
Spirit Air Reviews
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Spirit Airlines is dedicated to bringing the lowest total price to every place we fly – on average much lower than other airlines. We offer our customers our Bare Fare®
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Reviewed Aug. 26, 2009
On 08/22/2009, I attempted to make an emergency reservation for my mother to fly from BQN to DCA using Orbitz.com on 08/23/2009 for a funeral. Somehow, there was a mistake and it was booked for 09/23/2009 instead of 08/23/2009. A few minutes later, I called Spirit Air Customer Service and explained the error. I was told that due to the error, I would receive an exemption of full credit of $128.00 towards another flight. I was not sure what my mother would like to do and informed the agent I would call back when I was aware about what dates she was available.
On 08/26/2009, I called Customer Service back to inform the agent that I would like the credit to use for another flight like I was originally offered. I was told by Maria, supervisor at reservation desk, that there is a 24-hour open period to receive this full credit for human error. I informed Maria that I was never informed by the original rep on 08/22 about this 24-hour policy. Maria stated that they are not supposed to let the customers know this.
I find that unacceptable and unprofessional for a company that willingly withholds vital information to paying customers. I feel that the original customer service rep should have informed me of this 24-hour policy. I feel like I was lied to and cheated by this company. I have used Spirit Air multiple times for flights for my family and friends from BQN to DCA with many problems before. I now feel like I am less likely to use this company due to its practices. I wonder if the CEO Ben Baldanza is aware of this poor communication.
Reviewed Aug. 26, 2009
Earlier this month, I purchased online a round trip plane ticket from Spirit Airline for my wife, Jesula **. But the day prior to the flight, we found out that Spirit Airlines usually charged $25 for every check-in piece of bag so I immediately call for a refund but with no success. The ticket which cost close to $390, and with the $25 undisclosed fee per bag, made the trip impossible for my wife. We just cannot afford to lose that money. If I knew upfront about that, I would not have booked with Spirit Airlines. Without a refund my wife will not be able to go back home and visit her parents for years.
Reviewed Aug. 18, 2009
I have traveled for business on Spirit Airlines flight 152 three times in the past six weeks (July 18, August 1 and August 15, 2009). The flight is supposed to leave Ft. Lauderdale at 7:50 pm, arriving in Tampa at 8:50 pm. Each time, the flight has had a delayed departure of two to three hours. The waiting area in the airport cannot accommodate the backup of passengers. This means that if you find a seat, you cannot leave it for anything including to go to the restroom or get something to eat or drink because if you do, you will be standing the rest of the evening.
As a diabetic, it's often necessary for me to do all of those things in a three-hour period. However, I have been afraid to leave my seat during the delay. Apparently, delays are business as usual with Spirit, so they should at least make adequate accommodations for the delayed passengers. Don't fly Spirit if there is any other way to get where you are going!
Reviewed Aug. 17, 2009
When I signed up for the Spirit Airlines MasterCard, I was under the impression that I would receive a free one-way flight. I was only granted 5,000 miles when the card was activated. Though I accept responsibility for mailing my payment in late, I paid all bills on time and have an excellent credit rating. I missed one payment by oversight and mailed the payment in full less than one month late. I called and requested that the late fee be waived. I spoke with a manager. It would have been a nice professional courtesy to waive the late fee for a customer, who has excellent credit and paid all previous payments on time. They refused. Consumers, beware to read the fine print and deal with "unbending" management.
Reviewed Aug. 13, 2009
I was supposed to be on Flight 601 from LGA to FLL to depart at 1:30pm. The flight was continually delayed with no announcement made. Then, with no announcement, the flight was cancelled at about 5:30pm. (It could have been earlier, but with no announcement, there is no way to know.) Spirit Airlines's next available flight to FLL was not for another week. Since there were so many people on the flight, all the flights to FLL/MIA were booked immediately. I had to pay $7.95 to get online to book a flight. I paid $359.60 for my new flight, $14.37 for the taxi ride to the LIRR (He refused to drive to JFK.), $8.00 for my train ride, $5 for the shuttle to JFK, and $15.72 on my overpriced dinner in the airport. All Spirit Airlines offered to do was refund my flight. I was only planning on spending $108.50 for my way home, but I ended up paying $410.64.
Reviewed Aug. 3, 2009
On July 15, 2009, I purchased 2 round trip airline tickets from Spirit Airlines at a price of $79 each for a total of $316 (sans taxes and seat fees). On July 18, 2009, Spirit Air was offering a promotion and the same tickets I purchased 3 days earlier were now $66.50 each for a total of $266, a $50 difference. I called their customer service and spoke with Angelo requesting a refund for the difference. I was informed by him that Spirit Air would not comply. I then asked to speak with a manager and was transferred to Paul ** who was quite rude and he echoed the same response; Spirit Airlines would not honor a refund. I believe this practice to be unfair to the consumer who is trying to get the best price.
Within 3 days, Spirit Air was offering a promotion that lowered the fare by $25 per RT ticket which would have resulted in a $50 savings. Given this practice, it would be impossible for a consumer to know a good deal from Spirit Air. It also gives no incentive to purchase tickets earlier from them. It does, however, give every reason to purchase tickets earlier from other carriers.
Considering the condition of the economy and the competitiveness within the airline industry, customer satisfaction should be the top priority for Spirit Airlines, which in this experience, it is not. The only outcome I am finding is that Spirit Air doesn't value their customers. $50 ($25 per RT ticket) isn't a lot of money, but the value is in keeping a future customer.
Reviewed Aug. 2, 2009
On Agust1, 2009, flight 705 to Ft. Lauderdale was delayed by 3 to 4 hours due to security reasons. I had a connecting flight (409) at Ft. Lauderdale to Cancun at 10:40 am which I couldn’t make. I explained to customer service at LaGuardia Airport and they gave me a full refund because there were no seats available from Ft. Lauderdale going to Cancun until August 12, 2009. I booked a flight with Continental Airlines for the following day. Spirit Airlines assured me that my luggage will be at Cancun Airport. When I called back the following day, they told me it will be 5 days before I get my luggage in Mexico. This has been a nightmare for me instead of a great vacation. I continued my plans with no clothes to wear when I get to Cancun for the next 5 days and it cost us $400.00 more to book the flight with Continental and go to Mexico for our vacation.
Reviewed July 31, 2009
I joined the $9 club several years ago and I canceled the membership after the first year but I keep getting charged $39.95 for the past 2 years. I have now two times contacted your company to have the current $39.95 charge removed from my charge card. I did not authorize this charge! Please remove the $39.95 charge that was made on 07/07/2009 from my charge card.
Reviewed July 31, 2009
I flew Spirit this past 4th of July to Kingston, Jamaica and back to Fort Lauderdale on the 18th. I was traveling with my disabled (wheelchair-passenger) mother. My carry-on luggage was damaged by Spirit in flight. They said there is nothing that I can do because I did not report it at the airport within 4 hours and their liability does not cover it. I had a question regarding international travel but of course, no answers. There was no counter from the time we left the plane. I went through customs, security checks and baggage claim. I called the next day and wrote a letter to the corporate office the next business day to apparently no avail. I don't know if it was the way they take handicapped passengers as to why we did not see a counter (arriving)? I would like answers.
Reviewed July 27, 2009
On July 18th, 2009, on the flight 403 departing from Ft. Lauderdale, FL to San Juan, PR, I was witness to an incident in which the crew of Spirit Airline pulls out seven passengers including three babies from the airplane without any reason at all. Some of the crew personnel didn’t know how to speak Spanish and they assumed that the customers were put in dangerous the flight. The situation could be handled in a professional way to solve the miscommunication problem. It's a shame that we, the consumers, have to deal with this type of services. This specific airline once reached the point in which converted themselves in a monopoly. They treated the customer like a piece of garbage. I was traveling with my kids and we never could enjoy reclining our seats because none of them was working properly.
On our way back, July 26th, 2009 on flight 604, I did mention this to their personnel at the counter in BQN, Puerto Rico. In a very polite way, I told them that I had a back surgery condition that I would like to have seats that could be reclined but not even that help so we could have some kind of consideration. She assigned me to the row of seats before the emergency exit that is condoned, meaning that customer is not able to recline the seat. The crew in this flight seems they don't t even want to work. A lady just board in and she was with an infant and she didn’t get help to accommodate her baggage in the cabin. I had to jump from my seat and do the crew's job.
Then on our flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Washington DC on flight 202, they assigned all of us in different seats. It is amazing to think how my kids are going to be seated with strangers. This in particular is no brainer, when I did purchase my tickets way advance and they had all our information including the age of my two kids. Unfortunately, my family has to suffer another adventure with them since I did buy the tickets to Costa Rica in August. If I could recuperate my money back on Costa Rica trip, I will fly with somebody else but unfortunately I am going to lose a lot of money by doing the cancellation. My experience with Spirit Airline made me not to use their service anymore. I will not fly with Spirit Airline ever again.
Reviewed July 21, 2009
On July 10, 2009, I was scheduled to go to Miami on a cruise which was leaving from Miami and going to Bahamas. When I reached the airport clerk at 6:10 a.m., they told me it's too late to get on my flight. They told us if we were there at 6:10 a.m., we could have gotten on but, on their computers, they said we arrived at 6:13 a.m. I could not understand because the plane was leaving at 6:50 a.m. They told me I could not get another flight because there were no more flights that day and we would have had to pay for another flight for that day which I didn't mind because I needed to be on the Carnival ship at 4:00 p.m. I asked to speak to a supervisor for that tour and they told me I would have to wait. When the supervisor came out, it was after 7:00 a.m. which defeats the purpose then. The employee (Mr Edward **) was laughing at me and my fiance because we could not get on. Now Carnival Imagination is not going to refund my $632.92.
Reviewed July 10, 2009
My father was scheduled to fly to Port Au Prince, Haiti when he became ill and was hospitalized. I asked that the flight be cancelled and a credit issued for future travel. Spirit cancelled the flight but charged $110 cancellation fee. I explained the situation and asked if I can provide a letter from the hospital, will the fee be waived. I was told Spirit has no such policy. I am disgusted by the lack of customer service I received from the supervisor. I am baffled as to why medical emergency is not an exception to their policy. Spirit may be cheaper to fly in some cases, but it's not worth the hassle.
Reviewed July 7, 2009
I booked on their online site for a trip from Atlanta to Ft. Lauderdale. I am from California and was booking this flight for a business trip for the 9th of July, going and returning the same day. During the booking process when it asked for personal information, the pages must have refreshed. Instead of my original choice of 9th of July departure and return, it booked me for 4th of July departure and 11th of July return. This was pointed out later by my colleague when they received my itinerary.
I called Spirit immediately and identified the mistake made or not detected. I was told since the booking was done on the 4th (I am in California) and I did not take the flight on the 4th, the whole ticket was forfeited. I tried to explain this to their Indian operators (outsourced) that whether the mistake was website refreshing during the booking or my mistake, it won't clearly be possible for me to take a flight on the 4th in Atlanta when I live in San Francisco. I explained to them I am flying for a meeting to Atlanta and then I was going to take Spirit Air from there and back to ATL.
They would not acknowledge that a mistake could have been made and there was no way for me to have them consider changing the return portion even though I volunteered that I will go ahead and pay for a new ticket to Ft. Lauderdale. They did not understand that California was 4,000 miles away from Atlanta and there is no way I could have booked a flight on the 4th for travel on the 4th from Atlanta when I am in San Francisco. Their attitude and tone was voice was offensive and in no mood to listen to the customer. I am a 1K Global on United and a million mile flyer on American. The question was of listening to the customer and correct the mistake made or loses the customer forever.
I do not intend on flying them ever again but I must say it was not the $269 (I purchased a Delta ticket for $350 the next day to finish my travel) but I do want them to acknowledge that a mistake either by their online booking or myself was made. They should have made the change and accommodated my travel schedule as I originally intended to. It is about customer service and with their only call center in India, they have no clue what that is. It was a very frustrating experience with this airline and on top of that, no US staff to help and understand.
Reviewed July 6, 2009
I was scheduled for a Spirit airlines flight from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando, FL. The flight was set to depart at 7:05 am, for which we arrived at the airlines check in at 6:05 AM. We waited in line for an agent with no bags to be checked until 6:25 am, and at that point, we were finally served. We were then told we were late and could not board the plane, which was scheduled for departure at 7:05 am. We would have to schedule another flight with them at 1:00 pm at an upcharge of $212.00.
I am angry at the lack of service and overall disregard of anyone who was put in this position. And being told that because I waited in our line that we were late is unacceptable. After a brief argument over this, we walked away and sought an alternate carrier. I forewarn any one choosing Spirit airlines that they definitely do not have a good spirit. Seek an alternate, such as Southwest.
Reviewed July 1, 2009
Today, June 30, 2009, my wife and her father were on the way to the airport for their flight back to Puerto Rico. My father-in-law had a heart attack and had to be rushed to the hospital by ambulance. My wife called me right away and asked me to inform the airline of what had happened and what we should do now. The rep told me that the best thing to do was cancel the tickets. I thought because it was a medical emergency, we would just have to call back when he was ready to travel and rebook. I had no idea and the rep certainly didn't explain that Spirit Airlines has a no medical exception rule.
