Spirit

LadyEph87 said:

Hello,

I'm just wondering how many people have used Spirit Airlines (frequently) and if you've flown them without a problem. I had a HORRIBLE experience with them am vowed to never fly them again. [They made us miss our connecting flight, left us stranded in Ft. Lauderdale without a hotel room. We had to pay for a hotel stay, and for a new plane ticket on another airline to get us to our final destination (kingston, jamaica) because they didn't have any other connecting flights heading there until the NEXT WEEK. (yes, we arrived a day later and a lot more broke than we had expected) On the way back, we ran into a similar problem where they didn't leave enough time between connecting flights and our whole plane was rushing to make it through security and customs quickly enough to catch the flight..some people didn't make it. God knows what happened to them. To add insult to injury, they LOST 9 pieces of our group's luggage and broke 4 suitcases...a total nightmare]. It seems, however, that many people recommend them. Was my one experience an anomaly? Should I brave flying them again?

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I think based on your personal experience, you would be the best judge of that.
I know for me, that would be a no-brainer with any airline.

Yup. You are not alone.

The very same thing happened to me and a buddy in 06'. Our flight was delayed and we missed our connecting flight in Ft. Lauderdale as well. Spirit's excuse was that that could not be held accountable for delays caused by the weather.

Fine. But you would think that they'd at least pay for a hotel room since we couldn't get a flight out until the next morning. I mean, that's just good business right? Well, apparently the folks at Spirit don't think so. We ended up paying for our own rooms that night.

IMO Spirit is the absolute worst airline out there. They have absolutely no idea what good customer service entails, and they often refuse to take responsibility for the bad customer service that seems to be their MO. I thought about writing a letter to their corporate office to express my dissatisfaction, but realized that it would probably do little good. In all likelihood, Spirit already knows that their customer service sucks. But as an LCC (Low Cost Carrier), they will always offer flights at a much cheaper rate than the legacy airlines. Therefore, they will always have those who will risk the horrendous customer service in order save a buck.

I've made up my mind to never fly Spirit again. But then, I am fortunate enough to be able to pay the higher fares of the Legacy airlines.


Vince.

If my wife were to read this she would say, "Oh my!"

We have flown them several times, and marveled at the good service...
And, believe me, we flew cheapest possible...
On one flight we went all the way to Punta Cana to catch the flight and the other time we went to Santo Domingo.

Of course, we were not a large group, so I really cannot say...

I'd say you sorta have to take the good with the bad... those prices can't be beat...

Give them a chance...

HB

My friend uses them a lot from FLL to SDQ with no problems and great fares. Maybe if you are flying direct you have less chance of problems.

Speaking of the devil. My friend just called me from SD. He booked a ticket last night on Spirit FLL SD coming today on a 6AM flight, leaving Thur. $247 RT. This is not a typo, includes all taxes. The plane was on time, with no problems.

Sorry to hear about your experience. However, low prices don't always mean reliable. When you buy cheap, what do you expect? The red carpet treatment??? It's no-frills all the way.

When you fly Spirit and Jet Blue, you always open yourself up to additional risks that larger airlines try to cover, esp. for connections. Low cost carrier means EXACTLY that. They're not inclined to accomodate you for delays and weather and missed flights, whereas AA, Delta etc would. They don't have back-up plans, for instance, other Skyteam or One World airline partners. That's the risk that you MUST think about, when booking LCCs. It's doesn't happen all the time, but when you experience it, in hindsight, you wonder whether the $50 or $100 difference was really worth it.

toneloc24 said:

Sorry to hear about your experience. However, low prices don't always mean reliable. When you buy cheap, what do you expect? The red carpet treatment??? It's no-frills all the way.

When you fly Spirit and Jet Blue, you always open yourself up to additional risks that larger airlines try to cover, esp. for connections. Low cost carrier means EXACTLY that. They're not inclined to accomodate you for delays and weather and missed flights, whereas AA, Delta etc would. They don't have back-up plans, for instance, other Skyteam or One World airline partners. That's the risk that you MUST think about, when booking LCCs. It's doesn't happen all the time, but when you experience it, in hindsight, you wonder whether the $50 or $100 difference was really worth it.

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You are absolutely right. You get what you pay for. I paid around $300 for a round trip ticket from Washington D.C. to Santo Domingo. Thought it was a great deal until Spirit screwed me royally!

