GUWonder

I'm not sure the Spirit airline loyalty program is so weak, especially as the legacy majors competing against Spirit are increasingly gutting their own airline "loyalty" programs. Either way, the gap seems to be narrowing between strong and weak airline programs.

A new forum dedicated to Spirit would help people to know how to better play the airline's program.

I've never flown NK, but I've seen them used more now than ever before; and some people seem to be increasingly toying around with the NK program.

CMK10

Looking back at the last month in the North/South American Airlines Forums I see a whopping three threads about Spirit. I'm sorry but I still do not see the demand. At this point I'd vote no on a motion.

GUWonder

When an airline is buried in a forum, perhaps it gets less attention than it would if it had its own forum? I'm betting that (in the case of Spirit and its program) the results are a product of this.

Out of sight, out of mind?

CMK10

It's hardly buried in a forum. And saying that the forum is quiet enough that the first page of the forum can show almost a month of threads I don't think much is getting lost in the shuffle here.

GUWonder

I didn't say the forum is quiet enough. I'm saying that Spirit gets buried in a forum where many people who may be interested in Spirit will never encounter Spirit threads because so few go into the forum in which Spirit topics are currently buried amongst a lot of other topics.

Spirit having its own forum on FT would make it more obvious to way more people where to discuss Spirit topics or find out information on FT. And having a dedicated forum also increases the odds of people familiar with the airline more actively engaging in discussions of the airline.

Given Spirit has as many or more customers than some of the airlines which have their own airline-specific forums on FT, I'm not sure why Spirit should be left out from having a specific forum dedicated to it.

If we didn't have dedicated airline program forums on FT and had buried all North American airline programs' topics in some "Other Airlines of North America and South America forum" or something like that when FT was started, would this place have become what it became? I doubt it.

While there is some line -- don't know where it should be drawn -- between overspecialization of forums and under specialization of forums on FT if people here care about information-sharing and discussion quality and growth related to that, I'm not sure why that line should be drawn to exclude Spirit when Frontier, Westjet and Virgin America have their own airline-specific forums on FT.

nsx

VX has a loyalty program worth considering. Frontier used to have such a program. Spirit's program has nothing that an FT'er would be attracted to. That reduces the scope of discussion.

I believe that Spirit will continue to grow, and some day they may feel the need for a semi-competitive loyalty program. Southwest's Herb Kelleher famously resisted creating a program for many years before giving in.

CMK10

I've started a thread in the private forum to see what the other TB members think. Perhaps a vote will come out of it, we'll keep you all posted.

Canarsie

As usual, you expressed some good points, GUWonder. Thank you.

You may be correct that topics devoted to Spirit Airlines might get more traffic if they are in their own dedicated forum.

I am not yet convinced that a forum dedicated to Spirit Airlines is needed on FlyerTalk; but as always, I am keeping an open mind.

MSPeconomist

I'm not convinced but I'm willing to be convinced.

CMK10

I went back a few pages in the Other N/S American Airlines Forum. Threads:

- December: 1
- November: 3
- October: 3
- September: 6

If anything, it looks like it's gotten less popular the last few months.

nsx

FT'ers just don't have much holiday Spirit.

GUWonder

I'm not sure that Spirit would get more active discussions on here if Spirit had its own forum, but (then again) absent trying it, who knows for sure. I'm just curious where the line is being drawn and about why it is being drawn where it is. And I'm talking more about how each of us individually decides than about a collective vote by TalkBoard.

There are circumstance where increased forum specialization undermines information acquisition/sharing and discussion on a topic; and there are circumstances where decreased/reversed forum specialization undermines information sharing/acquisition and discussion.

Spirit is enough of a different beast and a large enough airline that I think it worth trying a separate forum. If it flops, after say 1 or 2 years of failing to meet some kind of predetermined activity criteria, merging it back into some amalgamated forum is easy enough to do.

Canarsie

I personally agree with you. When applicable, I prefer to try things and have definitive proof of whether something did or did not work versus relying solely on speculation.

rover4618

wasn't there a thread for the Spirit credit card ? I can't find it anymore.

CMK10

Well then perhaps you would like to craft a motion and put it to a vote?