Airlines offered fare discounts, status matches, and job interviews after Spirit’s shutdown. One non-airline company took a very different approach.
When Spirit Airlines shut down operations, airlines across the industry rushed in to help stranded passengers and displaced employees.
- Airlines including American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, Frontier Airlines and Southwest Airlines either capped or reduced ticket prices for passengers, stranded by the bankrupt airline, to book new flights.
- American, Allegiant, Frontier and Delta advertised reduced fares on the same routes Spirit once flew, so those who wanted to fly from their home locations potentially still could.
- JetBlue, Southwest and Avelo offered to status match Spirit elite status.
- Multiple airlines from around the world are offering job interviews for the professionals of Spirit Airlines who suddenly found themselves out of a job.
But one company outside the airline world saw an opportunity to jump in, too.
And their solution was…unexpected.
So which company stepped in?
Papa John’s.
I mean, it was nice of them to try to ease the pain a little.
But the operative word there was definitely “little.”
The free pizza offer
“Papa Johns is stepping in to offer a soft landing with ‘Skies to Pies,’ because when travel plans fall apart, pizza plans shouldn’t,” the company said in a press release late last week.
For a limited time, former Spirit loyalty members were able to use their unusable Spirit points for pizza at Papa Johns. To snag the deal, guests had to DM @PapaJohns on Instagram with proof that they were a Spirit loyalty member, then show that they were a Papa Rewards member with a screenshot of their account.
Here’s how it worked
- Show you were a Spirit Loyalty Member
Direct message @PapaJohns on Instagram proof that you were a Spirit loyalty member - Join Papa Rewards
Prove that you’re a Papa Rewards member (Join today at papajohns.com) by also direct messaging a screen shot of your Papa Johns account - Get Your Pizza
Once verified, Papa Johns will send the first 250 people a code for a free large one‑topping pizza. While supplies last.
The bad news
The bad news was they only made the offer to the first 250 people who followed the instructions.
Spirit Airlines never said how many Free Spirit members they had, but after 30-something years, estimates generally put Spirit’s membership somewhere in the 10-15 million member range.
So 250 out of, let’s average it at 12.5 million.
How altruistic of them.
“Loyalty points don’t mean much if you can’t use them,” said Shivram Vaideeswaran, SVP of Brand Marketing at Papa Johns. “While we can’t fix cancelled flights or lost membership points, hopefully we can provide a smile and a delicious pizza to those impacted.”
Well, to 250 of those impacted, anyway. #rolleyes.
To be fair, no company was obligated to offer Spirit customers anything at all.
But limiting the promotion to such a tiny number of people definitely made the whole thing feel a little more like a publicity stunt than a large-scale goodwill effort.
Still, somewhere out there, a few former Spirit loyalty members did apparently get free food out of the deal.
So there’s that. 😏
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