As I sit here writing this complaint, both my wife and father-in-law are stranded in New Jersey. I spent all the money I had to fly them both over there and I have no money to bring them back. I called four times trying to convince them that what they're doing is wrong. They really just don't care. After about three hours of calling, a floor supervisor came on and told me that he listened to the first recorded call I made and that I requested to have the flight cancelled.
I told him I wanted to hear the recording for myself and he played it for me. Not one time did I ask for a cancellation and he admitted it. He even had the nerve to tell me that they were doing us a favor by giving us a $36.00 credit. That pissed me off! He stated that Spirit Airlines has a no medical exception rule and that if I don't like it, he's the wrong person to complain to. I guess when my father-in-law gets out of the hospital, he'll have to swim home. Thanks, Spirit Air!
Reviewed June 30, 2009
My fiance and I flew to Boston, MA from Charleston, SC on May 29th, and were to return June 2nd. Our flight home was cancelled with no notification even after we arrived at the airport. We had to wait at the gate and another passenger finally came over to tell us the flight was cancelled (it showed on the board as On Time). We got in line at the ticket counter at 4:30 AM and waited in line until late morning before being told that we would not be able to get home until 7:30 PM.
We spoke with the manager at the counter, Patricia, and she stated that for our troubles, we would all be receiving complimentary round trip tickets. I questioned her on this and she stated that she would be pulling the flight's manifold and putting the tickets into the system herself. She told us to keep our record locator and the tickets would be attached to that located in their online system. She told us this would take about a week.
After two weeks, no such information was on the website. I called Spirit Air and was informed that the information was not part of their system, and that there was nothing that I could do. A week later, my fiance contacted Spirit Air by phone and the customer service rep stated that there was nothing she could do on the phone; however, she would file a compliant on their system and informed my fiance on how to file a complaint on his end. He did this. We have contacted Spirit numerous times, and they have fed us consistent false information. They even admitted to a reorganization which was causing chaos in responses.
We have asked repeatedly to speak directly with someone other than the customer service reps because they are all from another country and do not understand what we are saying. We have also tried to get in touch with Patricia directly or Tiya, the rep we have been emailing, and no one will call us. In our final correspondence with Spirit, my fiance showed major error with their information, and they immediately said that there would be no more correspondence regarding this matter. I have emails as proof of all communication. I have researched numerous complaints on Spirit and I'm afraid I'll just be another one of the thousands of horribly treated customers.
Reviewed June 13, 2009
A flight that was recently booked was double-booked by our own mistake. Due to the incredibly bad policies put forth by Spirit airlines, $100.00 cancellation fee plus tax, service fee, whatever. I can not believe that in these tough economic times, they would not budge on this fee! You can't talk to anyone there, they are like robots. We are still on the same flight so it is not like we are not going. It was hard enough to pay for this trip, but to make a mistake and get screwed more is insane and depressing. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am out 145.00 dollars, the cost of the flight because Spirit does not issue refunds, just credit towards a possible future flight, like I want to use them again!
Reviewed May 29, 2009
I purchased 4 tickets to fly from DTW to Myrtle Beach in 2008. Due to the economic hardship in my city and my working for a supplier to GM, I had to cancel my vacation. I called Spirit Air to cancel. The agent told me that there would be fees; however, I would have an $800 plus credit after spending over $1000 initially. The agent did not inform me that I would receive a credit voucher, nor did she tell me that it would expire the next calendar year. In light of the GM announcement and the fact that I may be jobless really soon, I attempted to book a flight today to just go somewhere and try to relax.
Unfortunately, I was told by the customer service rep that the credit is no good as it expired this past March per Spirit Air's policy. I informed the customer service rep that I was not informed of the voucher expiration rule. She rudely informed me that it's in the policy information when you book a flight and on the voucher. I again stressed that I never received a voucher. I also told her that I only received two emails that basically confirmed that my booking was cancelled. She said there was nothing that I could do about it. I asked to speak to a manager. I informed him that I did not want to argue against the policy, I only wanted the phone number to corporate. He informed me that there was no phone number and only an address.
I googled Spirit Air Complaints and was able to locate a phone number to their corporate office. However, I was not able to get connected with a person. My biggest issues are that I never received a voucher of credit and while the policy may be in the legal section when purchasing a ticket, I don't think it's fair to expect me to be cognizant of this rule. It should have been communicated to me and I should be able to speak with a person at the corporate level. They make plenty of live agents available in order to make revenue, but none at the corporate level. I think that it's sad how airlines are taking advantage of the American public in the day of this economic crisis and there is nothing that we can do about it. These are the types of abuses at the corporate level that have dug us into this economic strife that we are in, corporations being greedy!
It's so amazing how Spirit Air has a fully staffed outsourced Customer call center in order to sell you airline ticket, but not one published phone number for their corporate headquarters! You want to know why? Because they don't want to be contacted due to all of the customer service complaints!
I would also like to state that I looked up Spirit Airline complaints and there are many complaints very similar to mine. Maybe one day, someone will stand up and realize that the airline Industry should be held accountable for their poor business practices and should have to publish their corporation's contact information. It's ludicrous!
Reviewed May 22, 2009
On May 11, 2009 at 5:30, we ordered coffee and muffins. The flight attendant moved the seat tray and a hot coffee was spilled on my wife's lap, causing a burning sensation and red marks on both legs. She changed her long pants for shorts and we requested some cream for her burning sensation. The flight supervisor stated that they did not have any. He only provided a wet paper towel and told my wife if she wanted medical attention, that the captain stated that he will land on some of the island or that she can wait until the plane landed in PR. She decided to hold and the flight supervisor wrote an incident report, took pictures of her legs and pants. We did that too. Medical attention was provided in PR airport by paramedics using spray for burns. This accident ruined our vacation time.
Reviewed May 4, 2009
My father was on Flight 977 departing Thursday, April 30th at 5:15 from Fort Lauderdale to Lima, Peru. The flight is 5 hours long. Due to poor visibility conditions at the Lima airport, every flight that was due to land there after 9 pm was diverted to Chiclayo, a city 8 hours north of Lima. For some reason, Spirit #977 was diverted to Pisco, a city 2 hours south of Lima. The plane landed in a military base at approximately 10:30, when it was announced to the passengers that they could not deplane, as they were not in a conventional airport. The crew (who did not speak Spanish) proceeded to lock themselves in the cockpit area, leaving the passengers without any additional information or assistance for the subsequent ten hours.
The situation aboard was close to panic. Many people were convinced they were being quarantined because of fears of the swine flu. Small children were getting sick on the plane and the toilets were overflowing. My father is an elderly gentleman (80 years old) and a heart patient. He went to talk to the crew with a letter from his doctor explaining his heart condition and asking for a means to contact his family to explain that he was okay. He was denied aid and was told there was no phone on board. My father's blood pressure rises to dangerously high levels when he is under this type of stress, yet none of the crew offered him any medical assistance. The air conditioning was so cold that two days later he is still experiencing joint pain.
Another airline, Aerolineas Argentinas, had a flight which was diverted to the same military base. They had no problem deplaning the passengers and putting them on buses to Lima. The passengers on Spirit #977 were confined in cramped quarters for 15 hours without an explanation or were they offered any food or water for free. All the food on board was only available for purchase. At 8 am, the plane took off for Chiclayo to join the other diverted planes because the Lima airport was still closed. I was told by Spirit customer service that my father would be in Lima by noon on May 1st. In fact, the airport did reopen by noon, but my father did not arrive in Lima until nearly midnight. He had to fend for himself in an unfamiliar airport, since Spirit did not offer assistance in any way, not even to find hotels for the passengers or cover the costs of meals.
Spirit customer service has done nothing except take down my name. They said they would investigate the complaint, but nothing has been done. I am sure they have a phone number set up for the sole purpose of letting angry customers vent, but nothing more. The passengers on this flight were treated worse than cattle. It is absolutely disgusting that nobody will respond for this airline. My father could easily have had a heart attack or a stroke during this experience.
Reviewed April 27, 2009
Spirit Air charged my account for the flight insurance. Something has to be done about this **. I only used them because it was an emergency. Customer service is non-existent. The CEO thinks treating the customers like garbage is a joke, yet people still fly the airline? I was out $30.
Reviewed April 20, 2009
My boyfriend and I prepared for a great trip to the Opening Day at the new Yankee Stadium in the Bronx as a birthday present to him and what we experienced was a nightmare. Not only did the flight get delayed for 6 hours, but we were dealt like animals by the Spirit employees. No one came out to tell us what the problem was or why it was being delayed. They were well aware that people flying on that 7:05 am flight #604 on April 16th had spent thousands of dollars in tickets. They did not care one bit. They even went as far as to let the next flight schedule go off on time without even giving us that slot to get out to NY. My boyfriend and I finally arrived at the bottom of the 7th inning and enjoyed nothing. I was out 1200 dollars in tickets and I want not only Spirit Airlines to reimburse the $1200 but of course the 234 dollars I paid for a one way ticket to LGA. This is completely unacceptable and I expect a phone call or email to when I will be reimbursed the money I lost and the frustration we went through.
Reviewed April 14, 2009
$9 Air Fare Club/Membership - I signed up myself and husband for this about a year ago. They automatically renewed my membership for $39.95 (which is in the fine print). I cancelled my membership, but have tried for 2 days to get help to cancel my husband’s membership. The instructions they give you on their website says to login to the Free Spirit and $9 Air Fare login and password. They give you instructions to open the Free Spirit tab at the top and then select account profile. This does not exist. I found account profile under Site Map but it never took you to the screen that they say is there to show you membership date and cancellation option.
When you call, they say you have to do this on the website, but offer no explanation as to how to get into the correct screen. This certainly seems like a scam to me. You cannot cancel, and then they charge you $39.95 when the membership expires and offer no refund. You would think that a reputable airline would not pull these kinds of tactics. I have yet to be able to cancel this second membership. I assume when the time runs out, they will they charge me $39.95 for the second membership and then allow me to cancel with no refund. This is a rip off.
Reviewed April 11, 2009
My wife accompanied me on a business trip; therefore, I booked two separate round-trip flights from Atlantic City, NJ to Myrtle Beach, SC. I prepaid two checked bags for each flight each way. Spirit Airlines cancelled the return flights and put us on an earlier flight that would be impossible for us to make. When I changed the flights to a later flight for the following day, they charged me $110.00 for each of the two changes. They should not charge to change flights when they are the ones who changed their schedules. Additionally, we only checked one of the two bags and could not get a refund. When the bag was weighed on the initial flight, it was under their weight limit, but on the return flight, they told me it was 5 lbs. too heavy (nothing had been added to the bag) and I had to pay an additional $50.00 fee for the overweight bag, even though I had already paid for a 2nd bag that was not on the flights.
Reviewed April 10, 2009
I departed (LAX) at 10:55, flight# NK709 on 04/08/2009. I was seated row **, seat **. I went to sit down and noticed some dried up baby poop. I had to take out the Skyline book to scrape it off the seat. The second problem was the vents were only blowing out hot air. During the whole flight, the plane felt like it was over 100 degrees. I'm on medication for panic and anxiety attacks. I felt like I needed to go to the hospital. I told one of the flight attendants and they mentioned that the vents would not blow out any cooler air. I was not the only one upset about the heat.
The third problem on top of the high heat and my panic attack, babies were crying the whole flight. There really needs to be a better placement for families with small children, maybe at a certain area of the plane. But my main complaint is I was unable to attend a family gathering for which I flew into Detroit for. That's how bad my panic and anxiety was after the flight. I was unable to breathe and got no relief on the flight. All the money the airlines receives and no vents working properly! I am leaving Detroit on 04/13/2009 at 7:50pm Flight NK706 and I’m really nervous about the flight.
Reviewed April 7, 2009
I used a voucher from my last flight for a trip to Atlanta, Georgia. In January, when I arrived, the flight was overbooked and was told by customer service rep that they were in the process of asking customers to give up their seats. I was lucky enough to have gotten a seat but due to the delay of the flight, I would have missed my Connecting flight in Ft. Lauderdale. Meaning, I would have to stay in the airport overnight until Saturday morning. I refused and was told by the customer rep that I was going to be refunded $90 to my credit card due to the negligence of Spirit Airline and that my voucher was going to be active. So I left with the understanding that it was going to happen.
Today when I tried to make a reservation, I was told that I lost my voucher because I missed my flight and was never refunded. I told the customer service rep that wasn't the case and when I checked the credit card statement, I was never reimbursed. If you look at the Boston Logan Airport, you will clearly see that I made the flight. If you look at the gate cameras, you will also see the line of people waiting for others to give up their seats. It just so happened that my neighbor was going to Ft. Lauderdale as well and made the flight, and can validate that they were overbooked. The flight date was Jan. 16th and was coming back to Boston on the 18th.
I feel as though Spirit Airline is unprofessional and provides poor customer service, and now, they're screwing me out of $290.00. If someone is willing to help, it will be grateful.
Reviewed April 7, 2009
I was on flight nk922, and they knew my or any other golf clubs were not on the flight. But after waiting an hour, they told us to get online and fill out forms, which took me over an hour. My driver charged me $65 for waiting. As of now, I still do not have my clubs. My clubs are very important to me, so if you could get them to me, I would appreciate it.
