Spirit Airlines

Not sure why you have “What others have to say about Northwest Airlines” at the end of the Spirit Air info.

I flew Spirit about 5 years ago. It was sub-standard then, I can only imagine how far it’s sunk in the meantime. The only good thing I see them doing is pushing down fares to Latin America – my favorite vacation area.

I recently had an issue with Spirit Airlines and found your website to be very useful and helpful. Upon getting finality to my situation, I thought it appropriate to let you know a few points.

Let me first state that I have never actually flown Spirit Airlines (SA), but in October of 2006, I booked a flight which I subsequently had to cancel. SA provided me with a voucher for the amount of the ticket – $154.30. Upon trying to use the voucher last week, I was informed that it had expired. I went through the standard channels of calling SA to hopefully assist with having my funds re-instated. They were absolutely unable to help – I spoke with a customer service agent and then a manager, Emanual, who let me know that the voucher is only good for 1 year, he has NO ability to re-instate it, and he has no ability to issue me a credit in any way shape or form. He was very polite and patient, but really no help. I asked to further escalate the issue, but he was only able to give me an email address and mailing address for SA.

At this point, I searched online and found your website. I found your advice very poinient and helpful. I proceeded to compose a very polite and specific email detailing the situation, my attempts to resolve the situation with customer service – specifically mentioning Emanual and his employee number (also mentioning that Emanual was very polite and patient), and some reasons why I was not able to use the voucher in the time alloted. I also mentioned that I wanted to fly SA and book a flight and hoping that they would “understand our position and have compassion towards our unique circumstances.” The email was addressed to the three people on your website: tony.lefebvre@spiritair.com; ben.baldanza@spiritair.com; martin.harrison@spiritair.com. FYI – Martin Harrison’s email came back as “undeliverable – the e-mail account does not exist at the organization this message was sent to.”

Within about 4 1/2 hours, I received a very nice, polite email from Carolina Lopez of SA’s Corporate Consumer Relations extending my voucher for two months from that day; new expiration of May 3, 2008.

Thank you for your website and your advice – I’ve always felt that ‘you get more with honey than with vinegar,’ and a polite, professional approach, as outlined on your website, seems to always works for me – and it definitely did in this situation.

Again, I’ve never flown Spirit so I can’t attest to any experiences flying them, although having to pay for checking a bag is QUITE annoying! However, I will be flying them in a couple months, aided with the benefit of my $154.30 voucher being re-instated!

Thanks again for the advice, and more importantly, the contact information at Spirit Airlines.

Sincerely,
– Alex

Fred,

I’m sorry about your brother.

That’s horrible – and very disappointing that Spirit would not honor your request. I was successful via email to tony.lefebvre@spiritair.com; ben.baldanza@spiritair.com – you might just cut & paste and give an email a shot to those two (the third person I emailed no longer works for Spirit). Can’t hurt?!

Good luck,
– Alex

Fred,

Hope it works out for you! Enjoy the weekend.

– Alex

In response to Andres’ email….I feel your pain. Please see my March 5th posting…I took Alex’s advise (March 6th) and emailed the line officers 3 times, but have yet to get a response. Spirit’s customer service is AWLFUL. Good luck and maybe some how, some way, some day we’ll get a response.

Fred

I also wanted to thank you for your website, and will be using your advice for the problem that I have been having with Spirit. As of yesterday, I sent an email to the sales support and Mr Lefevbre, and am awaiting a response. If I do not hear from then, then I will proceed and email the CEO.

My grievance with Spirit is with the type of customer service that I’ve experienced. It’s sad to say that the customer service reps that they’ve hired in the Philippines, although capable of speaking English with the same phonetic accent they must have learned from their training tapes, lack a complete understanding of the English language and are void of common sense. I made a simple call to inquire about canceling two tickets that I had purchased, but my ‘inquiry’ got interpreted as ‘demand’ and hence both my tickets were canceled. To make matters worse, the so-called ‘supervisor’ that I had spoken to, insisted that I had in fact told her to cancel my flights. My only saving grace, is the fact that they claim to record the phone conversations. If that’s the case, then I am hoping that a simple review of my call will resolve the matter. To top it all, in three phone calls alone, I’ve been placed on hold at total of no less than six hours. Which makes you wonder, whether or not it really is cheaper for them to outsource their service when a simple twenty minute conversation takes six hours of wait time.

