
I then asked:
Do the terms and conditions of the Spirit Saver$ Club state that student memberships are automatically renewed at full price instead of at a discount of 30 percent?
The response from Spirit Airlines was the following:
Thank you for getting back to us. The discounted student rate will apply to the first year only. The Saver$ Club membership will renew at the normal rate after the first year.
Should there be anything else we can help you with, please reach out.
After quoting a part of that response, I then asked:
“The discounted student rate will apply to the first year only. The Saver$ Club membership will renew at the normal rate after the first year.” Please point out where specifically in the terms and conditions link that was sent to me this is stated. Thank you. https://content.spirit.com/Shared/en-us/Documents/ssc-terms-and-conditions.pdf
The response from Spirit Airlines was the following:
Hi – 30% off a 12-month Spirit Saver$ Club membership with Student Beans. You can see it upon signing up. Here’s the link below.
https://spirit.com/savers-club-students
Please reach out with any other questions, we are here to assist.
I replied with the following statement:
Thank you; but nowhere in that link specifically states that the student membership automatically renews at the regular membership price.
The response from Spirit Airlines was the following:
Thank you for your continued correspondence. We’re sorry to hear that you were unable to find the specific information regarding student membership renewal. I’d be glad to assist you in checking for your concern regarding Student membership renewal.
Please be advised that the 30% off for Spirit Saver$ Club membership with Student Beans is valid for 12 months. The membership will automatically renew once your membership is expired.
Kindly refer to the link https://spirit.com/savers-club-students for more information.
Please let me know if you have any other concern, I’m here to help.
I was starting to become annoyed at the runaround that I was getting and responded with the following:
Stop playing games with me. I can read. Nowhere do the terms and conditions of any link that was sent to me specifically address that student memberships automatically convert to regular membership rates after 12 months. Putting that specific verbiage in the terms and conditions really is not difficult to do.
Plus, the student membership is valid for 12 months. Not a problem. Nowhere do your terms and conditions state that it is valid for **only** 12 months. So a college student who is enrolled for four years can only get one year of discounted membership in the Spirit Saver$ Club?
If that is the case, that needs to be clearly stated. The verbiage of those terms and conditions are rather nebulous in some places. They need to be rewritten.
The response from Spirit Airlines was the following:
Thank you for your continued correspondent.
We have forwarded your message to headquarters.
Please let us know if you have any flight-related questions. We’d love to help.
A Closer Look at Those Terms and Conditions
The terms and conditions of both Spirit Saver$ Club and what is known as the Student Beans version of this membership for students were reviewed.
One section of the Student Beans terms and conditions states…
3.4. At the completion of the original enrollment period, Members will be automatically charged an annual fee of $69.95 for annual membership in the Club. Such annual fees are nonrefundable, notwithstanding Member’s cancellation of membership in the Club.
…but the student discount is never mentioned in the Student Beans terms and conditions. Rather, this section appears, which seems to be simply generic information:
3.1. Upon enrollment, each Member will be charged a fee for membership in the Club. Three membership types are available: one-year – $69.95, eighteen (18)-month – $99.90, and twenty-four (24)-month – $129.90. Eighteen- and twenty-four-month memberships are only available for the initial enrollment membership term.
Final Boarding Call
The current verbiage of the terms and conditions was perceived by me to mean that the $69.95 renewal fee applies to those who have initially paid the full membership fee of $69.95 and not the discounted fee of $48.97 for students. Most discounts for students that are offered by other companies typically last the entire time a student is matriculating. Why would the discounted fee not be extended for the entire period as well while renewing every twelve months?
I have no problem with Spirit Airlines offering a membership that automatically renews. I also arguably do not have an issue with a policy with no refunds if the student member does not pay attention to the date when automated renewal occurs…
…but when the terms and conditions are split in two different areas and a policy is not clearly stated, then the onus is on the company to rectify the issue with the customer and then fix the verbiage of the policy so that it is clearly understood — perhaps with something similar to this:
After the discounted membership of $48.97 for students is completed after 12 months, it will automatically renew at the nonrefundable regular membership fee of $69.95 unless the member cancels his or her membership prior to the annual date of renewal.
Perhaps I am mistaken. What are your thoughts? Are both of the terms and conditions clear enough — or do they need to be reworded so that they are clearer?
Regardless, if you are a student and want to take advantage of the discount of 30 percent that is offered by Spirit Saver$ Club, know that your discount of $48.97 will end after twelve months and automatically renew for the next twelve months at $69.95. If the renewal occurs, you cannot get a refund.
All photographs ©2018 by Brian Cohen.
