No-frills airlines Spirit and Frontier have announced plans to merge, but what does that mean for customers who've been burned by the fee-happy carriers' poor service?
If the $6.6 billion merger is approved later this year, it would create the country's fifth-largest airline. Frontier would have a controlling stake in the company, but a name for the newly formed company has not yet been announced.
The airlines are so intent on joining forces that Spirit rejected a lucrative offer from JetBlue Airways: a cash offer of $33 per share plus an additional $200 million as a breakup fee if the deal couldn't go through because of antitrust reasons. Compared to the stock-and-cash deal with Frontier, now valued at $22.42 per share, JetBlue offered quite the enticing proposal, but it wasn't enough to sway Spirit.