Comments on: That’s not the Spirit: “Let him tell the world how bad we are”

By: Nikki

Nikki — Tue, 04 May 2010 13:47:54 +0000

Cheap? Not so cheap! Ok, my ticket $160 (non-refundable – a refundable ticket is $100 extra), seat fee $12, hidden fees (like travel gruard CC- WTF IS THIS?) around $20, 1st bag $30! Ok thats over $200. God forbid if you get thursty or want a blanket and pillow! $2 for a soda (CASH ONLY) and a fee for the blanket and pillow….sorry I will pay $15 more to get on airtan or southwest. At least i can get a sip of water if i get thursty. Oh, and you better get to the airport at least 5 hours before your flight because its only gonna be 2 people at the ticket counter. And another thing, go ahead and buy your seat when you book your flight. You will get to the airport and it wont be no seats left on the plane! You will be stuck paying for a new ticket! And the funniest thing, I made a hugh mistake and went to the restroom while aboard. Why they have an astry in the restroom? That plane had to have been an antique. When was the last time people were even able to smoke on a plane. I promise if I ever get on another Spirit plane, they gone push me off. They wanted to kick me off the first and last time I flew cause I was asking too many questions!

By: Zak Brown

Zak Brown — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:30:48 +0000

I wish I’d read your blog before I bought a ticket. Here’s the complaint I sent to Mr Baldanza.

Dear Mr. Baldanza,

I’m contacting you directly because I’m unable to find any other way to reach your company. I have never seen a case where reasonable contact methods are harder to find on a company website.

I purchased my first and last ticket on SpiritAir.com and somehow ended up unintentionally purchasing TravelGuard insurance. I don’t know how it happened, I never intended to do so. Your site is so busy and confusing that I would not be surprised if I mistakenly checked or failed to uncheck a box that had me purchase that product.

When I was finally able to find a customer service number I reached a customer service agent that gave me the number to TravelGuard.

When I complained about the way I came to make that mistaken purchase the customer service agent said that she couldn’t help me and was unable to help me with the proper channel to complain. When I asked to speak with her supervisor I was disconnected.

If this is the experience I have purchasing a ticket I can only imagine what it must be like to fly on your airline.

I would love to cancel my ticket now if I wouldn’t be charged a cancellation fee.

Thank you,

–

Zak Brown
Pasadena, CA

By: Imran

Imran — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 22:06:07 +0000

The worst airline flying the US skies. I am an avid traveller and have used several airlines, both domestic and international. And let me say this to start off with, US arilines as compared to European or Asian airlines suck big time, in fact they are nothing but a rip off. But Spirit is the worst of the bad bunch. I had a horrible experiece recently. I was booking a vacation package from Spirit website from Chicago to Jamaica, all inclusive ($5000) for a week. When all the field were filled, I pressed submit to purchase the tx and screen said, Web Site Error. Since there was only one room left in the resort, I didn’t want to wait and redo the booking the next day, so I called AMEX Platinum Concierge (I should have done that to start with) and asked for the same package. They booked me (confirming that there was no prior booking from me) on the same Spirit vacation. Problem solved. No. This was the start of a month long bickering, bitc**ing and fighting with Spirit. Apparently their web site took my order even though it showed error on screen. So here I was, flying to Negril on the same flight, same hotel, same room for same # of days, TWICE. So I called Spirit and explained the situation and some moron (sounded like a HS dropout) picked up. After explaining to him in detail and asking him to cancel Spirit vacation booked from their website and to leave alone AMEX one. He was like oh no problem. Well d** as* cancelled my flight portion of Spirit booked segment. So now I had even more of a cluster of sh***. Repeated phone calls, one desk to another, one dept to another, one office to another, after 15 days and many hours wasted from work I was given another agent who actually yelled at me because I kept insisting to remove my hotel porition too since they had already cancelled the flights from Spirit. I was refused to speak to a supervisor and even heard the agent cussing at me while talking to someone close to him. Finally 2 days before the departure, they again rebooked me on the same flights (Spirit) which I had from AMEX. So now back to square one. I finally called AMEX explained the situation to them, and after a few laughs from their end, they put me on hold for 5 minutes, and then told me that my entire NON-REFUNDABLE vacation was cancelled upon my request, no questions asked. That’s what customer service is all about. 15 days of fighting with Spirit and 5 minutes with AMEX. Over my dead body I am flying Spirit again. Oh by the way, the planes crammed with seats to have more passengers at the cost of our comfort. I bought new tx from Negril, direct flight to Chicago on Air Jamaica, had free champagne, warm 3 course dinner and leg room that I’ll always remember (I am 6’1″). Spirit, never again.

