Tell an Airline How Much You Hate It and Get 8,000 Free Miles

The "Hate Thousand Miles" promotion, introduced by Spirit Airlines this week, couldn't be attached to a more appropriate company. Spirit, known for selling low-cost flights that come with a host of pricey "gotcha" fees, is famous for being a magnet for traveler hate. The carrier is routinely referred to as the Most Hated Airline in the U.S. What's more, in the recent past, Spirit has more or less taken the stance that it doesn't care that it is hated by people. “We’re not for everybody, and we’re fine with that,” a Spirit spokesperson told Businessweek in 2013, after the latest survey placed the airline at the very bottom of consumer rankings.

With its new promotion, Spirit seems to be fully embracing its reviled status. Or perhaps it's trying to bury the hatchet. According to the terms of the deal, anyone with a Spirit Airlines frequent flier account can go to hatethousandmiles.com, spew some ill will, and then collect 8,000 free miles. While it's assumed most haters will hate on Spirit, you can actually register a complaint about any airline at the site.

"Hate on us – or any airline of your choosing – and we’ll send you 8,000 FREE SPIRIT miles. You’ll be well on your way to earning an award flight with us," Spirit explains.

Reward flights on Spirit can be had for as little as 10,000 miles one-way, so indeed, with 8,000 free miles, you're almost there. But again, the downside is that you'll have to fly on the airline you (probably) just officially targeted with hate.

What's behind this oddball promotion? Publicity, for one thing. Spirit Airlines is known for being outrageous, with a history of invoking trending scandals (Anthony Weiner, the BP oil spill, Richie Incognito) in ads.

More important, Spirit is trying to use the hate campaign as an education opportunity. Following in the footsteps of Ryanair, Europe's hated airline that launched a friendly rebranding earlier this year, Spirit stepped up efforts to explain its pricing structure and customer service policies with a campaign that began in May. The Hate Thousand Miles promotion is being viewed as a way for Spirit to call attention to the ins and outs of how it does its hated business, thereby, hopefully, dispelling some of the hate.

"We see this as an opportunity to educate consumers about the differences of Spirit, and in return for their hate, we'll give them a little bit of love in the form of free miles," the airline said in a statement to the press.

Perhaps Spirit will also read what it is that customers are complaining about, and make some changes accordingly in order to make passengers happier--or at least less filled with hate.

If you're in the process of booking or flying on Spirit and want to vent your hate right away, however, there's a note in the fine print of the Hate Thousand Miles offer you should be aware of: "Submitting your hate feedback is not a means to submit correspondence to our Customer Support team."

In this case, you'll need to send your hate message twice: once to customer service, and secondly to the Hate site in order to get your free miles. If you want them.