Reviewed April 6, 2009
Due to my using this airline for so many years, I am very unhappy with the way they handle my situation of missing a flight. I believe that the situation could had been dealt with in a different manner instead of me paying full price for another ticket that I have already paid for. I would appreciate it if someone can take notice to this complaint. I had to pay an additional $178 just to get on another flight. My question is, what happened to the money that I spent on the first flight? Do I get it back in full, half or do you just completely keep it? I need to know some answers. Thank you.
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Reviewed Jan. 6, 2009
I booked airline tickets with Spirit Air going from LGA to FLL Florida for Jan. 14, 7:45 pm returning on Jan. 21 8 pm (3 tickets of $145 each round trip). I was called today, Jan. 6, by Spirit Air and told my plane has mechanical problems and they are downsizing the flights and I would need to either take an earlier or later flight. Too early would be a problem for my family, as I work and my son goes to school. Also, too late would mean we arrive at 1:00 am in the morning to our destination. It seems rather fishy that they would know over a week in advance that the plane is going to have problems. When I told them I did not want to make any changes, they said I am taking a chance in losing this flight and losing the earlier flights because they are booking up.
As I am not a seasoned traveler, can you please advise me if this is a legitimate request from the airline or are they just trying to take my seats and sell them to a higher bidder? And finally if I do have to make the changes, what compensation if any would be in order?
Reviewed Jan. 6, 2009
I purchased a ticket in the amount of $405.00 at Spirit Airlines and I was going to the Dominican Republic. Something came up and I could not travel. I was charged a 90 dollar fee for not traveling. I then used a remaining credit of $315 to go to NY but I told the representative if I could first confirm if someone can pick me up. They said no, that I need to purchase it now. I then purchased it and I did not have anyone to pick me up so I had to cancel the ticket again and again. I was charged 90 dollars. I have paid $180 in fees and I have not even traveled. Now, I only have a credit of $269 out of $405 that I paid from the beginning.
Reviewed Jan. 6, 2009
I booked a flight with Spirit Airlines. The computer was frozen on the transaction, so I thought it never went through. However it did. Then a second time I tried again and the same thing. The computer went frozen on me so on a second time - I just thought the two bookings did not go through. Until my dad's checking statement went through and Spirit double billed me as they said both bookings went through. Spirit never once sent me an email confirming these bookings, so I thought they never existed.
I'm looking at charges of $1,455.00 towards my dad's MasterCard. I have made many attempts to retrieve these losses, but Spirit's customer service is all Indian people. They talk in circles. They said I would receive a credit for only one booking for $732 on Dec. 2nd, 2008 and would take no longer than 10 days to process. Here I am looking at 1 month later and no credit has appeared on dad's credit card. I am so disappointed with Spirit Airlines and frustrated with this mess. My dad is out a lot of money and there is no reason for this. Please help me...
Reviewed Jan. 6, 2009
I travel around the country for work. I usually use American, Jet Blue, Airtran, Delta or Southwest. I recently became a member of the Spirit Air $9 fare club. On a whim, I looked into a promotion they were offering, $35 off for 35 hours. They were offering $35 off round trip if booked within their requirements. I attempted to book Boston to Fort Lauderdale, 1/29/09 to 2/2/09 to take a weekend cruise out of Miami. The fare was very reasonable at $272 total for two of us. I filled in the booking information and arrived at the payment page. On that page, it said I was pre-approved for the Spirit Air Mastercard...
It stated that if I applied, I would receive an additional $40 off this reservation and bonus miles on my Free Spirit account. I filled out the application page. It said when I submit the application, it would bring me to a different website for approval and that after being approved, it would return me to the original payment page to complete my reservation. I received the confirmation that I was indeed approved but it never sent me back to finish my reservation. There wasn't even a link to go back. At this point, I could not complete the booking. I called the Spirit Air 800 number and was greeted by someone from India. They were clueless and said that my issue was with Spiritair.com. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told they would not transfer me because my issue was not qualified!
I called back and asked the next person who was half way around the world for a supervisor. They wanted to know what the problem was before they would transfer me. I explained and they said they would try to help me. After getting into it with her in detail, she decided I should speak with a supervisor... DUH. The supervisor was useless. He directed me to a place on their website where you can send an email to Spiritair.com for assistance. They don't even have a phone number to reach them at. He stated it could take up to 48 hours to receive a reply. At this point, I realized I could not finish my cruise booking without having my Air travel in place so I placed the cruise on a courtesy 24-hour hold.
I sent the email to Spiritair.com explaining the situation in detail along with my email address and phone number where they could contact me. Three days later, I haven't heard from them and my cruise is gone. The price on the cruise is now $200 higher and the airfare on Spirit is now $150 higher making a cheap weekend getaway too expensive to bother with. After reading all of the complaints on this website about Spirit Airlines, I am actually glad this wasn't resolved. It sounds like they are a very poor airline. If this is the way they operate, I don't foresee them being around very long.
Reviewed Jan. 5, 2009
Having booked our return flights with Spirit Airlines to Grand Cayman (via Fort Lauderdale) on 22nd December 2008 back in April 2008, for my wife, my daughter and myself, we set off to spend a couple of days in New York before flying on to Grand Cayman. On arrival at Spirit check-in at La Guardia, we were told ALL flights to Grand Cayman had been cancelled back in July 2008 and they tried to call to let us know. We obviously hadn't received the call. The booking was made online and they had our email as well as postal address, but didn't try either of these, or, in fact, issue a refund which I would have spotted. They were unhelpful on the check-in desk and apart from issuing a refund on the spot, they were not willing to help us arrange alternative travel, leaving us stranded in New York until our return flight to the UK on 3rd Jan. 2009.
We had to book flights with an alternative airline (and due to it being Christmas, the options were limited and expensive). The total cost of new flights was $4349.70 (Spirit flights were $1467.12). We were also delayed by 1 day, and had to return almost 2 days early from Grand Cayman, incurring additional unplanned hotel costs in New York of $595, as well as telephone costs, food, taxis, etc.
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Reviewed Oct. 7, 2008
I bought a ticket from New York to Cartagena online and and was MISLEAD regarding baggage information AND price. My total cost of the ticket did not include the cost of baggage. The baggage was charged AFTER the ticket was bought. I was led to understand that a second piece could be paid for at the airport. When my daughter (the passenger) ARRIVED AT THE AIRPORT she was informed of the bag restriction limited to 1 per passenger when flying to Cartagena. She was treated VERY RUDELY! And when she called me and I asked to speak to the representative, he refused to talk to me. The MISLEADING information is costing me the cancellation of the flight from Fort Lauderdale to Cartagena, as well as over $300 I now had to pay for her to come on ANOTHER airline from Fort Lauderdale to Colombia.
I WOULD LIKE A REFUND FOR THE TICKET LOST AS WELL AS COMPENSATION FOR AGGRAVATION DUE TO MISLEADING INFORMATION!!!! In addition, when making the reservation I had tried to cancel a few minutes after it went through and I saw the real total. When calling they told me I would have to pay $150 even though only a few minutes passed!
Reviewed Oct. 6, 2008
I booked a flight to Myrtle Beach from Chicago on Spirit through Cheaptickets.com for a weekend wedding. I ended up having to fly to Ft. Lauderdale to get a connecting flight to Myrtle Beach. The flight on Friday was fine, although I traveled for 12 hours; the flight was at 1:30 pm and we didn't arrive at Myrtle Beach until 10:30 pm. (I should have been in a different country at that point.) The flight back on Sunday was ridiculous. The wedding was an hour away from the airport and our flight was at 8:10 am. Consequently, I had to wake up at 5:00 am. I arrive at the airport in plenty of time. It wasn't until 7:40 am that we learned that our flight was going to be delayed. Our connecting flight in Ft. Lauderdale was to depart at 10:50 am that morning.
When the plane still hadn't arrived at 8:30 am, I knew I were going to miss my connecting flight. The customer service agents did not inform the passengers as to the reason for the delay and just told the passengers it shouldn't be much longer. Weather was definitely not a factor, but there was some mention regarding mechanical issues. The next flight Spirit offered out of Ft. Lauderdale to Chicago was at 7:40 pm! 10 hours later!! The plane showed up at Myrtle Beach at around 9:00 and we departed. There was no apology or explanation. We were just hurried onto the plane as if the passengers made the plane late. The flight just barely made it in time for me to catch my connecting flight, but because Spirit does not communicate, the flight connecting flight had already taken off (it couldn't possibly wait the 5 extra minutes for 5 other passengers). I then proceeded to have to spend the whole entire day in Ft. Lauderdale due to the delay.
Being tired from traveling, attending a wedding, waking up early, and running on limited sleep does not make for a happy passenger. So naturally while at Ft. Lauderdale Airport I encountered ultimate strife. The Spirit customer service agents were incredibly rude. I had some expensive toiletries in my bag which I had been traveling with from day one (never encountered any issue). At Ft. Lauderdale Airport they wanted to throw them away. I then decided to check my bag. Unsurprisingly, Spirit refused to waive the $25 baggage fee despite all of the inconvenience and delay to me. At this point it became about principle. They wasted my whole day with no apologies or credits, and couldn't even check my for free.
I will never fly Spirit Air again. NO MATTER HOW MUCH CHEAPER IT IS THAN OTHER AIRLINES. It is obvious that they don't value their customers. Their employees sit around and do nothing. When one actually decides to help you they are rude or will tell you that they don't have enough time to help you. There was never a Spirit attendee at the any gate I was at. Gate changes are not announced and passengers must fend for themselves. If small concessions were made for passengers, situations such as these would be less aggravating. However, Spirit maintains a cavalier attitude and expects the customer to pay at all costs. RIDICULOUS and DISAPPOINTING!
Reviewed Oct. 1, 2008
I joined the Spirit credit card, and was supposed to get 15000 flyer miles. Spirit.com does not show the miles that I have right no. I should have over 18000 miles but thru my credit card. My miles are suppose to show on Spirit.com but it does not. I have tried to get a hold of someone from Spirit, but they do not have a customer service number for me to get a hold of someone. I would like to get a number to call someone, so I can get this resolved. We plan to fly in April, so we would like to be able to redeem my miles. Please help.
Reviewed Sept. 11, 2008
On the night of September 10, I signed online to purchase four of my family members flights going to Orlando for Christmas. On the Spirit airline Web sight, There is a 4 step process in booking a flight. (Step # 2 is Purchase Information)(Step # 4 is Confirmation) I typed in my Payment information for the first two family members and continued on to the seat assignment page. It was when I got there that I noticed that there were only 2 seats left and they were not next to each other. I canceled the booking only to find out that it already went through. I called right away to cancel the flight and they were very uncooperative in returning a fare that was input just 20 minutes prior in error.
I hung up. Upset and forced into this situation, I knew that I still had to get two more family members booked for the Christmas Trip. They cant fly separate airlines and we are suppose to sit together. I went ahead and check to see if there was 2 first class (big seats) available for the same flights and there were so I booked them for the last two family members. But when I got to the Seat Assignment page, There were no seats left. Spirit Air just let me overbook the flight.
I have Important and expensive arrangements for my family in Florida. Spirit Airlines gave no indication that there would be no seating together and there deceptive online booking method lead me to believe that I would be able to check seat availability before purchase. Spirit Air also let me book the last two family members when there were no seats available. These complications I tried to resolve with the company and found them to be very uncooperative.
The result is stress impacted for me as a Customer and more stress that there is fear of not flying and missing the trip. The biggest mishap on Spirit Airs part is there deceptive online buying that makes you believe you can ensure traveling can be confirmed before you buy. I would of waved the purchased off if the Spirit Air would of reimbursed me for the mishap but they didnt. They were actually very rude about it.
Reviewed Sept. 8, 2008
It was after midnight after the passengers were upset that we were told by a supervisor Mr. Rose that the flight never left Ft. Lauderdale to pick us up due to no flight crew.There were at least 10 people behind the counter not working or answering the passenger's question. There was 1 staff member Ms.Segree that should not be paid for that shift as she sat behind that counter asking herself what to do and turned her head and nose up when I and other passengers asked her if she worked for Spirit. She did not respond to a single person or lift a finger to help.There was 1 excellent staff member Ms. Shaneke Russell who patiently assisted some passengers in re-booking flights and arranging hotel and transport accomadations.Mr.Rose the supervisor on duty did the best he could but got most of us upset with the excuses he gave and the disorganization of the whole situation.The Jamaican nationals were also treated very terrible and different than the Americans and this seemed unfair. The food voucher of $7 AND$9 FOR Meals was insufficient at the hotel and I spent an additional $30 US. for 2 days.I had To spend additional money and time to get back from Florida to Georgia due to this problem. It cost me another $125.I never had this situation with Spirit Airlines before but I will be traveling to Jamaica IN THE FUTURE AND HOPE NEVER TO TRAVEL ON YOUR AIRLINES,AND I HAVE BEEN SHARING THIS EXPERIENCE WITH MANY FRIENDS WHO ARE APPALLED and will not travel on your airlines in the future.It was a terrible experience.