Needless to say, I will never ever call nor deal with Spirit again if it means calling their service center. Although I’ve never flown Spirit, I can’t say anything bad about the Airline company as a whole. I will wait and see what kind of response I get from my letter, and will post the follow up on your website.

I am a member of the nine dollar air club and a card holder so as thrilled as i was to be able to catch a below $10.00 air fare on the dates that i had planned to visit florida to no avail, and keeping with all the rules and regulations of the program i could never get a flight so after sevral hours of being on hold i was told “OH GEE IT MUST HAVE SOLD OUT ALREADY” so after several more “EXCLUSIVE” e-mail deals for five dollars or five cents on my same dates ironically they were always sold out / questionable. Well i happen to be on line when an e-mail popped up from spirit offering .05 cents so i immediately tried to book a flight and yes within 45 seconds all the special seats were sold out imagine that of course no one had any answers so here i am looking for a new airline.

Thanks for the info on your site, I sent this to the 3 emails and one was returned as mentioned above. I’m hoping I don’t have to initiate court action, I’ll keep you informed

Hello Tony and whom else it may concern,

We recently traveled on your airlines from Ft Lauderdale to Freeport, Bahamas. The flight was excellent and very professional. However there was a problem with our flight charges. Explanation follows.

On Feb 7th my wife, Anthea, booked 2 flights from Lauderdale to Nassau on Priceline.com for an April 9th, 2008 departure and return on April 12th, 2008. On April 2nd, 2008 we needed to change our reservations from Nassau to Freeport, same dates. Priceline notified us we could only make the change with Spirit. We called your agent to inquire if this could be done and she replied yes it could. We would have to pay the difference in the flight fare plus a 70 dollar charge per ticket. After investigation by your agent she stated that the new fare was actually lower by $22.02 per ticket and a credit voucher would be issued for that amount, however we needed to pay the change fee now, which we did. Your agent disclosed no other charges,

Upon our arrival to check in, we were notified by your check in agent that a balance of $460.04 was still due. Of course we contested this with her and she went off to investigate. Upon her return after a 25 to 30 minutes, which was cutting our time close, she stated it could not be resolved at this time, so we decided not to miss the flight and put the balance on our credit card. She also printed out the breakdown of the charges at that time (which we will be glad to fax to you as your people in the Philippines seem unable to obtain).

Upon our return we proceeded to try to resolve this through your people in the Philippines. After appx. 6 hrs and two 3way calls between Priceline and your Spirit reps (in the Philippines) no resolution has been reached. Priceline is not to blame for this problem as the original tickets were paid in full and confirmed. The problem lies in the charge for the new tickets. As shown on the statement the fare was $398.80 for the new tickets. Somehow this was shown as a per person charge but in reality it should have been for both. There is no fare even remotely close to that amount per person from Lauderdale to Freeport. I have checked both on the website and through your booking agents (in the PHILIPPINES!). In essence we were double charged plus also charged for our vouchers which made up the difference of 460.04. (Do the math its not rocket science). Why would anybody book tickets for $797.60 + a $140.00 change fee, when they could rebook on your website the same flights for 436.40. Highway robbery is an understatement. Your agents (in the Philippines) seem to believe that there is no way they could make a human error on this All we are asking is a refund of our 460.04 back to our credit card.

I am sure our frustration is oozing slightly in this correspondence, but the worse part is it took a major web search to even find out how to contact someone here in the USA, and then to find out your offices our actually in the same state of Florida as ours!

As stated before, the flights were very professional and courteous, just a mix-up possibly by computer or human error in the billing. Hopefully we can resolve this misunderstanding and not involve legal action.

I have attached the billing breakdown printed at the check in desk.

Awaiting your expedient reply,

UPDATE
I wanted to update you on what happened when I contacted Spirit about my situation. I sent a friendly email to Tony Lefebvre and sales support. Surprisingly enough, it was Mr. Lefebvre who forwarded my email to the proper contact who in turn resolved my issue. I received a friendly email stating that my issue had been looked into, and that my tickets were reinstated.
Once again, I want to thank you for your website and great resources in helping me reach my desired results.

