I shall never ever fly Spirit Airlines again. My reasons why?
Here’s the short version: My wife and I were originally scheduled to arrive back home on Friday, 4/27 at 9:13 AM; however, Spirit canceled our flight and told us that we would not be able to leave Costa Rica until Wednesday, 5/2. A whopping FIVE DAY DELAY.
For the long version, please read on.
-Friday, 4/27 at 6:30 PM: My wife and I are scheduled to fly out of San Jose, Costa Rica via Spirit Airlines on Friday, 4/27 at 1 AM. We check in online from our hotel at approximately 6:30 PM. It appears that our check-in process goes smoothly until we notice that Spirit Airlines has changed the flight itinerary on us without ANY notification whatsoever. When we originally booked our flight 2 weeks ago, we were scheduled to fly from Costa Rica > Fort Lauderdale > arrive at Chicago O’Hare at 9:13 AM on Friday, 4/27. Upon checking in online, we see that we are now scheduled to arrive in Chicago at 6:16 PM. That is over 9 HOURS after our originally scheduled arrival time. Again, no notification whatsoever prior to checking in. At this point we’re hopeful that Spirit can help us get home closer to 9:13 AM than 6:16 PM.
-Friday, 4/27 at 10:30 PM: We leave from our hotel at 8 PM and arrive at the airport via taxi at 10:30 PM. As soon as we walk inside the airport we see a big screen TV display showing us that our flight has been CANCELED. We did not receive any notification whatsoever that the flight would be canceled UNTIL we arrived at the airport. No emails from Spirit whatsoever regarding the flight cancellation (and yes, they obviously have our email addresses on file). This is where the real fun begins (and by “fun” I mean misery).
-Friday, 4/27 at 10:31 PM: We see that a line has started forming near the Spirit counter at the airport. My wife and I get to the end of the line and there are roughly about 30 people ahead of us. It’s not a very long line at all but little do we know at this point in time just how long we will be standing in this line for (HINT: a very very long time).
-Sometime between Friday, 4/27 at 10:31 PM and Saturday, 4/28 at 1:25 AM: Spirit Airlines agents start dealing with upset customers whose flights have been canceled. My wife and I are a bit disheartened when we start noticing some extremely upset customers who talk with the Spirit agents. Uh oh. We hear the rumors of people telling us that Spirit Airlines cannot fly people out of Costa Rica until Monday, 4/29 at 1 AM and that all they’re willing to offer is a stay at a nearby Hampton Inn or Holiday Inn along with a food voucher for $50. We see cops being called into action to deal with upset customers. Time passes by painfully slowly for my wife and I and we end up standing in line for nearly 3 hours before we are “helped” by a Spirit agent.
-Saturday, 4/28 at 1:25 AM: After standing in line for nearly 3 hours, my wife and I are FINALLY able to talk to a Spirit agent. He tells us that our flight was canceled because an airport ramp, which has been under construction for about a month, has been closed and that’s the ramp that Spirit airlines uses to fly in and out. “That’s the ONLY ramp that Spirit can fly in and out of?” I ask, but I get no straight answer from the agent. I actually still do not quite understand why/how the flight was canceled. All I know is that Spirit was FULLY AWARE of these scheduled airport ramp closings and yet they scheduled their flight extremely close to the scheduled ramp closings. No other airlines fly out of this airport around this time of the day. I asked if this flight cancelation was weather-related. The Spirit agent told me it was NOT weather related.
-Continued…: The Spirit agent tells us that the earliest Spirit can get us out of Costa Rica is Monday, 4/29 at 1 AM and that Spirit has been trying to book people on earlier flights on other airlines but that they are ALL FULL (I would later find out that this was a complete lie). He gives us the following not-so-ideal options: A) Wait at the airport and try to fly out of Costa Rica via Spirit Airlines on standby. B) Go stay at the Holiday Inn and wait until we can take the Spirit flight out of Costa Rica on Monday, 4/29 at 1 AM. IF (and that’s a very big “if”) Spirit can find a flight on another airline prior to Monday, 4/29 at 1 AM, we will be contacted at our hotel. This basically means that we are stuck inside the hotel waiting for communications from Spirit. I’m sorry, Mr. Spirit Agent, but my wife and I did NOT come to Costa Rica to stay at a Holiday Inn and eat at Denny’s right across the street. C) Get a refund on the 1-way portion of our Spirit flight back home and we can book with another airline on our own. I ask the agent if we can take the hotel voucher and then get a refund later on if we can book a flight with another airline. The agent first says “yes” and then seconds later after consulting with a colleague tells me “no”—I have to either choose between the hotel voucher OR the refund. I tell him that since there’s no internet connectivity at the airport AND because there are no other airline agents present at the airport, I have no way of checking for other flights. He tells me, “sorry, but that’s the policy” (he told me that line over and over and over again).