Reviewed Sept. 8, 2008
I purchased a ticket for my daughter and me with Spirit Airlines to travel to Colombia. In order to have a low ticket rate you have to have an account with them. I opened with my married name which is my legal name in the USA (credit cards, driver license, and permanent resident). Under the passengers name and passport information I included my name as appeared in my Colombian Passport (single name) and all the information required for the passport and for this trip.
When I received the record locator it was not listed with my name as appear in my passport.
I called Spirit Airlines and a representative informed me I can't travel (in general I gave then money and they did something wrong with my reservation)
I traveled with several others Airlines before (Delta, American Airlines, and Avianca) and never had a problem like this.
Now my ticket is not refundable and they are not helping me after they know (as I confirmed with an airlines representative) I entered the information UNDER passanger name as it is in my passport before purchasing the ticket.
The representative informed the information is there for their records but does not appear in my ticket (so what is this??? ways to get FREE money for the airlines in situations I believe are common)
Spirit Airlines travels also in the USA; I was not informed I needed to open one account for every modification of my name (considering I can not change my Colombian passport name since this is a mandatory rule)
The trip is not until Nov 2 2008; I am sending this email looking for a support and advise in this situation.
I paid for I tickect and can't use neither can't get refund
Reviewed Sept. 7, 2008
I think it's unfair to see how many people lost money through this Airline because fares are nonrefundable. Altough this has been over a year, I still fly Spirit and still hoping for a resolution on this matter.
Reviewed Sept. 7, 2008
My wife attempted to purchase plane tickets online for both of us for christmas. In the process of completing the online form (round trip for two) she noticed that instead of providing round trip for two, it only provided one way trip for 2 and a round trip for one, so she cancelled it befor going further.
She was not so lucky in her next attempt and did not notice a problem until after she submitted and printed out the confirmation. It was then that she discovered that the date she had purchased the tickets for were Sept rather than December. She immediately phoned customer service and explained the mistake. She was told that it cost $90/ticket ($180) to cancel. Was offered a replacement ticket that would cost the difference between what she had purchased by mistake ($508) and the replacement ticket.
She was told that there was a ticket for $390 more she could take rather than pay the 180 cancel fee. The second ticket offered was for $658 (essentially a $150 fee for changing the mistake). I called their customer service and spoke to 3 people. The first two had thick accents and had loud music in background that made it difficult to hear them. The last, the floor manager named Ashley Miller, said that nothing more could be done.
I argued that we had acted in good faith and that my wife only accepted the replacement ticket under economic duress. But more importantly, because it had only been minutes, and our mistake unlikely to have cost them money, couldn't they just allow us to cancel the ticket or purchase one that was equitable in price. She said no. I told her that this seemed like a case of mutual mistake wherein we relied on mistaken assumption about the date when entering the contract and thus should make the contract void. It did not matter. When I asked for a higher manager, she said that Markus would not listen to such cases at all.
In the end, we lost only $150 dollars. But it reminded me of the last encounter we had with Spirit Airlines where we called for information about bringing aboard a pet and were not told that there was a $100 fee. We found out only when we showed up to catch our flight. If we had not called up and asked, I would have assumed it was just our ignorance. But, it was ONLY $100.
The aggravation is that it seems like we get nickle and dimed on regular basis and mistakes can not be corrected because it was the system. I could see grounds to refuse our request had we not noticed for even just a week, because that limits the time the airline can fill the seats. But this was just a question of minutes and it felt like a rip off. My question is, has this sort of thing happend to enough people to initiate a class action law suit? Or can some sort of regulation be imposed? What happened to acting in good faith? Can't there be some kind of action taken to force accountability among big companies?
Reviewed Aug. 28, 2008
I sent my two children, age 12 (Tyler Wiener) and age 9 (Jessica Wiener) to visit their grandparents on [Spirit] airlines, and I am so upset, I'm not sure words can describe it... It was their first time flying unaccompanied and not wanting to take a chance I PAID (charging for an aisle or window seat and then switching them to a middle seat is almost like STEALING, similar to the bait and switch) for seats online so they would obviously be sitting together.
When we checked them in yesterday, we were told there was a $75 fee for an age 5-11 year old, which would basically be a perfect way for us to know they were signed for at each post. Not sure it was a great investment for what was actually going to be done, however, as parents it was a nice piece of mind to have.
To find out from my son after PAYING for both this service and SEATS, that one of the flight attendants actually asked my 9 year old daughter when she got on the plane if it was ok to sit in the row behind her brother is SCREAM OUT LOUD INSANE. How [they] could take advantage of a child flying for the first time (or the 50th time) is OUTRAGEOUS. Forgetting that I was forced to PAY for them to sit together, how on a full plane of people they couldn't ask an adult to move if there was an issue is mind boggling.
Small economic damage, wasted $30 But asking a 12 and a 9 year old flying alone for the first time to sit separate after we told them (and paid for them) that they would be together the whole flight is mentally disturbing
Reviewed Aug. 27, 2008
Spirit airline went int my checking acct unauthorized and took $39.95 for club membership which I emailed them on 08/18/08 and said I wanted to have nothing to do with them or their membership club. The withdrawal was done on 08/23/08.
My checking acct was credited $39.95 unauthorized which result to me to put that money back in there so my bills wont bounce.
Reviewed Aug. 26, 2008
Got the new Spirit air credit card that gets you a free flight (15000 points). First, A free flight is 45000 points, so it was misleading information. I tryed multiple destinations and 45000 is the minimum required for a free flight. The person on the phone told me, Go head, buy a coffee with the card and you'll get a free flight.
Then I tryed to ask someone about my rewards over the phone and the person sent me to the Q&A section of their poorly designed website to get my answer and give them a call back later. Very nice... Talking about Free spirit's website, I keep getting these emails with incredibly low prices. 3 dol one way. advertisement and I just received an email that said we are having a thresome, come and join the fun (fares at 3 dol I precise).
I could only wish their fares where as cheap as their humor. Because when you enter the site, and even as a free spirit customer, it is impossible to find these fares. And I am computer litterate, I work in IT. This is the worst Company/credit car to fly with. Stay away if possible. They have poor customer service and fake ads. Please beware and fly safe.
A lot of time opening and closing the card and trying to figure out how their website works. Spirit air does have a different spirit, it's just air.
Reviewed Aug. 26, 2008
We purchased 4 roundtrip tickets (2 adults, 1 lap child and 2 children) from Fort Myers to Chicago because it was the airline with the least expensive tickets. However, after booking, the website informed us of baggage fees which made the trip more expensive than the other airline we were considering. Since they refused to refund us our tickets, we went ahead and and paid for the bags and reluctantly flew with Spirit Airlines. The plane was filthy (vomit residue on seatbelts!)and two of the seats did not recline.
On the day of our return flight, a Sunday, we got a call from Spirit advising us that our flight had been canceled,and we would be put on a Spirit flight for Tuesday. My husband, a doctor, had surgeries and patients scheduled the next day, so we asked that they do what they could to put us on any other flight with any airline,that same day, but they refused. They refused to let us speak with a supervisor as well, saying that nothing could be done.
They only offered us a 100 dollar voucher for a future flight for every paying passenger. When we told them we weren't going to be flying with Spirit again and did not want vouchers, they agreed to give us a $100.00 refund to our credit card per ticket, but we had to request this at the actual ticket counter in the airport.
My husband ended up buying a last minute, more expensive ticket with Southwest. I, 6 months pregnant, stayed behind with our three children (all under 5) and waited until Tuesday to avoid the added expense of having to buy 3 more tickets. Because I was pregnant and traveling alone, my husband took our baggage with him and was allowed to do so free of charge with Southwest. Spirit agreed to reimburse us the cost of the bags as well.
When we got to the ticket counter to claim our money back, a Spirit representative refused and said that they had no such policy, and that the requests should be made by phone. She became angry when we tried to argue with her that we had already done so, and she asked us to leave. When I called Spirit and tell them what had happened, they put me on hold and then disconnected me. I called back again, explained everything again, and I was told I was supposed to be helped at the ticket counter. He apologized and after putting me on hold, informed me that we would be reimbursed for the full cost of our tickets. I immediately received confirmation e-mails for the credits.
I thought the ordeal was finally over, but the only refund we got on our credit card was for $20.00. When I called about it, I spoke to Steven, who very rudely informed me that they would not be reimbursing me any money because most of us did fly on their airline after all, and would not connect me with a supervisor. He would also not give me his last name, saying he was the only Steven working with Spirit. This is by far, the worst airline in the business.
Reviewed Aug. 21, 2008
When I informed her that I needed seats assignment, she advised me that the plane was booked and printed three boarding passes (out of 5) and called to ask for authorization for an upgrade as the only two remaining seats on the plane were big front seats. She then left without saying a word, I found myself standing there for 35 minutes anxiously wondering what was going on. When Samantha finally came back, I told her that I wish she had told me what was going on before leaving as I was at lost as to what to do and no one else was able to help, she got angry and yelled that she had other work to do and left again for another 10 minutes. By then, it was 1:40p.m. past the boarding time of 1:29p.m., I still did not have the two remaining boarding passes and was worried that I would be unable to travel. Samantha only came back when the plane was ready to board. She yelled that she was doing me a favor by giving me an upgrade and that she was changing her mind to upgrade two other passengers instead. I replied that I did not ask and did not want an upgrade, but the seats for which I paid. When she realized that time was running out, she finally printed the two remaing boarding passes (by which time, the plane was boarding). It was an humiliating experience. Samantha was rude, disrespectful and made my trip on Spirit air very stressful and unpleasant. I wil never fly Spirit Air again!
Reviewed Aug. 19, 2008
I made my reservation from NYC going to Ft. Lauderdale on Wed. 8/13/08 (Flt779) I have diabetes and I was traveling with my 3month old baby and my esperience was the worst, my plane got delayed we were supposed to depart at 7:45pm and get there at 22:50 and our flight only left NYC around 11:00pm and when the plane finally came it was a small plane and there was not enough seat for everyone.
I was not able to seat on my seat because the mgr. said it was open seat people was seating anywhere and everywhere. I felt very upset because I bought my ticket months ahead and I almost got left behind with my baby, thanks to an airline that are not organized.
my esperience with Spirit Airline was extremely BAD imagen having Diabetes and traveling with a 3 month old baby and thinking that you will be in your destination in about 3hrs and half and instead I got there 2am. It was the WORST EVER! I don't think I'll fly Spirit Airline ever again.
Reviewed Aug. 12, 2008
We booked a flight from Chicago,IL to Ft. Meyers, Fla on SpiritAir in September 2007 for a flight in January 2008. In January 2008 we received the unfortunate news that a family member that we were going to see was diagnosed with colon cancer and underwent surgery. We had to cancel the reservation and printed the cancelled reservation confirmation which indicated travel vouchers in the amount of $209.80 each ticket.
On August 12, 2008 I attempted to use these travel vouchers and was told by the customer service supervisor that the vouchers were $60 less per voucher yet nothing on the printed confirmation receipt indicated such a fee.
Subsequently, we have been forced to use these vouchers at the decreased price at a loss of $180 USC.
Reviewed July 30, 2008
I purchased my flight via spirit air, only to find one week later they dropped about $50. When I got there needless to say the flight was delayed 3 hours. The new boarding time was 1:40 I got my ticket ready and handed it to the ticket guy. There was couple behind me also ready to board. i'm sorry he said the gates are shut and we are not accepting any other passengers at this time.
They gave our sits to passengers on will call, and then 2 passengers left the plain leaving 2 more seats available, since of course he didn't have a walkie talkie he could not get ahold of them on the plane to let them know that there were us waiting to board. I complained to the manager (which doensn't do any good) he basically summed it to well you get what you pay for and handed me a $7 food coupon.
The trip back was just as bad from the time of being seated on the plane to the time of take off was 2 hours. And we arrived at 12 instead of 10:50. I am willing to pay the extra to fly another airline. Two thumbs down for spirit.
Reviewed July 28, 2008
On July 22 my wife and I had reservations on Spirit Air Flight 244 from Guatemala CIty, Guatemala to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Our flight's scheduled departure was for 12:35 PM. Due to a catastrophic landslide which occurred on the main highway into Guatemala City, we had to take several alternate routes in order to try and make our flight. While traveling we attempted to reach Spirit Air in Guatemala City several times, but no one was answering the telephone in the business office. We called the main reservations number but the agent we reached said there was nothing they could do to inform the Spirit Air ticket counter about our delay.
We called the Airport Security Office, but they said we would have to talk to Spirit Air. Thanks to a taxi driver who risked his life, and ours, trying to get us to the airport on time, we arrived at the Guatemala City Airport at 11:25 AM. My wife immediately went to the Spirit Air ticket counter to start checking us in while I handled out luggage. She was standing in line at 11:29 AM and had to wait while another passenger, who was booked on the same flight, was being assisted by the agent at the ticket counter. At 11:38 we finally got to the agent and he refused to check us in saying were three minutes late! We explained our circumstances and the fact that we were in line before the 11:35 AM cutoff.
