[esjessi]

DON'T subject your son to Spirit Airlines! I just completed my first and last trip with them, and it was a nightmare.

- Trip DATES changed less than a month before departure
- Rude and incompetent staff
- We missed a connecting flight due to our first flight being late due to "weather"; however, it's impossible to tell if weather was actually a factor. Staff is so incompetent that boarding is never done on time. Our final flight left 30 minutes late simply because the staff can't board passengers in an organized manor.
- Our missed connection was at 7:00 am. The other two flights to our final destination that day were overbooked, so we were put on standby. We had been traveling since 12 hours before, but they wouldn't even consider putting us on another flight - unless we paid for it.
- Getting to the rebooking line was a disaster. They had one kiosk that was labeled tickets/rebooking, but no one was staffed there. After standing in incorrect lines for over 30 minutes, they start herding the customers needing rebooking into the overly-crammed international check-in line. That's right, we had to wait with international passengers just to get standby confirmation.
- First standby flight - gates were changed three times.
- First standby flight - once we got to the gate and inquired, staff printed us boarding tickets with seats. Huzzah! We got on the flight! Called family to let them know that we'd finally be home, only to be pulled aside 30 minutes later to be told that the tickets were printed in error, and we were still on standby. We didn't get on the flight, and neither did some folks who had confirmed tickets for that flight. Overbooking is great.
- Second standby flight - finally got on this flight, 13 hours after arriving at this airport. At this point, we'd been traveling for over a day. We needed this flight to be on time to catch a bus at O'Hare.
- Took off 30 minutes late because of disorganized boarding (as mentioned before) - at this point, we knew we'd have to stay overnight at O'Hare.
- 20 minutes into the flight, pilot comes on to tell us that there's a vibration in the back of the plane, and we have to turn around.
- Back at the airport, they find another plane to use pretty quickly. They start boarding before the plane is ready, so passengers are crammed into the jetway.
- Once we get on the plane, they tell us we've all been given a $100 voucher for a future flight to apologize for the mechanical problem. Everyone on the plane laughed because no one in their right mind is booking with these jerks again.
- Plane was ultimately 3 hours late to O'Hare.

All this boils down to me arriving home at 9:30 am today instead of 2:00 pm yesterday. A day of my life that I'll never get back, thanks to Spirit Airlines.

I would ALMOST be able to swallow this experience if I felt that it was isolated, but I got to spend a whole day in the airport with other disgruntled passengers. Ironically, I met one couple who wasn't disgruntled and who had never had a problem with Spirit. They had confirmed tickets for the first flight that we were standby on, and they almost didn't get on due to overbooking. Anyway, other passengers were also complaining of rude staff, delayed and overbooked flights, and canceled flights. While waiting to rebook our flights, we overheard another passenger who was irate because they had just canceled a flight to Haiti. He had a visa interview to adopt a 6 year old boy that day. Did Spirit care? No. Their only solution was for him to shell out the cash for a flight to the Dominican and take a 12 hour bus ride. Sat next to a couple who missed the first leg of their cruise because Spirit had secretly canceled their flight in December, but confirmed their flight the day before the left.

Horror story after horror story. Sad, but true - you get what you pay for. If I had been a 17 year old yesterday, I would have been completely overwhelmed. Don't force your son to fly with them.