This week, the Air Line Pilots Association filed suit on behalf of 500 Spirit pilots, claiming the airline “unlawfully” changed their pay and working conditions.

Among the allegations in the complaint: Spirit has terminated a policy that gave pilots at least four days off for every four or five days of flying. According the lawsuit, ”the safety implications of depriving pilots of minimal necessary rest are obvious.”

In response, Spirit CEO Ben Baldanza said, “Each of the changes is permitted under the existing collective bargaining agreement. We understand that some of our pilots are unhappy about the changes but, in our view, the work rule adjustments are critically necessary in these challenging times for the well being of the company and our employees.”

I’m sure Midwest pilots can sympathize.

Actually, this Spirit policy is not really new — but I’ve been too busy writing about the fuel crisis to pay a whole lot of attention to it.

Anyway according to my friends at UpgradeTravelBetter, Spirit now charges for advance seat assignment — and that includes charging for middle seats!

Spirit’s site doesn’t reveal what this costs, but Upgrade says the carrier charges the following (and SmarterTravel says so, too):

• $15 for a window seat
• $10 for an aisle seat
• $5 for a middle seat

Why is a window seat more expensive than an aisle seat? Why pay for a middle seat at all? Well, you don’t have to pay, but you will be taking your chances on seat roulette:

“Within 24 hours and no less than one hour prior to flight departure, customers can check in online and either purchase assigned seats, or allow the system to generate a random seat at no charge.” — Spirit Airlines website

The Miami Herald is reporting that Spirit Airlines could lay-off or “displace” up to 60% of its flight attendants, and as many as 45% of its pilots.

If this happens, it’ll probably take place sometime in August.

Joe Sharkey notes that Spirit’s CEO says, nothing’s been decided about “system wide capacity reductions” but it seems clear that will happen to some extent.

However, apparently it HAS been decided that Spirit will close some of its “bases” and that includes the ones in LaGuadia and San Juan. It will also reduce its Ft. Lauderdale base (the home of the airline) and, for flight attendants, it is shutting its Detroit base.

Sad days.

I was perusing an article in South Florida’s Sun-Sentinel the other day, about how airlines are coping with the soaring cost of fuel.

Almost as an aside, the paper mentioned that Spirit Airlines removed one of the 3-lavatories from its Airbus A319 jets, as a cost cutting measure! (Less weight = less fuel usage).

That got me to thinking: Spirit sure hasn’t been lacking for weird publicity this past year, and…exactly how many restrooms are planes supposed to have? Keep reading to see some of the bizarre stuff I came up with.