The agent, Juan C., was not sympathetic, nor cooperative. Another gentleman was in line behind us, who was also in line before the cutoff, and Mr. C. said that if he let us on board, he would also have to let the gentleman behind us on the plane, too. I asked to speak with a supervisor, and was told he was at the gate and could not talk with us. I asked Mr. C. to get him on the phone/walkie talkie and expalin our situation. Mr. C. refused to do so, simply saying the flight was closed and there was nothing that could be done. Plenty of Spirit Air agents were behind the counter, but all of them looked elsewhere, never once looking us in the eyes.
I then asked Mr. C. what our options were. He said that he could not help us until he finished whatever he was doing... He was counting money in order to close the account on our flight. After 20 minutes of standing in line and looking right at him, he finally spoke with us again. He informed us that the next flight to Ft. Lauderdale was the next day in the afternoon, but there was no connecting flight to Washington, DC, our destination. The next flight with connections would not be for 48 hours. I asked if he could check for flights with other airlines in order to get us out sooner. He said he could not. Our frustration with the total absence of compassion, assistance, and concern hit the "melting point." I explained that my wife's mother was having life-threatening cancer surgery the next day and that we had to get a flight to Washington DC that day. With no remorse, whatsoever, in his voice he said he could not help us any further.
My wife and I eventually, after three hours of trying to find a flight with space, were able to book a flight the next morning with American Airlines, whose agents were most helpful and caring. We had to stay overnight ($136) and added to that the cost of two plane tickets ($984) brought our out-of-pocket expenses for Spirit Air's callous regard and handling of our situation to a total of $1120, plus the cost of our Spirit Air tickets and baggage fees - $500 +/-. We had to stay overnight ($136) and added to that the cost of two plane tickets ($984) brought our out-of-pocket expenses for Spirit Air's callous regard and handling of our situation to a total of $1120, plus the cost of our Spirit Air tickets and baggage fees - $500 +/-.
Reviewed July 24, 2008
The phone number dialed only deals with reservations. I did find a # from another customer who had done some research. I left a voice mail but it has been 2 days and i have not received a return call.
I had to cancel my $9 fare free trial by 7-18-08 in order to not be charged $39.95 to continue the use of the program. So on 7-17-08 I proceeded to cancel the club membership. The cancellation button was not there. It was there on 7-15-08. how come it was not there on 7-17-08.
They did the same thing with there baggage rate increase. I went to buy baggage before the deadline and wouldn't you know it. They stopped offering the baggage price of $15. I called the 1-800 # above they said I could only buy baggage within thirty days of my flight. Which means I had to pay the $25 per flight for one piece of baggage. That issue was resolved a week later when I went back on the website and discovered the button was miraculously there.
Back to the $9 Dollar fare club fee. I have since canceled the club but now I am out the $39.95. I might fly once a year. I was led to believe I had to be in the club to get the cheap prices. That is not the case at all. My travel companion was able to buy tickets for the same $87 price as I did. So my next step is to forward this info on to the better business bureau?
$39.95
Reviewed July 17, 2008
I am traveling from NY La Guardia to Fort Lauderdale, Florida and AFTER I purchase my flight I am made aware of a new advanced seating policy whereby you are charged $10-15 per trip (so for a round trip, you can pay as much as $30 just to reserve your seat in advance) to reserve a seat in advance. I tried to go back and cancel my flight (because frankly, I'd pay the extra $30 to Jetblue and get my own TV + beverages) but of course, it was too late - I already purchased and bought a nonrefundable flight.
I promptly called the airline, after a while as finding the contact information on the site is not easy, and she was absolutely no help and just kept apologizing but couldn't do anything for me. When I requested to speak with a manager, she said there was none available and she is the only person I could speak with. I could not believe what was happening. I just booked a flight and now I have to pay for something that I was not aware of and this woman was absolutely no help to me.
This is the 2nd time I fly on this airline and I will NEVER fly spirit again and will tell all my friends and family to stay away. It's ridiculous to drive down the "price" of a ticket only to find out (after you purchase your flight) that there are additional fees for baggage, advance seat assignments; if you are not careful and un-click the $9 fare club promotion and $12 insurance buttons, you'll also pay for that; and then beverages on board are also now available only for purchase.
Spirit is being very deceptive in it's ticketing practices and unfortunately their customer service is really inadequate and does not help customers. So what now? Well, I refuse to pay anymore than the cost of my ticket so I did not purchase an advance seat. The consequence of all this is a lot of aggravation and feeling of being misled and deceived by Spirit. I truly hope they come under fire for this and so many of their other practices and that they shape up or get out of the airline industry.
Reviewed July 15, 2008
I was returning home to Ft. Lauderdale after a trip to Boston on July 8, 2008. My flight, #NK615, was scheduled to leave at 7:15pm. I arrived at Logan Airport at about 4:45pm. As I walked into the terminal with my one bag, I was greeted by strangers who informed me that my flight had been cancelled. When I asked them which flight, they said all of them and they pointed to a deserted Ticket Counter. Apparently, Spirit had cancelled ALL flights that afternoon/evening out of Logan and sent home ALL of their employees.
I joined the other stranded passengers in trying to call Spirit. For anyone who has ever attempted to contact Spirit in the past knows, that is nearly impossible! It seems like the only way to get anyone on the phone was to call New Reservations. New Reservations told me what the others had already learned: All they could do for me is to sell me a new ticket. They also advised me that there were no seats available for the next day.
Essentially, Spirit cancelled all of their flights and left the stranded passengers without any assistance at the airport. There was no one available to help make alternative arrangements. They told us on the phone that we were on our own -- no compensation for lodging, food, etc. I had to get home and get to work the next day. I also could not afford to spend another day in Boston. I had no place to stay, I was running out of cash, and my credit cards were close to their limits. Fortunately, I had a friend who was flying back to Ft. Lauderdale about the same time on JetBlue. I called him (it's in another terminal), and he was able to get me the LAST SEAT on his flight (he also paid for it with his credit card for me!). Since I was out of money and credit cards, I really had no other options but to get back home that night!
When I called Spirit on July 10th, the Customer Service rep on the phone told me that she would send through an email request for a voucher for me. The voucher would only be for my flight -- not my pre-paid seat payment or my pre-paid baggage fees. I told her that wasn't adequate (after all, it cost me another $370 to get home), and insisted on speaking to a supervisor. After putting me on hold for about 45 more minutes (she did come back on after about 15 minutes and told me to keep on holding), I got disconnected.
$369.50 to book on another airlines.
Reviewed July 9, 2008
I booked a roundtrip flight from San Antonio, TX, to Orlando, FL, at least two months prior to my July 4th trip to visit family. I also purchased pre-seating from San Antonio to Ft. Lauderdale, as well as from Ft. Lauderdale back to San Antonio (since these were two of the longer flights), paying $10 per seat. Two of the three ticket agents at the San Antonio Airport were very rude to and impatient with every person in line. The ticket agent I approached was in such a hurry to see everyone she failed to print out my boarding ticket from Ft. Lauderdale to Orlando.
When I found my seat 7D (the one I paid for, front aisle), it was dirty, along with my entire row. There were cookie crumbs everywhere. After waiting nearly 7 hours at Ft. Lauderdale just for my short 45 minute trip to Orlando, there was confusion as to whether or not gate H2 was an Air Jamaica or Spirit Air gate. The ticket agent from gate H1, with no sense of urgency, grazed his way over to H2 and rather disparagingly announced for Spirit passengers bound for Orlando to wait a little longer because our plane was an hour late. I approached the same ticket agent and asked if he could print me a boarding pass.
For my return home, the ticket booth inside OIA was outrageously long. I ended up using the skycap service, although I had no bags to check. This time, however, I got both boarding passes. This time, however, I noticed for my flight from Ft. Lauderdale to San Antonio, I was not sitting in the seat I paid for. I purchased seat 6D (front aisle) back in May. That's what my itinerary stated from the date I purchased my seats and tickets until the morning before I left for the airport. My boarding pass now showed I was sitting in 16B (middle-back, and in the center).
Spirit Airlines' website makes not mention of re-arranged seating assignments if a flight is full (nor does the webiste have any contact information available). But it does state pre-purchased seats are non-refundable. I'd like my $10 refunded to me because 16B is not the seat I purchased. But more importantly--since more than likely I will not be getting $10 credited back to my account--is the fact that Spirit Air has a lot to work on in customer service and a better explanation of their policies. Never again will I fly Spirit Airlines, and I will do my best to ensure everyone I know stays clear, or risk being treated like something less than a human being.
Loss of a measly $10 and a total of two vacation days lost due to long layovers in Ft. Lauderdale and delayed flights.
Reviewed July 8, 2008
We booked a vacation through the Spirit Airlines Vacation Packages. One way was fine, but coming home - rather trying to get home - was an experience convincing us never to fly on Spirit Air again. We had a 3:50 flight out of Cancun, MX to our connection in Ft. Lauderdale. In FL, we were to connect to a flight to Boston. There was a delay out of Cancun, alleged to be weather related. The airline alleged that the Cancun flight was coming out of New York and would be delayed due to weather. They originally claimed a delay of 2 hours. Ultimately, the delay was only about an hour. They quickly boarded the flight and took off and we landed in Ft. Lauderdale about 20minutes before the connection to Boston was to leave.
Because we were re-entering the country, we had to claim our bags and go through customs. We got through relatively quickly, but when we asked the agent for our gate for the connection, she told us you missed it that we had to go to re-booking. We could see the flight on the other side of the terminal. It was still there! They wouldn't let us go to the gate, even though they were still there. Apparently, they closed the gate, and didn't give a rat's butt about the 20 connecting passengers that needed to catch that flight.
So off to re-booking we go and I have to say, the customer service at Spirit is probably the worst I have ever seen for any legitimate organization. They bark orders at you, they lie, they make everything your fault. We had kids that were going to be dropped off and jobs to get to. The rep actually said so what, I have kids, too. Our original connection was 7:25pm. We finally gave up trying to get a flight out that night. The rep booked us on a 7:25 flight the next MORNING. When we showed up at the airport at 5am, the new rep didn't have a reservation for us. We were booked for 7:25 pm.
There were two other flights that day; 6:50am and 3:30pm. We found out that the reps get some of fee/bonus for booking flights on their shifts. It's likely we were booked on the same shift the next day for the benefit of the rep, and to heck with customer service. We spent 30 minutes waiting for a supervisor. The last person we spoke with was not a supervisor, but at least had an ounce of empathy. She tried to get us a meal voucher for the long day ahead of us. She returned after 30 minutes apologizing that they (Spirit) would not give a meal voucher for weather related delays. At some point it's not weather related any more.
We had to get a hotel for the night (no allowances or vouchers) and food for the day we were stranded. Ultimately, it cost us about $250. The most aggravating part of this is that none of it would have happened if they allowed us to access the connecting flight. At that point, it was no longer weather related. I'm sure (based on the number of stranded people we talked with at the terminal), that this could be an intentional effort to sell more tickets. All those standby people needed flights to be on. Hence, sell them a ticket and re-book the people that made purchases ahead of time.
$250, unnecessary inconvenience and humiliation
Reviewed July 8, 2008
Mean Spirited Spirit Airline's efforts to cut costs a bridge too far. Prior to my recent trip to Costa Rica, my only knowledge of Spirit Airlines came via a couple of sophomoric marketing campaigns and some recent press regarding their decision to increase tariffs on checked baggage. Not being particularly perturbed by either of these factors, when Kayak.com returned Spirit as the cheapest way to get to San Jose and back, I snapped up a round-trip ticket.
The trip to San Jose was uneventful. Spirit bore all the trademarks of budget airlines I had become accustomed to; vanishing leg room, charges for checked baggage ($25), fees for snacks and bring-your-own entertainment. I was slightly taken aback when I was informed I would have to pay $3 for water, however I accepted this as the price of a relatively inexpensive air fare.
Spirit's true colors were reserved for the return journey. My flight from San Jose left at 12:55am local time. The flight landed only fractionally late, around 5:50am versus the advertised 5:43am, however a combination of technical issues attaching the plane to the gangway, and my being seated in the 25th of 26 rows on the aircraft, meant I did not step off the plane for another 30 minutes. I informed both stewardesses and ground-staff that I had a tight connection (my flight to Boston was scheduled to leave at 6:50am) both greeted me with blank stares and the phrase "There is nothing we can do." This, I would later learn, is the Spirit party line.
By the time I made it to security I was informed that the flight had already left, and that I needed to go to Spirit's ticketing agents to get on a different flight. Along with two dozen other passengers in a similar situation, I grabbed my bags and headed toward the rebooking line. It was in this line that I would spend the next 90 minutes of my morning, watching Spirit employees behind the desks regale in tales of recent disgruntled passengers while ignoring the line of dozens of displaced customers. The two agents who were working were doing so at a painfully slow pace. Like a glacier, the line inched toward the two functioning rebooking desks. I watched the faces of those before me turn from curiosity to disbelief finally to frustration and anger, leaving me to wonder what my fate would be when I finally arrived at the desk myself.
