On November 16 my wife and I used Spirit airline for a flight from Atlantic City to Fort Lauderdale and on to St. Thomas. The first leg of the flight was fine. Then we had the rather unpleasant experience of arriving in Fort Lauderdale Airport and finding our connecting Flight #201 to St. Thomas had been canceled. We spent three and a half hours waiting in line until we were told to give our boarding passes to one of the luggage check-in attendants so she could make a group arrangement for all those passengers continuing to St. Thomas. About a half hour later our names were called and we were given a food voucher and notice that a bus would be arriving at 5: oo PM to take the group to Miami International Airport to catch an American Airlines flight to St. Thomas at approximately 7:00 PM. We went to Chilly’s Restaurant to eat and returned at 3:45PM to wait for the bus. We noticed that there weren’t any of the other St. Thomas passengers in the terminal so we went to the counter in find out what was going on with our ride. We were told that the bus came early and that we would be sent by taxi to Miami to catch our flight. We were told to go to the American Airlines counter and say that Spirit Airlines sent us. We were not given any paperwork to pass on. We made it to the airport at around 5:15 PM, found the American Airlines luggage and check-in line and waited our turn. Upon speaking to the ticketing attendant and telling her that we were sent by Spirit she said that she was aware of the Spirit cancellation and redirection of its passengers to American Airlines. She checked for our name which was not on the list. At this point we we re totally stressed and told her that she had better look again. She searched for our names in several other places with no luck. We were adamant that we were supposed to be on the list and convinced her to talk to a Spirit Customer Service rep. We were able to get a rep on our cell phone, unfortunately this representative was absolutely no help being that he was on the other side of the world in India with no access to phone numbers at the Fort Lauderdale Airport. His answer to our problem was to have us go back the Fort Lauderdale Airport. The counter attendant informed us that there was very little time left because the flight would close within minutes. At this point after what we had already been through and knowing that if we were go back, we would;
1. Have to pay for a taxi and be reimbursed,
2. Go back to the spirit counter and further make arrangements,
3. Stay overnight in Fort Lauderdale,
4. Catch another ride back to the airport,
5. Check in again on the next days flight,
6. Lose a nights stay In St. Thomas which was already reserved and paid for,
7. Lug around four suitcases and two carry-on bags.
This was not a very pleasant feeling as I’m sure you could imagine. I knew that we were supposed to be on this flight and that Spirit would honor my decision. So much to my wife’s dismay I asked whether or not there was still room on the flight and how much it was going to cost. I paid for the flight on my credit card and was given the receipts which I will be sending you a copy or the original. It took numerous phone calls but we were finally able to speak to a woman named Ruby who told us how to resolve our problem.
We both emailed and sent a letter explaining our problem and asking for compensation but were told by email that because we returned on our scheduled flight we were not entitled to any compensation. At this point they have lost a customer. After reading about the many complaints they have had and their lack of customer relations, we are sorry that we ever used them in the first place.
Kevin Murphy
0 comments