Spirit Airlines

After boarding we were informed there was going to be a delay due to a minor mechanical issue and we needed to deplane. After waiting several hours we were told the flight was cancelled. We had two choices - a refund or wait 2 days before we could be put on another plane. Could not find another affordable flight from Houston, so we had to take a flight from San Antonio the next day on a different airline on a flight that took us 7 hours to get to Cancun. Lost a night at the hotel and many hours of frustration. I understand the mechanical issue is out of their control but they should have ways to accommodate any canceled flights. I don't mind waiting for another flight but do mind waiting 2 days.

Our flight was cancelled, and the next flight they offered us was two days later. No help with hotels or any kind of reimbursement other than a refund for our cheap tickets. We ended up re-booking with another airline, which of course cost more money than what Spirit refunded us. You may think you are saving money by booking with Spirit, but if they cancel your flight and leave you stranded (which appears to be a common occurrence) it will end up costing you more than if you had gone with a reliable airline. When they emailed us that the flight was cancelled, the phone number they provided to reach them did not actually connect with anything. None of the phone numbers we tried got through to anyone. Ridiculous.

The only saving grace was the commiserating of the passengers once we boarded. It is not a bargain. Checked bags are $50, carry-on bags are $55 with vague definitions as to what constitutes a carry-on from a personal item. If deemed a carry-on at the gate you are charged $100 (as a punishment?). There are zero amenities. They charge 10 dollars to chose your seat at the kiosk, $40 at the gate. The in flight soda is even $3. So regarding price, it ends up on average actually being approximately $100-150 more expensive than the US Air, the next tier up. The seats have far less room, comically so. I am writing this from inside the plane on the runway and am scrunched up to hold my phone in front of me. My seat as well as a few others around me is broken, the cabin smells unpleasant and there is trash everywhere! I almost missed my flight as there was one person at the possible 6 stations taking the bags as we boarded. In the end, just avoid taking this airline. There are zero benefits to it, and we were just delayed by two hours. I do want to add that the flight attendant was actually very kind.

I've been using Spirit for 2years because my husband lives in Chicago and I am a student in Minneapolis. At the beginning Spirit airlines had the best prices: $60 roundtrip and they were usually on time. For about 4 month their prices went up (more than other airlines). Worse than that is the fact they frequently cancel their flight with the excuse that the weather is not good but no other airlines cancel their flight! This is the last time I used them. I feel bad because I think they are assuming that the consumers are stupid.

This was supposed to be my wife's and I first family vacation with our two young sons. Because of the extra cost of two extra tickets my wife and I decided to shop for a deal and try and save as much money as possible on airfare. We found these tickets at about eighty dollars cheaper than those for American, and decided that saving was enough to get us to try this airline. I wish I had paid the extra money! What really got me angry enough to write a review, which I may have done twice in my life, is the fact that not only do they make you pay for luggage, but they make you do it each way! There's also the seating. We had one stop from Denver to the Dominican Republic, which meant we would ride a total of 4 aircrafts for the round trip. That means you have to pay for seating 4 times. Or risk it like the lady at the counter told us. She went on and on about how booked the flight was, and about how their system assigned random seating unless we pay for it, and about how she could do nothing if our two year old son got separated from us on the flight and that the only way to guarantee that wouldn't happen was to pay for it. So we did. The plane was half empty all for times.

Spirit fare is cheaper than most airlines, but are the worse in customer services. It is better to pay a little more at different airline and have better service. On my last flight, when we arrived at the airport, the airline just canceled the flight saying it was a cancel in Chicago due to rain. No other airlines had the delay. We had to book a different flight and lost 1 day and 1 night worth for hotel and car rental. Spirit does nothing to accommodate that. A little delay is fine and no airline is perfect.

My recent trip was definitely one of the worst experiences I've had. Let's put aside the usual complaints, such as "everything is extra" (seats, bags, non-alcoholic drinks, etc.). Let's even put aside obfuscated surprises, such as the announcement at the gate that "If you want to bring onboard a roller board bag, you need to pay $100 before we can let you on the airplane." And let's put aside the fact that there was no inflight service unless you press the attendant button and specifically ask for it. All of the above has to do with the business model, and for some passengers, it may be okay. The basic problem that struck me on my connection through O'Hare was operational incompetence. For starters, the Spirit airlines connecting flights were not posted on the main electronic boards. The reason was that no one knew when the fights were going to leave, or from what gates. When I asked different gate attendants, I got different answers. The good news was that the Spirit Airlines announcement boards at individual gates did have destinations posted. That bad news was that these seemed to be irrelevant to actual flights departing from those gates. If you can imagine the chaos from what appeared to be a few hundred people packed into small gate areas awaiting multiple flights, all trying to figure out when their flight leaves and from what gates, then you get the picture. On my particular connecting flight, the "Delay Story" was that a single flight attendant was needed to complete the crew, and he/she would not arrive for an indeterminate (story kept changing) number of hours. I am back, safely at home after a return flight to BWI that was thankfully uneventful. This will be my last Spirit Airlines adventure - ever. If there was a rating that assigned negative stars, I would use it. But alas, I have to go with the format.

Undependable, rude service. My last round trip one flight was delayed 7 hrs (weather delay which I know you can't control) the other 4hrs. The flight with 8 hr delay - myself and a few passengera went out to the desk because we could not rebook at gate which doesn't make sense. There was 15 to 20 people in line, and five behind counter and two standing infront. Four were helping the same customer, 2 were on their phones, and the last one was sitting on the luggage carousel. When I finally got to front I asked about re-booking, she informed me there were only 4 seats for following days flight. Told if I want to get where I'm going I should just be patient and wait. I smiled and walked away and "patiently waited". On my return flight, it was at 1.30pm, I started getting emails at 8am that it was going to be delayed and gate changed. I paid for seat and checked bag online in order to get through faster, but there was no bag drop line so had to wait in line for 40 minutes to get a tag for bag. When got to the counter I was told the flight was delayed again and L7 was the new gate. When arrived at airports both times after landing late, had to sit on runway for an hour to get a gate. I will never fly Spirit again.

Communication is non-existent. We got a text the morning of our flight out telling us that there was a 5 hour delay. Fortunately we looked online for other flights and discovered our flight was ontime - we never got another text, if we hadn't looked, we would have missed the flight. Got to the airport and after waiting awhile looked to see there was a 2 hour delay. OK, all airlines have delays now and then - no big deal. The customer service though was miserable, they never made any sort of announcement. It is important to note that the plane was about half empty. I assume that is because the text told everyone that it was delayed 6 hours. Family was meeting in Las Vegas, their flight was cancelled and Spirit would do nothing for them - would not even get them on a flight the next day. They requested a refund for the outgoing flight and without them asking Spirit refunded both flights and would not allow them to fly home either (even though that flight was not cancelled). It cost several hundred dollars to book on a different airline. This airline does nothing to help their customers when they cancel flights and they do it all the time.

I took the flight from Tampa to Houston on Sunday June 14. The flight was delayed for 4 hours without any valid reason. There was no one at the customer service counter who can give any proper update. Today is Friday June 19, 2015 and I am taking Spirit flight 314 from Houston to Tampa. This flight is supposed to leave at 4:31PM local time and the plane is at the gate but they just announced that flight will be delayed until 6:00PM - and this time the reason is there is no crew to fly this plane. They are waiting a flight from Los Angeles and that flight crew will fly this plane. I am a frequent traveller from Tampa to Houston and I can say the airfare is not cheap and then I have to pay $30 each way for a small carry on. I have learnt my lesson and I will recommend at my family and friends not to fly on Spirit Airlines.