I am very grateful to find this web site. I have just taken 3 airlines US Air, Delta, and Spirit and had trouble with all three. Frankly, I never want to fly again – and am considering driving next time no matter how much gas is.

Travolocity never had on their web site when I booked my flight on Spirit that I could see that one has to pay $20 in cash to check your first bag. The line was extrememly long. I am disabled and had booked a wheelchair with Travelocity for the Spirit flight which I never got from Spirit. I get to the Spirit desk in Atlantic City, and am told it is $20 cash to check my bag. I did not have cash on me. I was told to go to the ATM at the airport, and get cash. The ATM was in the dark, and unlit. I kept pushing the wrong button for balance instead of withdrawal. It kept taking my money and charging me outragous fees. I could not get the cash as by the time I was done I only had $18 in the account and one can only take out $20 from an ATM. So I was going to miss my flight even though I was there two hours before the plane left. I asked a man going to Tampa the area where I live if he would cash a check for me and deposit it the next day when I had direct deposit. He said yes, and handed me the $20. I was writing out the check. A woman from Spirit came out from behind the counter, and grabed the money from my hand and gave it back to the man saying to me you aren’t allowed to ask other customers for money. She refused to give me her name, and had no ID that one could see. I and others were astounded. She finally checked my bag saying the plane was leaving. They never got me the wheelchair even though they said it was down for me to have a wheelchair. I had to walk to the gate, and can barely walk with my cane. This was only one of three terrible experiences flying. Again thank you for this website. It does a great service for citizens.

WOW – This website is awesome… I need help but after reading all this I do not know if I should give it a shot or if I should stop right now and not go with all the hassle… My family and I flew from Fort Lauderdale to San Juan, PR everything was greatly and the crew was very friendly. My returning flight was for June 9th… after arriving at the airport (party of 8…) when we got to TSA they noticed that two of the boarding passes where not issue. I had to go thru the whole process again and consequently we lost our flight. There were no other available flight for a big party until June 12… immediately I requested that my baggage be returned to San Juan… they did the request got all my contact information and everything was just fine, right? NOT!!! I visited the airport the next day at 7:00 PM to give time to get my bags no one on the counter, no one on the baggage claim office. I was told that the opened the office only when a new flight arrives. I waited 2 more hours… no one ever opened the office. I called customer service for help they only gave me a number that goes to an answering machine… left 10 messages-no answer yet. I called Fort Lauderdale.. Left five messages- no answer. Finally on June 12 about 2 hours before departing from San Juan I was able to speak to a live person… who called me back 30 minutes latter and informed me that my bags were in fact in Fort Lauderdale and that they never send them back to Puerto Rico as I had requested. Imagine the nightmare my wife and I went thru with 6 children ranging from 2 yrs old to 13 year old and nothing to wear… Please advice and tell me if I should get some kind of compensation or something for all the hassle, aggravation and lack of urgency on Spirits staff.
What should I do?

I am a member of the $9 fare club and have been booking at the low fares many many times.
Spirit is a no-frill airline and you have to read the small print but they are reliable and trying to survive.
I would like to suggest that if you want to ride in a limousine, then dont book with a taxi company.
I see that many passengers complained about the baggage fee but now most airline are charging the same. This should tell you something..
Spirit is the king of taxi companies in the airline world.

I sent this letter to Spirit Airlines, after I was told that there was nothing that they could do for me.

June 26, 2008

Spirit Airlines
http://www.spiritair.com
2800 Executive Way
Miramar, FL 33025
(954) 447-7965
(800) 772-7117

Passenger: Peter Myers
Flight #: 197
Date of Travel 06/26/08
LGA to FLL
Record Locator #:C5P9WM

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Camille Webb I am requesting a total refund of the fee that was paid for my 8 year old son who flew as an unaccompanied minor from LGA TO FLL, as well as the cost of the airline ticket. I was informed by the party who came to receive him at the airport that my son deplaned the aircraft unaccompanied, instead of being supervised. The receiving party informed me that there was no one to issue any paperwork to do the exchange of the child. I am appalled because this is pure negligence and anything could have happened to my son. I entrusted spirit to take care of my child and this was not done. I was also informed that he was also not fed on the flight as well. I am very uncomfortable doing business with this company and I do regret that I have already purchased 2 airline tickets on flight 779/710 leaving on 7/24 to FLL. This is the second time that I did business with your company and I was not happy with the first time. I thought the second experience would have been different, but your company placed my child at risk for danger. I am requesting that someone contact me regarding this matter ASAP. It is very evident why Spirit Airlines is one of the most complained about airlines flying today. The customer service is extremely poor, and in this case my child could have been in harms way. My contact information is: Camille Webb 4059 Paulding Ave Bronx, NY 10466.