By: C-Dubs

C-Dubs — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:17:11 +0000

Hmm… I think that Spirit should refund them their money for the flight, but from reading this email it seems that James is a jerk too. Demanding things from a customer service agent on the phone doesn’t seem very diplomatic. Sandy seemed to really be the nicest person in there, but James was a jerk to her, so why does she care?

It’s not Spirit’s responsibility to refund hotel and tickets- that’s where good planning come into play. And if you buy cheap tickets, then dont expect full service, which is not part of the MO of a LCC carrier. James should have just taken the vouchers and lived with it. Threatening to “spread the word that Spirit is horrible” didn’t help him either to get what he wanted.

Now the CEO’s response was irresponsible and shows that maybe this attitude problem starts from the top down. Rest assured, after this story, I won’t even give Spirit a chance… unless I get my tickets for free (and even then, only if I have to)!

By: Paul Bartlett

Paul Bartlett — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 22:52:15 +0000

Unfortunately, the CEO is right…the customer WILL be back, this is what the company is counting on. People stay mad for a little while, but then their greed gets the better of them and they go right back for more of the same, hoping to save a few bucks, assuming that their last experience was a one time thing. They should have taken the $200 vouchet, that’ more than most people get.

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 05:28:35 +0000

It seems Spirit is spreading its filthy tentacles of bad customer service and delays throughout the world. Check out this review of their recently launched service between Lima, Peru and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and pay special attention to the 50+ comments after the article. Here's the link to the article: http://www.livinginperu.com/blogs/travel/338

By: Judith Greene

Judith Greene — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 19:35:36 +0000

What I find most shocking about this and many other sorry stories I hear about the airline industry is that the expectations of the customer have become so low that many customers are now excusing the airlines’ poor service, as if the airline itself is just another victim. The truth is that when deregulation happened, the capitalist floodgates opened and the result is that EVERYONE is to blame. The passengers are to blame, as they want something for nothing. The airlines are to blame, as they only care about the bottom line. And lastly, the government is to blame, as our elected officials (which, don’t forget, that flying public elected!) have their hands in the pockets of the giant corporations who earn the most profit from all aspects of the industry. In other words, deregulation has nothing to do with benefitting the public in any way whatsoever, but was instituted solely to benefit the corporations, the wealthy and therefore many of our elected representatives. Unless and until a major safety violation happens (ie.- a mid-air or ground collision with loss of life and which could have been avoided) I fear nothing will change. There is NO incentive to do so at this point.

By: BriCp

BriCp — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:49:56 +0000

Who are these people who believe James and Christine “got what they paid for”? They paid for an on-time flight and decent treatment, and got neither. And to those who think they should have travelled the day before: what would have happened if the flight the day before had been cancelled, and the next day’s flight delayed? Should they have travelled TWO days prior? I do expect to get what I pay for: a cheap flight to me means no meals or snacks, cramped seats, long waits at the luggage carousels, etc., it does NOT mean I expect or will tolerate non-performance. My interpretation of James and Christine’s notes tell me they were/are more upset about their treatment than their expenses; they were emphasizing the expenses as wasted money because of the flight delay and not being informed about the delay until it was too late to do anything about it. And the further delays/lies and bad attitudes. Do you tip for bad service at a restaurant? Do you accept a cold dinner or pay for one which takes excessively long? Do you purchase bruised fruit at the market? Why should they/we accept crap from an airline, just because it is cheap? If they advertised they “probably will be late”, and if so “won’t help in any way”, and “don’t actually have a Customer Service department”, then I would feel differently.

By: Vivian

Vivian — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:13:05 +0000

No one should ever have to say you get what you pay for. Customer service should be important to every company. It just goes to show that a lot of companies do not care and their employees are not taught that customers are important. However customer service eventually will affect them if their customers demand it and they should.