-Saturday, 4/28 at 2 AM: We’ve now been waiting at the airport for 3 HOURS AND 30 MINUTES. My wife and I are tired and frustrated. We look at each other and decide that we should stay at the Holiday Inn and hope for a flight out of Costa Rica sometime before Monday, 4/29 at 1 AM (I would later realize that the agent never booked us for the 4/29 flight). The agent gives us the hotel voucher. When I ask him for a food voucher, he tells us that food vouchers will be handed to us at Holiday Inn IF we are stuck in Costa Rica beyond lunch time and that we’ll have to wait for it.
-Saturday, 4/28 at 2:30 AM: We arrive at Holiday Inn and the first thing I do is jump on the internet to look for flights out of Costa Rica. I am not at all surprised to find that there are, in fact, MANY available flights (economy class) out of Costa Rica on the other airlines, all departing within the next 12 hours. My wife and I decide not to book anything at this point, though, because we are still hoping that maybe, just maybe, Spirit will come through and help us get home soon. We’ve been up since 7 AM decide to go to bed. We are dead tired at this point.
-Saturday, 4/28 at 8:55 AM: My wife and I get some free breakfast and I decide that maybe I should just call the Spirit Airlines’ 800 customer service number. A Spirit employee picks up the phone at the other end of the line and I explain my situation to her. She tells me that the earliest flight out of Costa Rica is WEDNESDAY, 5/2 and that my wife and I are NOT booked on the 4/29 1 AM flight. I tell her that it’s unreasonable for my wife and I to be stuck in Costa Rica for 5 extra days. She tells me “sir, I understand your situation but…” (she told me that line over and over and over again). She tells me that she can offer me and my wife a voucher for $50 each. When I ask her what the voucher can be used for she tells me that I can use it to book a flight with Spirit Airlines in the future. WHAT!? I’m thinking Um, I don’t think I’ll ever fly with you guys again. I’m surprised the Spirit agent didn’t laugh in disbelief when she told me that.
-Continued…: I tell the Spirit employee that I was informed by the agent at the airport that they will try their very best to book me on an earlier flight on another airline for free of charge. I then proceed to tell her that I see a whole bunch of flights back to Chicago (on other airlines) and ask her if she can please book a flight for me. She tells me that only the agents at the airport can do that. I ask her if she can please connect me to someone who can take care of this for me. She tells me that she has NO WAY of contacting someone who can take care of this for me and that I have to go to the airport to take care of this. I tell her that I’m not very confident that a Spirit agent at the airport can help me with this since no one could help me with this last night (i.e. earlier this morning) even though there were a whole bunch of flights available on other airlines. She responds with her favorite line, “Sir I understand your situation but…”
-Continued…: I ask her if I can get a refund on the 1-way portion of my Spirit flight back home even though the Spirit agent at the airport told me that I cannot take the hotel voucher AND the refund. She puts me on hold for a few minutes to consult with her supervisor and tells me that I CAN get a refund on my flight. I ask her if I can get my refund processed AFTER I book my flight on another airline just to be safe. She says, “yes, of course”. I tell her that I want to BE CERTAIN I will get my refund when I call back later and ask her if she can please email me this in writing right now while I still have her on the phone. She tells me that she cannot do that. I ask her for her employee ID—something to uniquely identify her. Again, she tells me “no”. All she can tell me, she says, is her name and that I can be confident I will get my refund because my conversation with her is being recorded. I’m in utter disbelief. I ask her for her name and she tells me it’s DAISY DAVIS, which I find interestingly funny since she speaks with a noticeable Indian accent. By the way, I’ve spoken to Spirit customer support 3 times within the past week and they have all been folks with a noticeable Indian accent. I obviously have nothing against Indians but I really do not enjoy dealing with companies whose primary support staff consists of off-shore customer service reps.
-Continued…: I ask Ms. Davis to please process the refund right now while I have her on the phone with her. She proceeds to process the refund (I think… not yet sure) and tells me that I should see the refund back on my credit card in about a week.
I hang up. End of story. The end result? I book a flight back to Chicago with Delta Airlines and arrive at O’Hare 14 HOURS LATER than originally scheduled AND $500 poorer (since the total cost of the cheapest one-way tickets back home from Costa Rica via Delta was much higher than the cost of the refunded Spirit tickets). BTW, when my wife and I were checking out of Holiday Inn this morning at 10:50 AM, their employees told me that they had received NO communication from Spirit regarding the canceled flight. I wonder if there are folks still stranded at Holiday Inn as I’m typing this.
It’s a real shame how my experience with Spirit turned out to be. Our flight from Chicago to Costa Rica this past Monday was totally smooth. Sure, there was almost ZERO leg room (I’m 5’8″ with rather short legs), my wife and I had to pay for our carry-on luggage, there was absolutely no freebies offered in-flight (no water, no soda, no peanuts, etc.), and they charge $5 per traveler to print the boarding pass at the airport… but we really did not mind missing out on those “extra amenities” at all since we thought we were saving about $350 when compared to the next cheapest option.
Well, we were wrong.