917 892 3810
sweetcammeo@hotmail.com

Sincerely,

Camille Webb

I booked a flight from San Jose, CA to Orlando so I thought it turned out the flight was from San jose, Costa Rica. I requested a refund. I received credit. I do not want to use this airline company. I don’t want anything to do with them especially after I was told to shut up numerous times by their customer service rep. I cannot use the ticket seeing as the voucher was issued in my sisters name that i bought it forl. She can’t use it because no flights go out of our northern california. There is no one willing to help. I have hired a lawyer to see if I can get my refund back. I even told the lady I was willing to pay the $90 fee. I just want my money back. I cancelled 5 minutes after realizing the mistake.

Without my 2 bags for 11 days now and I am supposed to be out of the country for 2 months for work. Not one person has made an effort to call me back from corporate or central spirit baggage. All the clothing I own is in those bags, some very expensive electronics, and my prescription medication. I do not know what to do anymore because its seems like I will never get an answer from this company and I feel like i will never see my bags again. This is is hands down the worst airline i have over dealt with.

I am trying the same steps as others, I hope I can get a refund. I have been calling as much as I can and I keep getting the standard “It has been sent to accounting for processing, they should call you soon”

If I get my refund, I think that will smooth the bad blood between me and Spirit, though I lost $300.00 just to get home so I didn’t lose my job.

====Message sent to staff=====

Mr. Lefebrve,

I am writing today after being exhausted of the complete run-around I have
experienced. While I think I am still making headway, I wish to email you
and share my grievances with you.

First off, I have some positive things to say about Spirit Airlines, as I
don’t want you to think I am ungrateful to this airline company. My wife
and I flew the first part of our journey to Freeport, Bahamas (Sunday,
June 15, 2008 // Flight record locator LKLWDD) on a very nice and clean
jet. The people were courteous, the service was prompt and the flight was
enjoyable.

But our honeymoon made a turn for the worst when we showed up for our
flight after packing our belongings, paying for a taxi, and arriving at
the airport for our scheduled flight on Thursday, June 19.

We had smiles on our faces which were immediately wiped away when a very
rude Spirit Airlines employee curtly told us our flight was cancelled and
that that the only thing they can do is put us up in a hotel overnight and
the next flight will leave at 6:00 p.m. the next day. We asked if they
could get us on another carrier because after all, we paid for a ticket to
take us home on the 19th, not the 20th. We had careers to get back to
that could not be put on hold because an airline cancelled our flight and
never even tried to contact us about it. But they said no, they could do
nothing.

So I ended up paying about $300 for a flight home through Bahamas Air. My
original fare through Spirit was $243.63 and so now I have paid $543.63
just so I could go home when I was originally scheduled to.

Promptly after getting back to Ft. Lauderdale I stood in line for over an
hour and a half and finally got to the counter and spoke to a customer
service rep. I have his name written down somewhere if you need it, but
he was very nice and understanding and told me he could only refund my
unused portion of my trip. While this was a start, it didn’t help
reimburse the extra $300 I had to spend to get home.

Well we fast forward almost 2 months later and I still have not received a
refund. I have called 5 times to Spirit Airlines and and 2 times I have
been told a check will be sent to my house, and 3 times that my credit
card will have a refund put onto it.

This most recent call (today 8/1/2008) the representative again confirmed
that the request has been sent to accounting and it would take 5 – 15
business days (which is what was told to me 2 weeks ago)

Mr. Lefebrve, I am not one to complain and am usually very patient, but I
have been waiting almost 2 months for a refund to a cancelled flight. For
most people $243.63 is not a lot, but to a newly wed couple $243.63 is a
make it or break it apartment payment. And on top of that I had to tap
our savings for the extra $300.00 just to get us home when Spirit Airlines
originally promised us we would be going home.