The $100 to $150 saved was definitely not worth it. Unless it's an emergency, I'll be staying away from the LCCs. I just hope that the proposed airline mergers don't result in ridiculous fares across the board.


Vince.

AFter 911..if you misconx your flight due to Weather or ATC (air trafic controler) Delays...you are on you own....As that's go for al Major airlines in the US...so dont feel bad about it.

Well, speaking from my experience with Delta, in approx. 2004, on a return flight from Montego Bay, JA to ATL on miles, we had to make an emergency landing in Orlando. We arrived later than the US Customs normal hours, so we had to wait on the plane for a couple of hours for them to staff up since we couldn't enter the USA without clearing customs.

Once we all did that, Air Jamaica found some Delta reps to coordinate getting the Delta passengers to their final destinations. The Air Jamaica folks also were straightened out. A few were able to catch the last flights out that night to their to destinations. The rest of us were fully comp'ed with Orlando airport hotel and food vouchers, as well as connections on the next available flights out the following day.

This was post 9-11, and it was with Delta. I'm pretty sure that this situation wouldn't have played out the same if I had booked on a LCC.

Exactly.

toneloc24 said:

Well, speaking from my experience with Delta, in approx. 2004, on a return flight from Montego Bay, JA to ATL on miles, we had to make an emergency landing in Orlando. We arrived later than the US Customs normal hours, so we had to wait on the plane for a couple of hours for them to staff up since we couldn't enter the USA without clearing customs.

Once we all did that, Air Jamaica found some Delta reps to coordinate getting the Delta passengers to their final destinations. The Air Jamaica folks also were straightened out. A few were able to catch the last flights out that night to their to destinations. The rest of us were fully comp'ed with Orlando airport hotel and food vouchers, as well as connections on the next available flights out the following day.

This was post 9-11, and it was with Delta. I'm pretty sure that this situation wouldn't have played out the same if I had booked on a LCC.

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This is the type of service that I don't mind paying an extra $100 for.

When we were stuck in Ft. Lauderdale and Spirit Airlines wouldn't even foot the bill for ONE LOUSY NIGHT at a hotel, I kept asking myself what our fate would have been if we'd been students traveling on a strict budget.

We'd have been S.O.L. that's what.

Vince.

I got stuck overnight in FLL as well- had to check into some dump near the airport. They claimed it was weather related, but I heard from people in the DR there weren't any wheather problems. WTF? you can't beat their prices though. The next flight was pretty empty, which is wierd as most flights here are packed to the nuts with people chugging their duty free like it is their last day on earth...

I have flown with them almost exclusively for the last 2 or three years and have never had a problem. Fact is, all airlines have problems like this at some point or another. I remember I was returning to Orlando from Tenn and my connceting flight in Atlanta was cancelled. They wanted me to wait until the following day for another flight but I opted to rent a car to get home asap to my sick wife. Then they didn't even bother to give me credit for the flight.

toneloc24 said:

Well, speaking from my experience with Delta, in approx. 2004, on a return flight from Montego Bay, JA to ATL on miles, we had to make an emergency landing in Orlando. We arrived later than the US Customs normal hours, so we had to wait on the plane for a couple of hours for them to staff up since we couldn't enter the USA without clearing customs.

Once we all did that, Air Jamaica found some Delta reps to coordinate getting the Delta passengers to their final destinations. The Air Jamaica folks also were straightened out. A few were able to catch the last flights out that night to their to destinations. The rest of us were fully comp'ed with Orlando airport hotel and food vouchers, as well as connections on the next available flights out the following day.

This was post 9-11, and it was with Delta. I'm pretty sure that this situation wouldn't have played out the same if I had booked on a LCC.

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That was a Emergency Landing...Airlines will provided you with hotel,meals and rebooked to the next available flight.
But if you flight has been delay due to local weather or destination weather...good luck, you are on you own, same as air traffic controllers...EX. delay due to heavy traffic in to JFK airport...ATC will post a wheels up for 1hoour late. The airlines don have any crontol of this.
Before 9-1-1 Delta will give to everyone hotel and food just because you feel you wanna have a layover in ATL....lol
AND i believe the LCC will take care of you in a situation like that.