By: David Farnham

David Farnham — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:15:54 +0000

Wasn’t Ben Baldanza formerly in charge of what USAirways laughingly calls “customer service”? If so, that explains a lot.

By: Bill

Bill — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 16:24:57 +0000

Sprit is a discount airline and you get what you pay for, but attitude does not have to suffer. Obviously CEO Baldanza does not give a damn and his attitude is reflected throughout the entire company.

By: Teresa

Teresa — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:10:08 +0000

With so many flights between Orlando and Atlanta on other very well established airlines, how did James and Christine decide upon Spirit? It was cheap. You get what you pay for, and that was provided, they were transported to Atlanta. What is cheap upfront is expensive in the end, and they paid dearly. They should have done their research.
Unfortunately the executive at Spirit might have worked the gate before moving up. His attitude is of a burnout, very unproffesional. I flew Spirit from Ft. Lauderdale to St. Thomas, the flight left 4 hours late, missed my ferry to the British Virgin Island, I solved my problems, but I know too well that no one is going to pay for my poor choices, buyer beware.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 16:28:35 +0000

James and Christine are exactly like the typical people that have a problem and like to blame others for their bad planning (although I feel to be fair you should have posted not just Spirit Airline’s CEO’s email address but theirs as well). We all know that flights are never guaranteed to depart and arrive on time and that anything from weather or mechanical problems can change plans with no prior notice. No I don’t like 3 hour delays but it does happen. Hardly anyone’s fault but whoever booked the flight for cutting their extra time so short. I agree with the previous post that said they should have gone the day before to see their concert.
It is annoying to see someone try to leverage unfortunate events to try to get a FREE TRIP. To me it shows the greed that people can have and is no wonder they didn’t get far with their 3 calls to the airline. You can see it in their dedication to waste more than 3 hours to try to go from person to person to get a Supervisor and an immediate resolution to their predicament. The inital offer of two $100 vouchers was more than they should have been offered.

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 21:56:47 +0000

Mr Baldanza reflects the exact atitude on how he expects Spirit Airline employees to treat customers. “WE DONT CARE”.
I was stranded for three days by Sprit Airlines in Guatemala City. I was to return to Los Angeles on a direct flight Guatemala City- Los Angeles after a ten day vacation. Spirit cancelled the flight due they said to weather (both TACA & United continued to fly.) This was a night flight.No extra flights were put on for the 144 stranded passengers rather Spirit put passengers on seats as available on their two regular daily scheduled flights to the USA out of Guatemala City. Since these fights were pretty full only ten or twelve passangers were getting out each day. I got a seat three days later on Aug. 1st 2007. My friend who I travelled down with on Aug 3rd. Some passengers were not scheduled to get a seat till Aug 15th 2007. No help was offered at all. Next day when some stranded passengers went to the airport to try and get on one of the two scheduled flights Spirit not only turned them away but when they got loud and vocal Spirit called the police on them. No other airline would accept Spirit tickets. Spirit Airlines also left all passengers luggage on the ramp in the rain and it all got soaked. I complained to the station manager about the disregard for passengers luggage and he said that is why we sell insurance.Cheap ticket? three days extra hotel & food. Six taxi trips to/from the airport to try and get infomation.Three days lost wages and an upset employer. James & Christy got off light. I’m a first and last Spirit flyer. I have not complained to Spirit Airlines karma is taking care of that.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 06:09:09 +0000

There is a bigger issue here other than the CEO’s arrogance, mistake, or rudeness. It is the level of customer service provided by Spirit Airlines. This is one of the hundreds of bad customer service stories, now documented, at Alex’s blog.

Customer service, good or bad, trickles down from the top. A CEO should never have “typed first and thought second”. Being in that position makes him the face of Spirit Airlines, and the attitude in that email directly reflects the level of customer service provided. I urge you to read through the 80+ comments Alex’s blog posting about Spirit Airlines. Placing blame on an airline for delayed or overbooked flights isn’t the point. We all understand that 95% of the time it is out of the company’s control. What Spirit does when this happens to its customers is absolutely horrible, and as you read through the comments, you will see it is a major factor in customer loyalty.

If you are having trouble finding Alex’s blog, just Google Spirit Airlines, I think it will provide you, as it did many others, with accurate search results on this airline.