It turned out that I had two options. I could either wait on standby for a 3:35pm flight, or receive a boarding pass for a 7:45pm flight. I was told that the 3:35pm flight was already overbooked by 12 passengers, and with the already large amount of customers in a similar situation, it was unlikely that we would receive seats. I asked what Spirit would provide in the 12+ hours until the 7:45pm flight. The answer, was nothing. I asked if there was another airline flying to Boston sooner. The employee would not tell me. I asked for a refund, again, no. In disbelief I requested to speak to a supervisor. Twenty minutes later a gentlemen arrived to once more parrot the party line. "There is nothing we can do" he explained. "It would be different if this was our fault, but in this situation it was the government's fault."
I have blamed many things on the government over the past 8 years, but even to me, blaming them for a private airline's incompetence in flight-management seemed to be a stretch. While he acknowledged that I had done nothing to bring this misfortune upon myself, he made absolutely no effort to remedy the situation; No hotel, no airport lounge, no food vouchers, not even an apology. His sole recommendation was that I visit terminal three, where there was a Chili's, as if somehow the thought of baby-back ribs at 8:45am would dissipate my growing fury. Before I left the counter, the supervisor had printed my girlfriend and I boarding passes for the 3:35pm flight, and told us to get to the gate as early as possible as we were on the stand-by list. This shouldn't be an issue, we thought, we certainly didn't have anywhere else to go.
We made it through security as early as they would let us, around 11:45am. We were informed that we had both been randomly selected for additional screening. Under ordinary circumstances this would have caused me considerable frustration, but after sitting on the floor of Spirit's dingy terminal for the last 3 hours a trip through the puffer machine proved a welcome change of scenery. The TSA employees, not typically my favorite individuals to deal with, were also a breath of fresh air in comparison with my recent discourse with the Spirit supervisor.
The next three and a half hours were spent at gate H10. Per the instruction of the rebooking supervisor, we were determined to be first in line for a stand-by seat. A couple of hours went by before I even caught a glimpse of a Spirit employee, when I did, I asked her to explain the procedure for stand-by passengers. She made no effort to conceal her disinterest in answering my question, and offered a curt "You need to wait here until boarding finishes, so, not for another hour at least." So that's what I did, I sat, waited, and watched as everyone boarded the plane. I recognized one of the boarding passengers from my wait in the original rebooking line, which spawned a temporary optimism. Once the last passenger had boarded I approached the gate official, the same woman who had been so terse with me an hour earlier.
After showing me my original boarding pass, along with the one the rebooking agent had issued me, she played with her computer for a while before printing me a boarding pass, complete with seat number. Jen followed in kind, and she too was issued a boarding pass. Success! Or so we thought. Upon boarding the plane, we noticed several empty seats. I proceeded to the seat marked on my boarding pass, stowed my luggage in the overhead bin and took my seat. Jen, on the other hand, arrived at her seat to find another passenger already in it, sure enough, her boarding pass confirmed that she was in her allocated seat. In the interim, several other passengers had boarded the plane. One of which, we would later learn, was a stewardesses mother who was flying on a "buddy ticket." Since there were now no remaining seats for Jen, and it did not make sense for us to travel forth separately, we were both escorted off the plane.
By this stage, neither of us had slept for almost 36 hours. Had things gone according to plan we would have been in our beds in Boston over 5 hours ago. I asked the gate attendant who issued us our seats how this mix-up could have happened. Without a straight answer, I asked to speak with another supervisor. Another woman came by shortly. The gate attendant tried to explain the situation to her, and in doing so blatantly fabricated events regarding instructions she had delivered to me earlier in the day. I told the supervisor that this had been only the latest in a string of errors made by Spirit today. Her response "I don't know about the rest of your day and I don't need to, because there's nothing I can do about it" [emphasis my own].
Onward to another customer service representative we ventured. This time to try and secure a seat on the final flight to Boston of the day, a 7:45pm, flight that flew via Myrtle Beach. The third time proved to be a charm, and we eventually made it to Boston, shortly after midnight and not before being asked if we would mind spending the night in Myrtle Beach as they had overbooked that flight also. We did not.
My qualms with the day stem not from the fact that I got home 14 hours later than I should have, but from the way I was treated throughout the day. During the ordeal neither of us received so much as an apology, much less any sort of compensation. I support airlines in their efforts to cut costs. I am willing to endure the lack of legroom, refreshments and entertainment. I do not even begrudge paying to check bags. The complete elimination of customer service, however, I feel is a bridge too far. I had to wait in the terminal for 14 hours, paying for my own food. By the time I reached my destination, public transportation was closed for the night, resulting in a $50 cab-ride home. All told I spent at least an additional $100 and wasted a day in an airport terminal.
Reviewed July 6, 2008
I was flying from Fort Lauderdale to Reagan National in May. Upon arriving at check in, I had with me a briefcase and hanging garment bag, the cheap plastic kind you get when you buy a new suit. The woman at check in (Employee #sa114) told me that I could not carry on two bags. When I asked if this was a Spirit rule or airport rule, she said it was an FAA rule. I asked her again if that was true and she answered yes. I asked for a manager and she said she was the manager. I explained to her that I had a laptop in the briefcase and expensive clothing in the garment bag, which wasn't labeled and I didn't want to check it. She told me that security would not allow me on the plane with two bags and that I was going to miss the flight.
Anyhow, without any other options, I gave her the garment bag, which she charged me $20 for and dropped callously on the conveyer belt. Of course, the bag never did arrive in Washington. The passenger right next to me boarded with a briefcase and garment bag and said he had no problem. In fact, Spirit's own website says passengers are allowed one personal item, such as a briefcase, and one additioanl carry on item. I filed a claim immediately and called the claim number they gave me as well as corporate headquarters for five straight days and never got a return call.
Upon returning to Florida I filed the lengthy claim form, listed all the lost garments ($2,800 worth), and sent a certified copy to the claim department and CEO. Nearly six weeks later I got a very short letter saying they were not liable because I did not provide receipts. Passengers have no recourse for employee misconduct and corporate abuse of policies.
My trip was ten days and included my sister's graduation and a family wedding. In the garment bag was two suits, slacks, and six expensive dress shirts. I had to spend almost $700 to buy new clothes for the trip.
Reviewed July 2, 2008
I received sticker shock from a ticket agent in St. Marrten, when I was told that the cost for checking a bag had gone up within a week from $20.00 per bag to $25.00 per bag. I was able to pay the $20.00 at LaGuirdia airport in the U.S. by credit card. On my way back to the U.S., the St. Maarten ticket agent informed me that I had to pay $25.00 per suitcase on my return trip home.
Within a week, the baggage check-in rates had gone up $5.00. I was not able to pay by credit card, but CASH only. When on the airplain going to St. Marrten, I purchased a soda and had to pay in cash. Upon my return home, ony a credit card was accepted.
I was barely prepared to pay an additional $5.00 for baggage check-in. There were bags at a cost of $40 (2 bags checked in), going to St. Maarten and $50 upon my return to the U.S. Accepting or not accepting credit cards was quite confusing. I asked the agent, how would I have known while on vacation, that the baggage rate had increased. She moaned something about my checking the internet. I would have no reason to check the internet while on vacation, especially the Spirit Airline website.
It is my opinion that whatever price I pay for baggage check-in going, I should only have to pay the same amount returning. I will never fly Spirit Airlines again, and I have told my friends not to use this unfriendly, unprofessional, confusing, inconsistent airline as well. I was very distraught, because I had to scrape up the $50 between my husband and I.
Reviewed June 28, 2008
At the rebooking counter there was about 50 people waiting. After waiting for 2 hours in the line, Spirit Airlines told me that I had to buy new tickets for 2:30PM flight and told me to pay $236. I was very upset and asked to talk to the supervisor. After waiting for 30 minutes, they told me that Supervisor is eating breakfast so I had to wait longer. So aroung 10:30AM supervisor finally came to me and said it's all my fault and there was nothing they can do. So I try to explain my story but then she said there's nothing she can do and if I keep complaining, she would call the Airport security and police. Basically she was threatening me to leave. So I ended up losing $175 (plane ticket) + $40 (hotel) + $60 (rental car) = $275 plus I had to wait in line at the airport for almost 5 hours. I will never fly Spirit Airlines and recommend everyone to avoid this Airline. They are rude, and will charge you for everything. Your $50 plane ticket will cost you $500 at the end.
Reviewed June 27, 2008
I want to offer a course of action for some of the issues regarding Spirit Airlines. I had my own issue in early May this year. To make a long story short, because of their misleading online reservation system, I unknowlingly booked 5 roundtrip tickets without ticket confirmations. My credit card was charged. I tried customer service and kept getting disconnected.
I emailed their customer service dept. and after 3 days rec'd a canned response that I was out of luck because I agreed to the terms and conditions. This was completely false. I tried their phones again and could never get through. Finally I decided to go to the top and find out their CEO since I could not talk to anyone or find a manager's name.
When I searched on Spririt and CEO on yahoo, I found not only the CEO's name but also his email address. You will see articles about his Reply All email snafu from a few months ago. I emailed this guy (Ben something) and rec'd a response from customer service within 12 hours stating that I would get my money back since they re-evaluated my situation. I actually rec'd a refund. I don't have his email address handy but just do a Yahoo or Google search and you will ultimately find his email. Good luck.
Reviewed June 26, 2008
There changing flight times without conntacting me for my October flight from ISP to FLL When I call them they tell me its not there problem that the new times dont work for me Than after doing some reserach I found out they are going to have major cut back in Ft. Lauderfale and closing the terminels in NYC and Long Island August 1 I fell the cosumer should be told and get a full refund.
Reviewed June 26, 2008
I had booked a flight to FLL for myself and my disabled son. Once there I received an email that my return flight was changed. My original flight was a direct flight (booked that way due ot my son's disabilities). The flight they changed me to added 6 hours to my flight and 2 connections (1 of which only had a 30 minute layover that I would never make). When I called to get it changed, I waited in their phoen system for an hour. When someone answered, I told her that I received an email that my flight was changed, and she hung up on me.
Reviewed June 25, 2008
Unfortunately, that has changed. They now require that you submit a form and wait approximately 72 hours to be contacted by an agent. The 72 hours is actually 2 1/2 weeks. I submitted a second redemption request 3 weeks ago for a flight to Florida at Christmas time ( we had enough miles for 2 more free tickets). After waiting for 2 1/2 weeks, I was told by Jackie ( the agent), that the entire week between Christmas and New Years is completely sold out. I asked how it could be sold out 6 months in advance,and was told that it is. Of course, if I want to pay for a ticket,they are available on the website. I then asked her when the automated site would be back up so I don't have to go through the "form process" again, and she informed me that as far as she knows, the form process is permanent. The Spirit website states that they are currently upgrading their automated site and it will be back up, but apparently the employees are unaware of that.
Spirit claims that they don't have blackout dates, but it was very clear to me that they now do. I know other people that have also tried to cash in their miles for the week after Christmas, and they were told the same story.
It's too bad. My husband and I have been really big fans of Spirit over the last several years, and now, not so much. It's great to rack up the miles as long as you can use them. Otherwise, what's the point? Fortunately, we live near 3 major aiports--Atlantic City, Newark and Philadelphia. Southwest and Continental both fly non-stop to our destination, and they have had excellent frequent flyer programs in place for years. The also have blackout dates, but at least they are honest about them.
Reviewed June 24, 2008
My son recently booked a flight on Spirit for his study abroad trip. The reservation went fine. The problem was when we arrived at the air port for the flight. We stood in line and when came to the ticket agent to assign the seat we were told the flight was cancelled. No one would tell us why or what to do. The sad thing was that one the the girls my son was traveling with ACTUALLY checked in and they took her bags without so much as a word that the flight has been cancelled. (when was she going to be told when the plane was to take off and there was not a plane at the gate?) I was calm and the students stayed calm but NOONE would help redirect us on another flight.We were just told they did not know what to do . I finally got a flight on my own for the kids on a different airline. It was no help for Spirit .
This is very poor customer service, in a day where everything is at risk for failure.One would think that each company would do all they could to keep their customers happy and coming back. I recently learned for each one unhappy report a person has if they tell one person that could result in many thousands of people hearing about the poor service and not want to use this business .
There was no excuses for this. I expected this trip to be fail proof or if there was a problem to get some help to book a new flight this is poor service and will not fly this airline again.If you expect to stay in business is encourage you look at you business ethics and flight schedule.
one rumor I did hear while standing in line was the crew did not show up. What one can just say oops I forgot I had to work and be done.
I am truly disappointed with this airline and the service.
Reviewed June 24, 2008
Following Spirit's instructions, I submitted a request to use my award miles for a ticket (they no longer allow you to do it directly online, you must submit a request form). They acknowledge immediately and say they will contact you within 72 hours - it has been over one week and no contact at all. No phone lines work into Spirit but their reservations so there is no way to complain and emails go unanswered. It appears Spirit is not allowing anyone to use their award miles, at least anyone in the Detroit area. I earned the miles with purchases and I should be able to use them.
Reviewed June 23, 2008
I was not allowed to get a boarding pass for my flight even though I was at the check in 50 mins before my flight. The Spirit employee said the flight was booked out and she could not give me a boarding pass. I was then told to go to rebooking and she walked away.I went to rebooking and waited for 1!/2 hours before anyone in front of me was served. I was then told i missed my flight even though I did not.
They themn charged me a rebooking fee,On the trip down to Fll I was delayed 41/2 hours with no explenation. The flight 779 was never even posted on the board.
