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Spirit Airline Woes
Alex Rudloff, one of the brains behind Gadling's blogging engine, recently tried to fly to Las Vegas from Orlando via Spirit Airlines when he ran into a few problems. First, his flight was canceled. "That's sucks," he wrote on his blog, "but hey, that's the reality of the god awful air industry here in the States."To make matters worse, Spirit Airlines made the rescheduling process a nightmare. "The 800# then hangs up on me. I call back, hitting 0 to talk to an operator, same message, hangs up on me. I try all the appropriate sounding options on their voice mail, and get hung up on every single time. Thanks, Spirit Air! What went from a somewhat understandable situation (relativity is a bitch), now has me pissy. Finally, I try "book new flight" to speak to a spirit airlines sales agent. Sure enough, that one (the option where they take the money) works fine"
Finally, he's able to speak with a representative who puts him on another flight that arrives 5 hours later. "There's no upgrades or anything like that, no option for a partner airline or a transfer, no real attempt at anything. Here's the kicker. They make you pay extra to bring a bag. They refused to even refund this $5 each way fee, not even for one of ways."
How frustrating. Anyone else have any Spirit Air horror stories?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ed haffmans Feb 20th 2008 4:42PM
They ripped me off for my entire fare.
e hqaff
V.Mazelis May 5th 2008 12:06AM
Spirit Airlines recently changed my itinerary from a normal one into the one that's totally impossible to fly. Judge for yourselves. Note I am supposed to arrive into Atlantic City on June 3 at 10:20 pm, then take another Spirit flight to Myrtle Beach, which departed some 3.5 hours earlier, at 6:53pm. Return flight contains similar nonsense:
Updated Itinerary
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Spirit # 348
Tampa International (TPA) to Atlantic City Intl (ACY)
Departure: (TPA): June 3, 7:55 PM EDT (evening)
Arrival: (ACY): June 3, 10:20 PM EDT (evening)
Class: Economy
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Spirit # 375
Atlantic City Intl (ACY) to Myrtle Beach AFB (MYR)
Departure: (ACY): June 3, 6:53 PM EDT (evening)
Arrival: (MYR): June 3, 8:18 PM EDT (evening)
Class: Economy
------------------------------
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Spirit # 354
Myrtle Beach AFB (MYR) to Atlantic City Intl (ACY)
Departure: (MYR): June 10, 8:40 AM EDT (morning)
Arrival: (ACY): June 10, 10:00 AM EDT (morning)
Class: Economy
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Spirit # 343
Atlantic City Intl (ACY) to Tampa International (TPA)
Departure: (ACY): June 10, 8:00 AM EDT (morning)
Arrival: (TPA): June 10, 10:30 AM EDT (morning)
Class: Economy
Previous Itinerary
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Spirit # 348
Tampa International (TPA) to Atlantic City Intl (ACY)
Departure: (TPA): June 3, 3:45 PM EDT (afternoon)
Arrival: (ACY): June 3, 6:01 PM EDT (evening)
Class: Economy
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Spirit # 375
Atlantic City Intl (ACY) to Myrtle Beach AFB (MYR)
Departure: (ACY): June 3, 6:53 PM EDT (evening)
Arrival: (MYR): June 3, 8:18 PM EDT (evening)
Class: Economy
------------------------------
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Spirit # 354
Myrtle Beach AFB (MYR) to Atlantic City Intl (ACY)
Departure: (MYR): June 10, 9:45 AM EDT (morning)
Arrival: (ACY): June 10, 11:04 AM EDT (morning)
Class: Economy
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Spirit # 343
Atlantic City Intl (ACY) to Tampa International (TPA)
Departure: (ACY): June 10, 11:45 AM EDT (morning)
Arrival: (TPA): June 10, 2:15 PM EDT (afternoon)
Class: Economy
Sheila Jul 11th 2008 9:52PM
Booked a flight From Long Island Islip to Ft Lauderdale for my family of 5 for the July 4th weekend.
-They charged $30 per bag round trip (this is the new "advance purchase rate"). These fees were not brought to my attention until after the flights were paid for.
-They charged $5-$20 for each seat (based on aisle, window, front of plane, etc).
-They charge $2 for a cup (not even a full can) of soda or water.