Please look into this matter. Anything you can do to help us out would be
greatly appreciated. I really regret we didn’t get to fly home on a
Spirit Airlines Jet. The rust-bucket of a plane Bahamas Air put us on
scared my wife to death and I thought we wouldn’t make it alive.

Below I have included pertinent reservation information.

Thank You,

Brian Minter
Chastity Minter

=========================================
Spirit record locator: LKLWDD
Ticket type requested: electronic (e-ticket)

CheapTickets record locator: AP270301XQMBJ48K
Airline ticket number(s): 4877167317691, 4877167317690

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Spirit # 278

Fort Lauderdale International (FLL) to Freeport Grand Bahama Intl (FPO)

Departure (FLL): June 15, 4:32 PM EDT (afternoon)

Arrival (FPO): June 15, 5:25 PM EDT (evening)

Class: Economy

——————————
Thursday, June 19, 2008

Spirit # 279

Freeport Grand Bahama Intl (FPO) to Fort Lauderdale International (FLL)

Departure (FPO): June 19, 6:15 PM EDT (evening)

Arrival (FLL): June 19, 7:08 PM EDT (evening)

I have flown Spirit about 20 times in the last six months. 19 trips to Jamaica, which, although were not excellent service, I had encountered some minor rude service from some Spirit employees during those 19 trips, but as a whole, I was satisfied with everything else. All the times I flew previously, the planes were never later than 30 minutes and 90% of the time the employees were professional and courteous. The only time I had a problem was my last trip where I flew from FLL (Fort Lauderdale) to Columbia SC. I flew in on the 4th of August and rented a car for three days to go to Charlotte until the 7th of August. I only flew to Columbia, because Spirit does not fly to Charlotte and I got the benefit of a free trip (buddy pass) thru my recent girlfriend who works for Spirit. The flight down was great, ontime and was about two thirds full.
My problem was, when I came back to Columbia for the return flight on the 7th of August, I was told quite rudely by a person standing behind the counter (I do not believe that person was a ticket agent) that the return flight at 3 PM was cancelled and it should be flying out tomorrow. I realise I was basically a hitchhiker on my free buddy pass, so there was nothing they could do for me as far as a refund, hotel, etc.. I ended up paying $305 for a US Air flight from Columbia SC, to FLL, connecting through Charlotte that took me about 9 more hours to get home do to weather delays, getting taken off the original puddle jumper jet plane to Charlotte from Columbia, SC, going back to the terminal in Columbia, SC, missing my connecting flight in Charlotte at 4:15 PM, finaly making it back on the puddle jumper for more delays, getting to Charlotte, getting a ticket for a 6:15 connecting flight to FLL, and that plane sat on the runway for a two hour delay because of weather, arriving in FLL by 10:30 PM. Now, I know, I am in a different situation because I was not paying for the flight, but I would have been more angry if I was a paying customer who was not called in advance about the cancellation, which the person at the counter stated was because of maintenance, but I believe, seeing how podunk and small the Columbia, SC, airport was, I believe Spirit cancelled because they did not have enough passengers to make the flight to FLL profitable? Did the paying customers get put up in a hotel, did they get Spirit to put them on another flight? My girlfreind informs me that Spirit might not have reciprocity with another airlines, so that even the paying pasengers would have to wait for the next flight. I tried to rent a car to drive to Fort Lauderdale at the Columbia SC, small airport car rental counters, but the agents at Hertz, Budget, Enterprise and Alamo had no cars for me and some of those agents were quite rude about speaking with me.
Anyway, I am going back to Jamaica on the 19th of August, paying for this trip, I am crazy, but Spirit is the cheapest by far of all the airlines to get to Jamaica, where I have family and a home there.

I have been getting emails for months from Spirit Air, although they’ve mostly gone unnoticed to me. I tried to create an account in June 08 to find if they had some cheap fares to CA (at this time unfamiliar with their poor business practices and have never flown the airline) I was told my email was already associated with an account. Someone named “Marvin” has been using my email address for his spirit account. I’ve called a million times, actually only getting through twice, left countless messages. I tried the BBB, they have over 800 unanswered complaints and a rating of F. BEWARE.

I, too, am a victim of reserving a ticket for my special needs brother who needs to fly from Fort Lauderdale to Nicaragua. Unfortunately, although I entered all his information -name, dob, passport number, etc., I noticed (after I had paid) that I was listed as the passenger. I agree with the person above who thinks this is a bait and switch.

