[Billz]

What happened to the "fun of flying?" Spirit Air has really sucked the air out of that concept.

Our flight was cancelled. On-line it says it was delayed, but no it was cancelled.

No car, no where to stay - too bad.

Any help finding flights out - nope. "We can probably get you a flight March 5th?" Say what - it's February 21?! Sorry,...

Spirit Air is the absolute worst. They're great when they're selling you tickets, but when it comes to providing the service, they do not deliver, and they just don't care.

Buyer beware - if you purchase Spirit Air tickets, it's only a matter of time before you get royally stiffed.

Did they sell us cheap tickets - well, they weren't that cheap. But they then couldn't deliver and put us in the position of having to pay a premium just to get tickets home. We would have been better off paying more with another airline when we first booked the flight. Because the cost of our flights pretty much tripled just for a one-way flight out.

DO NOT fall for Spirit Air's claim of cheap tickets - it just isn't so!

[jimworcs]

This is a key lesson...Spirit and Ryanair thrive on a hostile, combative attitude towards it's customers, with no support whatsoever in the event of a cancellation. At least in Europe, there is some protection. However, the DOT has abandoned the American travelling public. It is long overdue to re-regulate this abusive industry.

[Medusy]

I spent nearly $500 each for two round trip tickets, and had the same experience. I ended up flying out of ft lauderdale, driving 2 hours to get on a flight.

Spirit did not offer us any compensation for even though it was a mechanical failure, not an act of God.

[Billz]

In our efforts to find some sort of solution to our problem, we discovered the flight from Detroit had been canceled. Plus, when we spoke to the Manager, Susie, she stated she had been dealing with this all day. So, it appears they had multiple flights cancelled, on 2/21. That's a lot of passengers to leave swinging in the wind!

Based on our original ticket costs, which were reimbursed, we had to pay an additional $150 per ticket to fly out 2/22. And that's with a stop-over. Multiply that by at least two full flights that were cancelled, and that's a considerable amount of money SpiritAir cost their passengers!

Oh, the original person at the counter was very polite and helpful. The "manager," Susie, on the other hand was nothing but condescending and rude, and offered nothing but excuses.

I understand there are bound to be problems, but in the past the company generally did whatever they could to accommodate their customers, and provide another flight.

SpiritAir made no attempt to do anything to minimize their customer's inconvenience. There was a family with 4 young children who had checked out of their hotel, turned in their rental car - and now here they sit with no where to go. And if they end up paying what we did to get a flight out - whoa!

SpiritAir treats their customers as necessary evil they must put up with, in order to keep their shareholders happy.

I don't know if it's true, but we were told that some of their planes had been grounded due to not passing maintenance inspections - that's strictly hear-say, though.

In all honesty though, if you own stock in this company - sell, and if you plan to fly, you have the choice of paying more now, or later. You will soon learn, those "cheap" flights at Spirit aren't so cheap!

[Billz]

Regarding our horrible experience with SpiritAir - if anybody has suggestions for securing any type of recourse, we'd like to hear it. I intend to contact my credit card company to see if there's anything we can do there. I plan to submit a complaint with the BBB, FAA and our State's Attorney General. I also intend to contact our local media outlet, and see if they can look into the matter- if for no other reason than to warn other potential passengers to stay away.

Any suggestions?

[jimworcs]

The truth is... Spirit will simply claim that you agreed to the Terms and Conditions when you bought your tickets. This is technically true, but the reality is that the Terms and Conditions are ridiculously labrythine and no one would realistically read them all. They know this. The terms are uttely one sided and could leave you stranded for a week or more before the next available flight with no compensation and only the offer of a refund or next available flight. They do not interline. Ryanair pioneered this anti customer attitude, but the European Union introduced regulations to give passengers basic rights. These are contained in Regulation 261/2004. If you google it, it will give you an idea of how this works. Ryanair and other airlines screamed that this would make flights too costly and undermine the whole low cost industry. When scare tactics failed, Ryanair introduced a charge of £2 ($3) per ticket to cover the cost. This grossly overstates the costs, but I think most passengers would be prepared to pay this if it means they are covered when a problem arises. I would urge you to ask your Senator or Representative to take action to re-regulate in this area. I don't hold out much hope.... the airlines pay millions to your representatives every year to block this.

[Billz]

You are absolutely correct when you say they need to be regulated. The airline industry in the US has made it very apparent they are unwilling to treat their customers fairly and equitably unless forced to.

Unfortunately, the political arena has evolved into a group of individuals who have no understanding of the concept of representing the people. They are simply there to make sure their high rolling supporters are taken care of, so they can remain in a position of power.

Just look at the airline industry, the banking industry, Wall Street - until the average joe looks beyond the sound bites, and actually takes the time to understand where "their" representatives stand on various issues, we'll not see much change.

The Internet could be a platform of change, as it has been in other parts of the world. But again, our politicians are aware of that and are hard at work to figure out how to reign in that power, before we the people, figure out how to use it effectively.