-Upon confirmation of the flight, my children's seat assignments on the return flight disappeared from the reservation. Called customer service (spoke to Mr. Walling), who said it was a glitch in the system and I should not worry, but after insisting to speak to someone, he gave me a phone number to call.
-Called the phone number he provided. It was Ft. Lauderdale airport. After selecting Spirit Airlines from the menu, it routed me back to Spirit's 800#!
But here's the kicker:
-At 7:15am on July 7th, I went to print our boarding passes (hoping my kid's would get seats) for the 4:20pm flight, and found out that our family had been moved to, and just missed, the 7:05am flight...WITHOUT ANY NOTIFICATION WHATSOEVER FROM SPIRIT!
-Called 800# and spoke to "Charlie" who apologized for the "inconvenience", but when he tried to rebook us said the "system" wasn't letting him rebook us, and that there wasn't any availability until July 14th...one week later. He then told me to call the Ft Lauderdale ticket counter. Gave me a phone number and I spent an hour trying to get through, but no one ever answered.
-Called 800# back and spoke to "Kelly", who apologized for the inconvenience. But this time when Kelly tried to rebook us, she told me that the "system" showed that one member of our party had checked in for the flight! When I explained that this was impossible, my entire family was sitting in the room with me, she then put me on hold, where I was disconnected.
Having heard about all of the nonsense that goes on at Spirit Airlines, I was not going to waste any more time trying to get them to do the right thing. My husband got back to LI on Southwest the next day for a hefty one way fare of $280. My children and I flew JetBlue back today for $150 each.
I will be disputing all of the charges from Spirit with my credit card company. I suggest anyone who is out $$ due to Spirit's deceptive practices or ridiculous customer service file a report with their credit card company. Most credit cards will take the charges off of your card (called a "chargeback") and make the merchant (Spirit) respond with proof of why you should pay.
If I do not receive a full refund through the credit card company, I will go to small claims court and seek reimbursement for all extra expenses (airfare, car rental, hotel, food, etc).
I will also be contacting the BBB and the State Attorney's Office. Spirit's practices are downright illegal.
I highly doubt this company will be in business a year from now without some major policy change and restructuring the outsourcing of their customer service department.
Good Luck to those of you with upcoming reservations on Spirit, you'll need it. Be prepared with a back-up plan.
Johnny Oct 22nd 2008 7:32PM
the baggage fee is because fuel prices are up, bags add more weight which means more fuel is needed to make the trip, all airlines are dealing with this, so thats as far as prices and fees go towards, not to mention the salaries and airport fees, it seems steep but the company is barely making any money, its not a chairity, its a buissness, dont like it, fly with someone else
joyce Oct 21st 2009 3:15PM
I don't mind paying for extra baggage, my complaint is Spirit only allows 1 checked bag on their flight to Lima. They do not tell you this when you are booking the flight. My brother flew to Lima in May and checked 2 bags. The kicker is they say it is a restiction from the Peruvian Government but will not tell you why. Also the 1 bag restriction applies to Haiti and several cities in Columbia. Are their Governments also imposing these restrictions?
Alex Rudloff Aug 4th 2007 6:58PM
Folks have been sending me links all afternoon with other Spirit Airlines horror stories. Consumerist ran a post a week or two ago about someone even taking them to small claims court and winning!
I've flown a ton over the last few years, and have had similar things happen. It's a sad state of affairs when we just grow to be complacent and accept this kind of thing. Most companies though, will offer a meal voucher or an upgrade, or even a warm smile.
Spirit's refusing to even waive the $5 baggage fee. The fact that they have a baggage fee to begin with is a whole other rant ;)
I'll update the post as my travels progress.. I'm going to try again when I get to the airport in the morning.
coleman Aug 8th 2007 7:47PM
Same deal different day. They checked me in on a flight from AC in which the second leg to SF had been cancelled two days prior. Needless to say, I was stopped at the gate, luckilly, but my bag went on.
I cancelled my flight because I couldn't get re-booked on another airline in time for my meetings.
After 1 day of no responses, and a day full of dropped calls to the central number, I received a call from their SF baggage line saying my bag was in SF. I've called this number 18 times since then and its now been two whole days with nobody picking up and no way to leave a message. It's the right number because I talked to a Spirit reservation agent who confirmed it. Of course, they can't handle baggage inquiries.