Chip said:

I have flown with them almost exclusively for the last 2 or three years and have never had a problem. Fact is, all airlines have problems like this at some point or another. I remember I was returning to Orlando from Tenn and my connceting flight in Atlanta was cancelled. They wanted me to wait until the following day for another flight but I opted to rent a car to get home asap to my sick wife. Then they didn't even bother to give me credit for the flight.

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Sorry to heard that. But do you remember the reason that your flt was cancelled?? where you flying ASA to Chattanooga?? did you write a letter for a least a transportation voucher?
Well I know this happened long time ago...

Latino2002 said:

That was a Emergency Landing...Airlines will provided you with hotel,meals and rebooked to the next available flight.
But if you flight has been delay due to local weather or destination weather...good luck, you are on you own, same as air traffic controllers...EX. delay due to heavy traffic in to JFK airport...ATC will post a wheels up for 1hoour late. The airlines don have any crontol of this.
Before 9-1-1 Delta will give to everyone hotel and food just because you feel you wanna have a layover in ATL....lol
AND i believe the LCC will take care of you in a situation like that.

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During the weekend of April 4th, 2008, there was a bad weather situation (Fri. night) in ATL in which several flights were cancelled that evening. From what I was told, Delta rev passengers were given hotel vouchers and food vouchers. This was told directly to me by some rev passengers who had just experienced it. ATL airport that Sat. morning was a complete wreck, with those stranded passengers from Fri. evening still trying to find connections on Sat. Feel free to go back and check. Sooooo......I don't know.

My flight to POP left ontime without a hitch and with available seats. LOL!!!

I have used Spirit many times to the DR and I've had some absolutely horrible experiences with them. I was stuck an extra night in Punta Cana after spending the entire day at the airport, then being told at 10pm that the flight was cancelled (it was already 4 hours delayed and that we had to leave the airport and go somewhere else because it's a private airport and we couldn't stay there. I had to go back to my hotel and go back for the flight the next day. They didn't offer any compensation for this.
This used to be a really great airline, but now that they have adopted the ULCC model, it's awful. Everything that can possibly be outsourced is. They do not have enough personnel at the airport to check in all the passengers in a timely manner at FLL airport causing huge lines going clear outside the terminal to check in.You can arrive at the airport 3 hours before your flight, wait to check in for 2 hours in line, then when you reach the counter, they say the cut-off time for international flights is 1 hour to check in and since it's past the cutoff time you have to buy another ticket for tomorrow. (I'm not kidding, this happens all the time with them.) They charge for everything. $20 per bag each way. (they say you can prebook online for ony $10 per bag each way but I found that that only works about half the time. They charge for everything aboard the aircraft, they even charge you to hold an infant in your lap! They are reconfiguring their planes to cram in more seats. The A321, which they frequently use for FLL-SDQ is being changed from 198 seats to 212 seats by removing all but one bathroom and reducing seat pitch, making a really tight squeeze. And you can never get hold of them on the phone.
I have lots of frequent flier miles with Spirit, and I am trying to use them before this airline goes under. It is just not sustainable to offer $29 fares each way to the DR with the price of fuel, even after nickel and diming people for baggage, etc. I still don't see how they can make money. Also, AA is a ruthless competiter and their intent is to destroy anything that tries to challenge their dominance in Latin America/Caribbean. They have slashed fares and increased capacity from South Florida to the DR, Jamaica, Costa Rica (basically anywhere they are competing directly with Spirit) This process makes AA usually not much more expensive than Spirit many times. I went from Tampa to POP for $169 round trip plus taxes on AA just a few months ago! And when people experience Spirit's infamous customer service, they go right back to American (or JetBlue, which has by far the best service from US to DR, though they don't allow excess baggage on DR flights.)

FLL to SDQ eight times last year...I was a few minutes late once, and with the help of a Spirit rep, made the flight! It's a NO BRAINER for me...non-stop, no frills, pay for what I want, don't buy anything I don't need.....oh and I ONLY do carry ons (which sometimes one goes GATE CHECKED...never an issue)

Depart FLL at 10:40 supthin-2 rum n cokes later Arrive SDQ 1315 sumpthin....

Wierd the flight I was on wasn't that full- and it had good leg space and the plane seemed pretty damn new. Honestly, I think we are lucy to have them- another option to get up to FLorida for a cheap weekend for like 250 with taxes if it works out timing wise...

How they were pretty much completely take over a huge section of the FLL is still a mystery to me however..