Delta and Spirit Called Out for Hate-Selling, We Mean Upselling, Tactics

Following his post on hate-selling tactics in the travel industry, Skift founder and CEO Rafat Ali appeared this morning on an NBC Today segment that criticized some of the upselling tactics of Delta and Spirit airlines.

Referring to them as “shaming” tactics, NBC aviation reporter Tom Costello cited Delta’s warnings that travelers who purchase its Basic Economy fares will be the last to board and the final passengers to access overhead bin space, and Spirit’s practice of offering low fares and then using “passive aggressive” tactics to prod travelers to tack on and pay extra for every basic service in sight, including seat assignments and checking a bag.

“Airlines, especially, are trying to upsell you on all kinds of things,” Ali said (beginning at 1:26 in the video below). “Pay for your bag. Pay for extra legroom on your seat. And the way they do it is to shame you to pay more for anything extra.”

In the clip, Delta issued a statement that it is only trying to be transparent about its Basic Economy fares so that travelers know what they are getting.

Consumer advocate Charlie Leocha countered that Delta is not transparent about telling travelers up-front what their costs will be.

Here is the Today segment, “Passengers Shamed Into Paying More?”