Reviewed June 23, 2008
On Februaury 3rd of this year I purchased 6 round trip direct flights from ACY to MCO for lat August this year. At the time I was charged the following additional fees: 30.00 USD, US 911 Security fee 60.78 USD, US FET 54.00 USD, US Passenger Facility Charge 42.00 USD, US Segment Tax. Since this was disclosed before I purchased, I had no issue with it. They also disclosed there were fees for checked baggage, which again I had no issue with. They advised that only reservations made through spiritair.com and the Spirit Reservations Center are eligible for advance seat assignments. Seat assignments are available within 90 days and up to 1 hour prior to each flight's departure Still no problem.
90 days before the flight, I logged on to assign seats, and everything was fine. I had to wait a week to do the return flight. A week later, when I went to assign my seats, there was now a $10 per aisle/window and $5 per middle seat assignment fee! How can it be legal for a company to change the terms 4 months after the purchase! To add insult to injury, they soon cancelled my return flight and put me on a connecting flight with a layover of almost 4 hours! (and seat fees apply to EACH flight segment) I am traveling with four children and choose direct flights intentionally.
After spending over an hour on hold in their phone system...it disconnected me. Repeated attempts to get through eventually succeeded. The nice foreign gentleman told me that I was actually on STANDBY for my return flight. Why? I don't know....the tickets were PAID IN FULL in February. I requested that it be changed to a direct flight, even if that meant the next day. He politely made the changes (all this took about a 1/2 hour) but he could not do anything about the seat assignment fee. I have no issue with the airline adding a seat assignment fee, as long as it is disclosed at time of purchase. If it isn't already, it should be illegal to add a fee for a previously included service to EXISTING purchases.
Reviewed June 23, 2008
I have been flying Spirit for 13 years. I booked a flight for August 2008 and noticed $8.00 fares for July. I decided to change my flight to July since my vacation dates are flexible. I wanted to speak with someone first. I kept calling and got a busy signal, which didn't surprise me considering anytime I've tried to call them this past year has been that way. Finally got someone from India and he couldn't pull up my flight info. After 20 mins of him trying to find it. I also - up front - told him I wanted to change my reservation, but wanted to ask about the fare change first.
He told me that he could change it over the phone, which I was surprised at but I believed him and repeated what he said to me. I gave him my credit card to find it and finally, he did. Then when he found it, he said he couldn't help me with anything. I wasted about a half hour at least on the phone with him. I gave up, went back to the site, and when I tried to change the reservation, the flight cancelled, and the $8.00 fares were gone.
So now I have an $80.00 change fee, and no reservation. I called back to asked for a supervisor. After holding for one and a half hours, I got some woman who refused to give me one. She said I didn't deserve one and hung up on me. I am disgusted with this airline. I will gladly pay extra money that I can't afford to spend, just to avoid them in the future.
Reviewed June 23, 2008
I have been flying Spirit for 13 years. I booked a flight for August 2008 and noticed $8.00 fares for July. I decided to change my flight to July since my vacation dates are flexible. I wanted to speak with someone first. I kept calling and got a busy signal, which didn't surprise me considering anytime I've tried to call them this past year has been that way. Finally got someone from India and he couldn't pull up my flight info.
I gave him my credit card to find it and he finally, he did. Then when he found it, he said he couldn't help me with anything. I wasted about a half hour at least on the phone with him. I gave up, went back to the site, and when I tried to change the reservation, the flight cancelled, and the $8.00 fares were gone. So now I have an $80.00 change fee, and no reservation. I called back to asked for a supervisor. After holding for one and a half hours, I got some woman who refused to give me one. She said I didn't deserve one and hung up on me.
I am disgusted with this airline. I will gladly pay extra money that I can't afford to spend, just to avoid them in the future.
Reviewed June 20, 2008
I booked my son and his three friends on a flight to Costa Rica for June 5th out of Ft. Lauderdale. Three of them just graduated high school. They checked two pieces of luggage and three surf board bags, for which they paid. They got into San Jose and all of thier checked bags were missing. They told them that they would deliver them the next day to Junquillal -about 4 hours from San Jose. They gave my son a phone number in Costa Rica to call if he had any questions. The bags did not come the next day, that evening my son tried to call the number but it rang three times then went busy. He called me and I told him I would try and call and try the 1-800 number.
I tried the US 1-800 for two days and got nothing but a busy signal and got the same thing at the costa rica phone number. I then tried calling the Ft. Lauderdale to see if they could connect me to the Spirit desk and they laughed at me, saying that no one would pick up the call and I was about the 200th person to call regarding Spirit. They did put me through to the bagage area (and gave me the phone number to the baggage area) i spoke with a guy could give me no info, no manager, no phone number. I tried calling the Mirimar main office and got caught up in the phone tree and was never able to get a person on the line. I emailed several e mails and only got one generic response not even resolving my problem.
By the third day without thier surf boards (the only reason they were going) an not being able to reach anyone I was not happy. I then kept calling the baggage claim number and finally go a Mary who said she would look into it and call me back. I waited, and she did not, I called her again, she said she would call me back. She did finally call me back at about 5:00PM that day to tell me she was looking at the boards and the luggage and they were going out on the first Ft. Lauderdale flight in the morning. My husband then decided to change his ticket (he was scheduled to go the 28th) and personally see the boards get on the plane and then drive them to Junquillal where the kids were the next day. He gets to Orlando at 5:00AM, explains the situation and instead of the people a Spriit appologizing for the lost boards and luggage they charged him a $200 change fee. I thought this took a lot of nerve.
After these kids saved all their money for thier trip (which for three of them was only 10 days long) to go surf three full days have now passed with to clothes and no surf boards, Spirit really could not have cared less. My husband gets to Ft. Lauderdale and they ignor him when he starts asking about the luggage. They give him no answers and basically tell him they dont care and dont know what hes talking about. At about that time my son called me from Costa Rica and told me the boards arrived late the prior afternoon. So basically the lady in Ft. Lauderdale flat out lied to me, probably just to keep me from calling again. I am due to fly out on the 28th and frankly if I had the money I would book another flight with another company. I have not yet written my complaint letter but I will and every person I think of will be copied. The fact that you cannot get ahold of a single person in that organization is deplorable.
Reviewed June 18, 2008
I tried to pay for a seat for my husband and I on an upcoming flight along with 1 checked bag throught the telephone rep because the web site was not working. He told we I would have to pay full price because I did not do the transactions on line even if the site was out of order. He also could not check a bag via telephone but that I should try again.
When I asked to speak to a supervisor he told me it was not warranted and disconnected the call. I consider this extremely rude and unprofessional. I believe I should have been allowed to pay for my seat and pay for my checked bag because the website was out of order. This will be on last flight on Spirit. Nickel-diming us to death with the seat and baggage charges and having to speak to a rude foreign rep is enough for us.
It's Spirit's loss, not ours.
Reviewed June 17, 2008
I flew my family down to the Dominican Republic for my daughter's wedding. Spirit lost one of my suitcases. I filed a claim and worked with the locals for 3 days trying to locate the luggage. They kept telling me that they had it and would be sending it over to the resort. They never did and so I flew home without it. Two weeks later my daughter found it back at the resort. It had arrived there the day after we left for home. Twenty four days after it went missing Spirit had it shipped to my home. It had been opened and pilfored and many items were missing. When I contacted Spirit the next day they told me that since I hadn't filed a claim in person within 4 hours they were not obligated to accept my claim.
Reviewed June 16, 2008
I found a $9 airfare banner on the Spirit Airline site and wanted to see what it was all about ...I was able to book a $9 one way ticket from Myrtle Beach to Atlantic City for my whole family. Well we flew out Friday June 13th expecting that we may be charged something at the airport ...but we werent --we actually flew with no delays no problem up & back to NJ for $9 each way!
Reviewed June 14, 2008
I have never experienced such rude service from an airline representative as I did when I flew Spirit Airline. While at the counter waiting to be issued my boarding pass - three previous customers returned to the counter asking for their I.D. cards. The female behind the counter told them, I do not have your identifications, go check your bag or maybe your passport. You probably dropped it somewhere. These customers walked off to the side and searched their bags in a complete frantic in an attempt to locate their missing identification.
Again, two of the customers returned to the counter and requested the female Spirit Airline employee to check her area to see if the identification cards fell of the counter. With an annoyed expression on her face, this Spirit Airline employee quickly looked on the counter and lifted her laptop. She told the customers that she did not have the identification cards and asked them to go search their belongings. One of the customers promptly responded asking the Spirit Airline employee to look more thouroughly around the area she was standing. With little effort, the Spirit Airlines employee glanced down and responded, nope, its not here.
As another Spirit Airline employee walked passed this booth he looked at the floor and asked the female employee, what are those doing down there? Again, with little effort she glanced at the floor (without really moving from the spot she was standing) and asked, what? The male Spirit Airline employee leaned down and picked up three separate identification cards and placed them on the counter and stated, you were standing on these. The reaction of the female employee was completely shocking. Her only reaction was a shrug of the shoulders and a huh sound as if she really didnt care.
One of the customers let out a are you serious? remark as he received his identification from the female employee. Another customer made the comment, we will likely be late to our terminal since we have spent the last hour trying to locate our identification cards, that you had the entire time, as all three of us stated to you. Again, a shocking response from the female employee. In an extremely unprofessional manner, and tone, she stated, I am busy here. You have your identification cards now. You should probably try to catch your flight now.
The flight schedules of Spirit Airline are poorly coordinated. If a plane is late for take-off, the slightest delay of a mere 30 minutes will most likely affect the rest of your travels. A 25 minute delay from LAX to Ft Lauderdale made me miss my Spirit Air connecting flight to Tampa. The original flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Tampa was 7am and the next flight was not until 6pm. Needless to say, I spent the next 11 hours sitting in an airport. Of which, my terminal was changed three times and the staff acted as if I was an inconvenience by asking for assistance due to the fact they never bother to update the departure and arrival board - which contains gate information. I will NEVER fly Spirit Airline again. Never!
Reviewed June 12, 2008
Due to unforseen curcumstances I had to cancel my reservation. I tried numerous times over a 2 week period to contact the reservations department without success. Finally, today I contacted someone (Mark Sim), located in India who was, in kind words, useless. I understand that I would be subjected to a cancellation fee, but after several attempts to resolve the issue, Mr. Sim would not devuldge any contact information in order for a resolution.
I asked for supervisor, he didn't know a name. I asked for a US number to contact someone, he said didn't have one and then he did but wouldn't give it to me. I asked him who he deals with directly in the US, he said he knew her first name not her last and didn't have a number. He said that there is nothing he could do as a floor supervisor to accomodate me a customer and no one over him to speak with. Please help me understand how big corporate companies forward all of their US customer support teams over seas when there is a lack of communication.
Reviewed June 11, 2008
I was charged for things that they were not upfront and fair with and in the end they don't give refunds so I am out of $1900. I tried to contact my bank (Wachovia) to dispute the charges and they said that can not do that on airlines fees.
Because of this I might end up losing my house because I ended up booking with another airline because we now don't even want to travel with Spirit. I have tried and tried to contact spirit but that is an impossible task. THis whole thing is a mess.
Reviewed June 9, 2008
Adult & two 10 year girls were traveling from Las Vegas (11:35pm) to Orlando (8:30 am) with a connecting flight through Ft. Lauderdale on May 18th. Upon arriving at the connecting flight (which was at the next gate) we were refused entry even though it was still 5 minutes before schedule departure. When asked for an explanation and assistance to get another flight, the agent refused to speak with us, give us her name (she even covered her name tag), and when we (and the 10 other passangers who were in the same situation) requested a supervisor, she refused and immediately called the airport police to escort us all out of the airport. We rented a car to drive from Ft. Lauderdale to Orlando.
On the return flight on May 22, the Spirit agent told us our flight was cancelled and we would have to pay an additional fee for any other flights,but when she checked, she saild all their flights were booked and we would have to go with another airline. When I asked for a refund to use towards a new ticket, was told they have not agreement with any other airlines, and was told to leave. When asked for a supervisor, again the police were called and we were escorted out of the terminal. Finally found another flight back on United.
Had to pay $130 to rent a car from Ft. Lauderdale to Orlando. Had to pay $1,200 for the return flight on United. Both girls (who are 4th grade Honor Students) were crying each time and thoroughly tramatized by not one but two incidents of being forcibly removed from the terminal. One of the girls still has nightmares, both are afraid of the police, and neither want to go to the airport, even to pick up a relative.
Reviewed June 7, 2008
After reading the complaints posted on the CA site regarding Spirit Airlines, I thought I'd add my own. Last July, I flew Spirit to Port Au Prince, Haiti but decided to return to Ft. Lauderdale three weeks early. Long story short, the airline's general manager in Haiti was rude, ineffective, and downright nasty. He later explained to me that as the general manager he decided who flies and does not and that as an American, I can do nothing about it because he can have my passport canceled by the embassy.
This airline is a hit or miss in terms of experience. I personally will never fly Spirit Airlines and I even contacted my bank to get a full refund on the $261 return fare they charged me for a whole new ticket on what was originally a roundtrip fare of $185. I sent a letter along with Spirit's policy showing that it is only $70 to modify a booked trip. Wachovia refunded all but the $70 to me.
