Heartbreak at 35K' | A Spirit Airlines Confession

Love, lies and Spirit Airlines. This episode explores the fall of a long-term relationship and trusted airline company. One exhausted traveler boards a Spirit flight, getting front-row seats to a stranger’s marriage unraveling in real time. Losing familiar things can hit harder than we may expect.

Contact: hellomangomoe@gmail.com 

Intro/outro music credit:   

• Title: "feeling happy today [upbeat happy beat]
• Artist: snoozy beats
• Source: Free Music Archive 
• License type: CC BY

Transcript

Speaker 0:02

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Gossip Practice, a thoughtful take on talks as a tool for reading between life's lines. I'm your host, Moe. Every episode is another interesting story I've come across. Here, we merge a sort of amateur investigative journalism with fun thoughts and opinions. It's gossip as a lens for how we relate. Thanks in advance for listening. At this time of recording, news broke out that Spirit Airlines ceased all operations. We could get into that later, but for now, I remember this story someone told me a few autumn seasons ago. Let's call them Van today. Van was on the way out of O'Hare for the holidays. Sleepy as all get out, our pal prepares to finally get some shut eye as comfortably as they can in the middle seat on a crowded Spirit flight. The intercom is constantly on, there's a baby crying rows away but sounds like they're right there next to you, and the fans have yet to kick in to cool the cabin. Right as Van starts feeling more settled, in comes their aisle seat mate. Our main character, my friends, is not Van. It is this man. He has only one small bag on board to put away before buckling his seatbelt. He says, "Hello, happy Thanksgiving." Van returns the greeting. "Gee, cramped little plane, huh? Ha ha ha." Ha ha ha. We'll call our row buddy Leon. Leon starts dumping information. And I mean this as we're taking off with a long flight ahead of us. It's quite reminiscent of John Candy's character in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, the 1987 film, which is pretty special now that I mention it, since our story is also set during Thanksgiving. Oh wait, and and John Candy's character is also in the aisle, as is Leon. Wow. Wow. Okay. Without learning too much yet, would you lean into your tiredness like Steve Martin's character in the same movie? Saying, "Look, I don't want to be rude, but I'm not much of a conversationalist." Or would you keep asking Leon to share? Well, Van, tired as they are, recognizes the moment of this stranger needing to share. So they're empowered to actively listen. Leon is flying back home after visiting his wife. Together for eight years and married for five, she recently sparked an interest in advancing her career. Leon is supportive and encourages her to follow her newfound dream. Research nights turned into exams, turned into official certifications, and a new job as drum roll, please, a travel nurse. She was already a nurse technician. Leon is happy he and his wife can grow through such an exciting new chapter of their lives together. Also, that's badass of her in my opinion. Nurses do so much. Also, I wonder what the stats are of how often a medical professional is needed on an aircraft. I've never actually been in that situation, but I've only ever heard of it. Much to think on. Staying on track here, she's been away at her first destination now for nearly one week. Leon thought it would be nice to meet her where she's working since he had a more flexible holiday schedule. They meet in Chicago where he takes her out on a dinner. She's texting under the table the whole time and seems rather checked out. He thought it was rather odd. They have an early night when he stays up, checks her phone to see what was such the matter, and there it is. Tinder message after Tinder message after Tinder message with various people, flirting, discussing, and planning. These are obviously not an ego boost angle, which would also be rather messed up if you had to hide that from your partner. But no, this is truly premeditated cheating. She was in it. Leon is distraught, and his wife is asleep next to him. He landed today, whenever today was, and was planning to spend the upcoming holiday together. Do you confront your sleeping spouse? Do you leave the space but stay in the same city? Do you just book the next flight home? Even then, what are we feeling? Hurt? Angry? Confused? How quickly do we get to go through the seven stages of pure grief? Leon takes screenshots from her phone, texts them to himself, and books the next flight home, a true red-eye flight. He quietly leaves his wife then, and finds himself not so quietly exposing his heart to our pal, Van. Man, what happened? Could he surely not have seen this coming? Like, were there any issues in their relationship leading up to this? Did she find herself compelled to cheat already in her new industry, or was her interest in travel rooted in wanting to get away from the more domesticated life? Was it all sunshine and rainbows, turned distrust, or were they obviously both lacking in something from each other to have to turn to the sneaking around in external fulfillment? Leon shares about how they never fought about anything. They trusted each other explicitly and never lied. Until now, I guess? The plane is sleepier now more than ever when Leon shifts a bit in his seat. He's obviously uncomfortable. He's talking about not quite knowing what to do next, talking about needing time and space to think and be alone. Maybe couch surf with trusted friends before eventually filing for divorce when he notices something extra in his bag. Oh shit. I have the keys to her car rental still on me. Leon remembers he drove her car back to her hotel after the awkward dinner and totally forgot to give the keys right back. I mean, who could blame him? He thought he would be driving and getting her gas for her for the next few days. I know I accidentally leave things on and off of me all the time when I'm switching environments. So I don't know. Maybe I would do the same, who knows? He logs onto the paid Wi-Fi or whatever the plane has to at least iMessage folks. He makes a note to FedEx overnight the key as soon as he lands. I mean, there's so much emotion and information to download through this flight. I feel our pal Van is just a vessel, a TV screen with which to witness Leon's probable worst day of his life at this point. The Wi-Fi connects and Miss Wifey Girl has all these messages flowing in like the Chicago River, but back when it was nasty, undesirable sewer water, and not the body it is now that everyone wants to ride a boat on. What do cheaters