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Spirit website class action overview:
- Who: A consumer hit Spirit Airlines with a class action lawsuit.
- Why: The plaintiff says Spirit illegally wiretaps the electronic communications of visitors to its website.
- Where: The Spirit website class action was filed in a Pennsylvania federal court.
Spirit Airlines illegally records the electronic communications of visitors to its website, a new class action lawsuit alleges.
Plaintiff Malinda S. Smidga filed the class action lawsuit Nov. 7 in a Pennsylvania federal court, alleging violations of the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act.
According to the lawsuit, the airline wiretaps the electronic communications of visitors to its website, spirit.com.
Smidga alleges the airline procures third-party vendors to embed snippets of JavaScript computer code on its website, which then deploys on each website visitor’s internet browser for the purpose of intercepting and recording the website visitor’s electronic communications.
People browsing the website do not realize Spirit views and records their mouse movements, clicks, keystrokes and more in real time to create a full session replay of their browsing session on the website, Smidga alleges.
“However, unbeknownst to the millions of individuals perusing Spirit’s website, Spirit intentionally procures and embeds various Session Replay Codes from Session Replay Providers on its website to track and analyze website user interactions with www.spirit.com,” the Spirit class action says.
Class action claims airline ‘looks over shoulder’ of website visitors
Spirit’s secret deployment of the session replay code results in the electronic equivalent of “looking over the shoulder” of each visitor to the company’s website for the duration of their website interaction, the class action alleges.
Spirit’s conduct violates the Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act and constitutes an invasion of the privacy rights of website visitors, Smidga says.
She looks to represent all Pennsylvania citizens whose website communications were intercepted by Spirit.
She also seeks certification of the class action, damages, fees, costs and a jury trial.
Meanwhile, ESPN has been hit with a class action lawsuit alleging it knowingly shares its digital subscribers’ viewing habits with Facebook without their consent, so that the social media behemoth can better target them with advertising.
Have you visited Spirit’s website? Let us know your thoughts on these claims in the comments.
The plaintiff is represented by Gary F. Lynch, Kelly K. Iverson, Jamisen A. Etzel, Elizabeth Pollock-Avery, Nicholas A. Colella and Patrick D. Donathen of Lynch Carpenter LLP.
The Spirit Airlines class action lawsuit is Malinda S. Smidga v. Spirit Airlines Inc., Case No. 2:22-cv-01578-MJH, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
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13 thoughts onSpirit class action claims airline wiretaps electronic communications of website visitors
I’m a spirit member and I’ve had them charge me extra for things that come with my membership like my luggage was suppose to be cheaper like $9 dollars ended up spending $61 dollars then I had a round-trip ticket instead of then reimbursing me my money they gave me some partial credit like for a $709.34 dollar then not to mention the credit wasn’t even my money back like they said it would be no it was a $75 dollar voucher like wtf that’s nothing even close to wtf I paid and I’ve had this done three times on spirit definitely when going out of the country
They do not offer hotel room. My son’s flight was cancelled twice. They were at the Los Angeles Airport. A security guard told them they could not sleep in the airport. They had to leave. For the fault of spirit, they had leave outside & make other arrangements. They did not provide a room or hotel for them.
Had flight with Spirit on 1/5/23. Checked in a bag and they charged me $158.00 for a duffle bag that weighted 28lbs. When I asked why did they charge me that amount for a bag that was not overweight? They called a Supervisor named Paola and she cancel me off the flight, didn’t give me my money back for my bag or ticket. They didn’t even put me on another flight to get back home for SJU. That is one of the reason why people don’t like to fly on them. Cheap is not always good!!!!
My daughter and I were flying to Honduras and Spirit cancelled the flights and we had to stay over night at the airport. There were many others, of all ages, in my position. I was offered a hotel room, but I still found it inhumane.
They do not offer hotel room. My son’s flight was cancelled twice. They were at the Los Angeles Airport. A security guard told them they could not sleep in the airport. They had to leave. For the fault of spirit, they had leave outside & make other arrangements. They did not provide a room or hotel for them.
I want to be added Spirit has gotten and refused to credit or refund $587 due to cancelled flights during Covid
I purchased a ticket went back 24hrs later to cancel and they told me no robbed me out of $352
Please add me
Add me
Spirit also does a poor job communicating with customers via the online customer service link on their website. NOTHING was ever done with my request for refund due to Covid restrictions.
I agree totally agee with Covid restrictions. Customer service advised during the beginning of Covid to extend travel credit as long as I call but now they’re saying it expired & have forfeited my money! I should decide if & when I can travel or receive a refund. And Covid is still very much happening now. There need to a law against this!
Sign me in, I canceled my fight because I could not fly after their flight Changes. For 2 weeks now, I continue messaging spirit ,requesting a confirmation number and refund amount.
Hi spirit airlines made me and 15 other passengers miss our layover by 2 hours resulting in me getting stuck in a foreign city AKA LAX without a rescheduled flight. Instead they told me I need to buy a new flight that I couldn’t get for at least 24 hours from then resulting in me missing Christmas and being stuck at the airport for an extended period of time. I tried to ask for a refund and they only refund half of it and half of that refund was in voucher credits. I went to use those voucher credits to get a flight back home and it didn’t accept the credits I had and charged my debit card the full price of the plane ticket. When I asked to use my voucher and get refunded the price of the voucher credits I had they told me they could not and when asked for a manager they told me to file a complaint on spirit/help.com which takes up to 30 days for a response if you even get that response. When asked for a refund on my flight cuz of the error on Spirit airlines they told me they could only refund me and more voucher credit. Spirit airlines makes me feel like I’m continuously being scammed and stuck having to use them due to these voucher credits that I can’t even use.