I encourage any of you who have flown this airline and been charged additional fees (rebooking, luggage, etc) other than what you paid for to originally book the flight, to call your bank or credit card company and dispute the charge. It is your right to do so under the terms of your credit card or bank and they WILL grant you a provisional credit. This credit will remain as the card company/bank investigates your dispute and ultimately, you will receive your money back if founded. Next, contact your state attorney general, Congressperson, and or local county/city consumer affairs agency. Spirit is based out of Miramar, Florida; The Florida Attorney General's Office and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services should also be clued in on your complaints.
Reviewed June 6, 2008
I have a voucher from a previous cancellation for which I wanted to redeem and book two additional seats on the same flight from Detroit to Las Vegas. We tried to book the flights online, but the system was slow. My wife telephoned Customer Service Wednesday, June 4, 2008. She waited 45 minutes for an agent and then proceeded to redeem the voucher. The Agent had apologized for the computer system being slow and the voucher number uploading. We requested Flight number 771 departing DTW at 6:05am. She asked to place us on hold until she could receive a confirmation in which we agreed. We were never connected again so my wife tried to again book the reservation online using our voucher, but the online site stated it was an invalid number. So she tried to telephone again and waited 45 minutes but since it was getting late and we get up for work early, she hung up.
I telephoned at around 6:30 am Thursday, June 5, to the toll free number and awaited 1 hour and 26 minutes before an agent answered. I proceeded to answer the agents question as to departure city and arrival city, dates, and then requested the 771 morning flight. The agent told me it was sold out and the only flight available at that price was 711 departing at 8:05pm. I asked her if she was sure it was not available and she stated again no. So I proceeded to book the flight for myself using the voucher, then a flight for my wife and Father-in-law. After receiving the record locator codes for each flight, I then asked the agent if I could pay for my baggage fee for each passenger now and she stated there was no baggage fee for baggage under 40 pounds.
This evening, Thursday, June 5th, my wife went online to Spirit Air and the 771 flight was showing it was available. So we again called the Customer hotline, waited 1 hour before talking to JP, the agents name. He said if we had to change to the morning flight it would cost us $70 each to change flights. My wife and I were both on the telephone and explained to him that the agent in the morning told us the morning flight, 771 was full and I could not book it, but it was showing open online. He proceeded to try and change our reservation and was able to book us for the morning flight, but not able to waive the fee. We asked him to allow us to speak to a Supervisor and he tried for 40 minutes to contact one while we were on hold so he came back on to tell us he could not. We told him we would continue to wait since we have been on the telephone for this long.
We were finally connected to Ray, badge number 7540130, Operations Supervisor. Ray told us we have to pay the fee to change the flight from 711 to 771. We explained we were told the morning flight was booked and offered the evening flight, but when we checked today it was showing available online. He stated we were incorrect and sometimes the computers do not reflect what the agents show. We again explained that JP was able to book the flights but not waive the fee, so they were available. He then said the agent did not tell us it was booked, we were wrong. I explained we had no reason to lie and he said the conversations are taped. We also stated that we had no reason to lie since we were patient enough to wait almost two hours to speak to Ray. I asked him if he could review our taped conversation and call us back he said he could not.
We consider our last two days of trying to obtain a flight with [their] airline an absolute nightmare. If we did not have a voucher in our possession, we would not have booked flights on [their] airline. We have received email confirmation for one flight only and not the other two and we are worried now if the flights are even booked.
Reviewed June 5, 2008
I have NEVER had such a worse experience with ANY airline before. I booked this trip for 8 of us in January and our trip was at the end of May. At the New York airport, everything seemed fine. We were going to Cancun, Mexico so we had a layover in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Our flight got delayed an hour so then the 15-20 people on my flight missed the next flight (by literally 2 minutes (I told the flight attendant... he didn't do anything about it except tell us we won't miss it)) and it could've been prevented if they would've just notified the airport that we were delayed and that 15-20 people on this flight were rushing to the next terminal and to hold the plane for what... 5 minutes? (the terminal was right next to where we got off).
So then they told us to go to rebooking and when we got there, the employees were rude and had no clue what they were doing. Every question we asked, she had to go to her supervisor for the answer and when we asked to speak to the supervisor she said he was busy (but he had time to answer when SHE asked them). Then she told us our only option was to stay in Florida until the next day. Since we had no choice, they gave us a free hotel room and $9 vouchers for each person for dinner and $7 for breakfast (which is nothing since the food at the airport is so expensive AND we had booked an ALL INCLUSIVE package in Cancun so we could've been in Cancun eating a lot more food for FREE basically).
THEN when we checked in to go back to New York, they said one person in our group was not listed on the flight. How the heck can that happen if we booked as a GROUP --of 8-- in JANUARY!? But okay, the lady gave us our tickets and everything seemed fine... until we got to Florida again. That same person's ticket had said she was flying THE NEXT DAY back to New York... which the first lady in Mexico could've told us but she just wanted to get rid of us and pass the problem along to the next flight. By this time, we were all tired, hungry and ticked off.
The people at the rebooking counter had no clue how to do things and even the manager was no help. He had asked the lady at the ticket counter to give us a gate pass so if there was any empty seats on the plane then she could go on, so the ticket lady was printing a gate pass which was supposed to say my friends name on it and gave it to my friend and we ran to the terminal and we had to go through security and all that.
With 10 minutes left before our flight left, we ran to the terminal and found out that my friend's gate pass had somehow gotten MY NAME on it. We quickly explained out situation to the guard and she let us through and when we got to the gate, the lady collecting the tickets didn't even look at the names on the ticket and so we just walked through the gate to the plane and she had to stay in the back pretending she was using the bathroom and looked for an empty seat after everyone had boarded. She basically had to sneak on to the plane. That's how tight security was too.
PLUS everything was about money. If we wanted CHIPS or M&Ms, it was $3! and WATER was $3! We had the WORST experience every and it will be out FIRST and LAST time traveling with Spirit Air. They are the cheapest but the WORST AIRLINE EVER. I would rather pay extra to have a steady flight and a better experience than to ever have to fly with them again, even if it was free I would never put myself through all that again.
Reviewed June 3, 2008
Our total up- charges(the seat fee hidden) total $400. I am flying with my husband and 3 children. I have searched the site for advance notice of the seat charges but cannot find anything up front until your flight is actually charged to your credit card, interesting. I am feeling like a hostage. I guess that if I wait until we check in on flight day we can be assigned free seats but do I have my children sit with strangers and be unattended? Looks like a big problem looming for this airline.
Reviewed June 2, 2008
I made airlines reservations on line on May 29, 2008. I never received a confirmation email. So I have literally been trying to reach them since the 29th by phone - which is ALWAYS BUSY, and if it does pick up they never answer and I was on hold with 2 different phones for over one hour! I have also tried emailing them with no success.
I even drove down to the airport on Sunday and they said they couldn't do anything for me. They called a number, and they had to wait 5 minutes for them to pick up and they were told they cannot find my reservations anywhere. But now my dilemma is my credit card - they said my card was charged the amount for the tickets and they can't take the amount off until the merchandiser gives me credit. Can you tell me how I will get credit when they don't answer any type of correspondence? Please help - I don't know what to do.
I'm out $449.00 and have not airline tickets!
Reviewed May 29, 2008
My mother who is 65 years old, traveled alone from Detroit, MI to Cartagena, Colombia on May 21st, 2008. Her luggage (2 suitcases) did not arrive and they told her they would arrive the next day. Since her final destination was 4 hours away form Cartagena, my mom decided to stay that night in Cartagena and wait for her luggage (of course they would not pay for the hotel). The luggage did not arrive ht e next day either, so they told her she could go go home and they will deliver her luggage.
Nine days have passed and the luggage have not arrived and everytime my mother calls nobody answers the phone in the office in Cartagena Colombia. My sister and I have called the airline's offices in Detroit and Fort Lauderdale with no success. The few times we were kucky and got a person on the phone, she or he was rude and did not anything about our lost luggage. Of course, no supervisor or manger to talk to either. What can we do? Where we can go and fill out a complaint?
My mother went to Colombia to visit our relatives. All of her clothes and medication for diabetes and blood pressure were in those suitcases. She had to buy new clothes and go to the doctor to get new prescriprions. None of these were in her budget. She also has important personal documents in one of those suitcases in addition to presents for family and friends.
Reviewed May 21, 2008
In response to all of the well deserved complaints from angry consumers, I would like to offer the following information. I was a long time employee of Spirit Airlines in the good years when they cared about customer service and being a respected carrier. This airline is no longer the same.
The first thing I would like you to know is that you will NEVER reach anyone (other than a reservation agent and even that's a maybe)by phone! The phone system in the reservation center and at the corporate offices are set to re-route you to dead lines. The owners of this company absolutely do not care if you are happy or not! The policies and behaviors of this airline are out of control.
My advice to you is to not fly Spirit Airlines. If you do, please be sure to book any tickets on an American Express card as they will back the consumer and charge back all fees. It is ridiculous that they can change your flight and then penalize you financially for the outcome. Even if you don't use an American Express card, most companies will charge back for an error that you report immediately or other such issues. I truly hate to have to offer this type of advice about a company that I once loved, but people should know what they may be in for.
Reviewed May 20, 2008
Suddenly, when I was trying to get money fron the ATM I realized that almost $40 dollars were charged to my account, and still they did not send me any email announcement about this charge.
Reviewed May 18, 2008
i recently travel with spirit airline to kingston, jamaica on may 6, 2008. upon returning to the states on may 14, 2008. i had the worst experience of my life dealing with spirit.
i arrive at the airport one hour prior to departure, due to an accident involving the vehicle in which i was driving in. as i arrive at the ticketing counter, the agent stated in firm mannerthe counter is close. i begged and pleaded with the agent that i am willing to leave my luggae with relatives and not check it, just so i could board the airplane. i was told in no uncertain term that i will not, and that i should book another ticket, and i had to stay in jamaica three more days.
i begged to speak to the manager but was told that the manager is not available. i have never shed so many tears in a single day. i had to spend the night in jamaica. the following morning i had to book a return ticket with american airline; which by the way is more friendly service, courteous, polite, helpful and on time. i will tell anyone who will listen not to travel with spirit airline, no matter how cheap the fare is. the customer service is horrible, agents are rude, additional fees are tacked on at the last minute, and the flight late. how is that for bad service.
as a result of re-booking a return ticket my out of pocket expense was $220.00 + taxie fee $49.00 + i miss a day of work $193.00 total expense $462.00
Reviewed May 18, 2008
i recently travel with spirit airline to kingston, jamaica on may 6, 2008. upon returning to the states on may 14, 2008. i had the worst experience of my life dealing with spirit. i arrive at the airport one hour prior to departure, due to an accident involving the vehicle in which i was driving in. as i arrive at the ticketing counter, the agent stated in firm mannerthe counter is close. i begged and pleaded with the agent that i am willing to leave my luggae with relatives and not check it, just so i could board the airplane. i was told in no uncertain term that i will not, and that i should book another ticket, and i had to stay in jamaica three more days. i begged to speak to the manager but was told that the manager is not available. i have never shed so many tears in a single day.
i had to spend the night in jamaica. the following morning i had to book a return ticket with american airline; which by the way is more friendly service, courteous, polite, helpful and on time.
Reviewed May 14, 2008
May 9th - 12th. On Friday, May 9th I traveled from LaGuardia Airport in NY to Ft. Lauderdale Airport. I am very aware that it was raining in NYC and that there might be a chance that my flight were delayed. I get to the airport at 5:30 p.m. (VERY EARLY) to catch my 7:45 p.m. flight. I did not check any luggages since I was already informed of their $20 per bag fee. OUTRAGEOUS so i only had a carry-on. One hour before the flight we were told our flight was delayed 1 hour, then we were told 2 hours. At about 10:00 p.m. we were told 10:50 p.m. so i decide to call my sister and have her check my flight via internet. She told me that the internet said our flight was leaving at 12:50 a.m. I calmly asked the agent and was rudely told that they internet knows before they do.. what is that all about?
Anyway..funny how the flight that was scheduled to leave to Ft. Lauderdale after us actually left one hour before us.. We were then told that OUR Flight had to stop at Atlantic City. We were then told that if our flight did not arrive before 1:30 a.m. they would cancel it because La Guardia airport policy is that the last flight leaves at 1:30 a.m. We were THEN TOLD that had received an extention. We finally left at almost 2:00 a.m. After over 6 hours waiting at an airport that had everything already closed we were EVEN CHARGED $3.00 on the plane for water.
NOW MY STORY GETS BETTER. My return flight was cancelled because of Rain again in NY. It took me four hours to get through on my cell phone to a Customer Rep. I was then told that i had to wait two more days before getting on another flight. I ended up having to pay another $250.00 in hotel charges and was flown to Long Island Airport (WHICH IS 50 MILES FROM MY HOME).. to get back the following day. $125.00 cab ride NEVER AGAIN.. This airline is most definetley the WORST
Spirit Air Company Information
- Company Name:
- Spirit Air
- Website:
- www.spiritrestructuring.com