Of course, I called customer service just to change the name and they acted as if this an act of God. “Mike Robinson” informed me that they are based out of India and his supervisor “Diana Thomas” was not available to assist me. Simply put, they could not make the change unless I paid a $90 cancellation fee. This is ridiculous. I just made the reservation and it is their error!

I am cancelling the charge with my credit card company. The charge has not shown yet so I hope this is not a problem. I stumbled upon this website while looking for a Spirit rep in the U.S.

I have emailed Carolina Lopez. I hope that she helps. I have flown Spirit several times. It is late sometimes but which airline isn’t. I have never had this problem before. However, I also have problems with customer service outsourced to other countries, specifically India.

This is one reason why customer service has taken such a drastic decline. What accountability does anyone in India have to Spirit? I am sure that their goal is to generate as much revenue as possible in order to keep the work in their country, nevermind customer service. I wonder what measures the Spirit execs take to ensure that their customers are treated fairly when the probably cannot even identify the reps who pose as “Mike Robinson” and “Diane Thomas”.

I will be sure to update you all. Wish me luck.

the ABSOLUTE WORST experience ive EVER had booking a ticket!!!! i had reservation/booking problems like many of you above. dealing with the severely incompetent indians over the phones for hours and hours left me with blood pressure of the charts! cant spirit airlines afford better help than that? travel to india and you see human fecal matter everywhere around town. why would want to hire help like that to represent your company? i havent even flown with spirit yet but deeply regret the choice i made.

After unsuccessfully trying to cancel the free trial of Spirt club & my inability to talk to anyone by phone, mail or email about their charging me for a membership i had cancelled prior to the trial period expiring, i found your very helpful blog assuring me that I wasn’t the only unhappy Spirit customer.

My problem with Spirit was resolved rather rapidly after I protested the charge with my credit card company & initiated a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Amazingly, Spirit responded in less than 2 weeks of initialting these official complaints.

i hope this helps someone else get their issues resolved.

I’ve had my bad experiences with them. Flights cancelled without rhyme, reason or restitution, premature departures leading to missed planes and customer service that really isn’t service of any kind. I could post the details here, but instead, here’s a link I recently used to file a complaint with the FTC… If enough of you use it, legal action may be taken:

https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

I researched a flight back in 12/2008, even went so far as to enter my card number. When I got to the part where I realized I had to pay for my seats, in addition to the airfare, I backed out and booked on AA instead. The day before the scheduled flight I get an email notification from Spirit Air about the reservation I never made. I never got a confirmation, or I would have cancelled it back when I was on their website. Now they say they’re gonna charge me a service fee and give me a credit for a future flight. Eff them, I’ll cut up the card and send it back to them before that happens.

Come ON folks – Spirit is NOT the only airline that falls short of expectations! WHAT do you want when you’re NOT willing to pay??????

I’ve traveled most all of the major airlines and have had one problem AFTER another – AND paid premium prices for my tickets.

There’s an old adage “you get what you pay for” – keep that in mind when choosing which airline you’re going to use!!

By the way I was looking for something else and came across this “blog”. I have NO complaints!

I just spent 30 minutes (or I should say, wasted 30 minutes) trying to resolve the problem of why I signed up for special email offers 4 months ago and never received anything but the “welcome” letter. I’ll be darned if I’ll join the pay-for fare club when they haven’t proven to me they can send emails. (I know it’s not filtering, it’s a mailbox where I have it turned off, and I’m in IT for 30 yrs)

So I found the “contact us” page and phoned the number. Not only Indians, but smart-aleck at that. She wouldn’t even listen to me, she was too busy reading her script fast to get off the phone. She said, “there is no free special offer program, you have to either pay or get a credit card” She insisted, like I was stupid. So I navigated to the page where I signed up, and read it to her. (first had to tell her to shut up and listen) They I read her the “welcome to special offers” email I received. Finally, she stopped denying the existance, and referred me to an online form.

When I told her the online form didn’t work, because it was outsource, unindentifed, and therefore not in my “trusted sites” list, she said she could not help me further, there were NO OTHER OPTIONS.

So called corporate number, which, if you’ve tried, keeps referring you round and round back to website.

Who wants to do business with these people? Not me.