do? Everything but go to therapy. This woman doubles down. Look, I believe in women's rights and women's wrongs, but doubling down and not apologizing for her husband to find out she had a secret Tinder account and was actively meeting up with people during her work trips is wild. Again, we don't know what drove her to this. For all we know, Leon could have been a terrible husband, actually. And this could have been her liberation. But I don't. Do not. I never will. Condone cheating. The secrets are too much. How do you even keep up with them? What even is the point? The plane later lands safely, and Van and Leon part ways indefinitely. Not only are we still heartbroken for this stranger years later, because Leon's epilogue ceases to exist for our knowledge, unfortunately. But you know what else is being lost in time? Spirit Airlines itself. I'm literally recording this the same weekend its last planes flew. So everything is quite fresh here. Spirit was originally Charter One Airlines based in Detroit in the early 80s. Or maybe they had an even earlier entity, but Charter One ultimately rebranded to Spirit since operating with scheduled passenger services instead of charter tour services. This expanded their travel efforts from simply between Detroit and Las Vegas, or Detroit and Atlantic City, to all of its routes that we've grown to learn about and love through 2026. Or I guess through 2025, through not even Q2 2026. I often was able to get $80 round-trip flights between Chicago and home to New Orleans. My friends were able to get even more affordable prices between Chicago and Los Angeles. Sure, their aircrafts were squeezed and you had to pay extra for snacks and water, unlike other flights, but they were affordable, Capital A Affordable. Plane travel used to be so pretentious and elite, but the world has grown to promote largeness. Large properties, large cars, large parking lots, large distances between families, jobs, opportunities. Being online has its many, many cons. Trust me, I'm typically an analog-focused person. Being online does allow us, though, to bridge the gap between these large distances. We can text and video call loved ones to still be connected, yet this technology enables us to grow even farther physically. It's unfortunately not enough for the everyday person to live in their walkable city without ever needing to fly out. We have roots elsewhere: personally, creatively, and professionally. AKA One of the more affordable options out there shutting business operations is so I don't even know the word right now. I know business is business, but Spirit had so many funny, kind attendants I've interacted with. And my beef with the smaller and smaller seats, were not against them per se, but against the larger idea that the world's greed disrespects us. Not this one airline company. My beef is against CEOs and powers that be that figure out they could make us more and more reliant on flight and could also squeeze our wallets for all we have toward their growth and enablement of a world dependent on the value of time and labor as opposed to one another's true respect and love. We are slowly being trained to need all the frills and every experience, and Spirit was one of the options out there that got us what we needed without anything more. This especially is a sore spot for me because I did not come from wealth. My first flight was something I saved up my part-time money for to go on a class trip during college. Even then, I did not get to fly anywhere really to visit my distanced loved ones until post-grad when I started making big people money. Even then, I opted for low-budget travel fares to get to slowly build up my flight confidence and my general savings. Did you even know that Spirit had zero fatal passenger or aircraft crashes in its decades of years flying through the skies? There were some minor incidents here and there, sure, but Spirit was really among the safest options out there. This weekend, I saw different POVs online from a couple of flights. One pilot started crying when he announced they were the airline's second- to- last plane to shut down that night during witching hours too. That must have been surreal for everyone involved. Ugh. On a lighthearted note, while still spooky, people are joking online saying maybe the spirit Halloweens of the world could at least make good use of the phased-out aircrafts. That would be silly. Like, yes, actually, I would like to make a flight-themed city party if I had the assets. Plane rave, anyone? I would need to hit up my rave baddie friends because I have actually never been to a proper rave, but imagine. Or, better yet, a sober-focused adult movie night. Come on, we could reroute the tech in the aircraft for this like reimagining of the dying drive-in movie. Come to a fly-in movie. Oh gosh. Bringing it all back here, though, it really is unfortunate. This idea that change is the only constant in our lives. That change is truly inevitable. We can never quite prepare for how our comfortabilities will be upended in life. And Spirit is my most recent example, apparently. Maybe this is a good point to assign you and me a thoughtful side quest the next couple of weeks. Maybe really tell someone seriously how you appreciate them. Not how much, but exactly how you appreciate them. Think of Leon. Also, think about your favorite routine these days. The next time you engage in it, do so mindfully. Really take it step by step and acknowledge what makes this routine of yours so you. Whether it's how you pull your coffee, which route you take to your friend's house, or to take the plane example, if you have a preferred airline, really think to yourself, what makes it so great for your needs? And perhaps go in on the extra snack or upgraded seat if you can really enjoy it. Or ask another loved one to tag along with you on an upcoming trip. Comment on your device or email me your thoughts at hellomangomoe@ gmail.com. How do recent airline news make you feel as either a lover or hater of Spirit? Any speculations based on our telling of Leon's misfortunes? Does today's story encourage or discourage you from meeting future plane mates? I'm personally happy I benefit from my extroverted partner getting any and all information around us while I get to lock into a new movie or just plain sleep. Gosh. I know by the end of our lives, no one will say, "Geez, I wish I would have slept more." But dang it, don't I love a good nap? That is only when we travel together though. Otherwise, I'm on the side of minding my business unless the person next to me bonds over something silly that we both experienced on the plane and then gets us talking. That's me though. Until next time, XO Moe!