Spirit Airlines Complaints - Double payment of fare, added charges

Posted: 2007-06-24 by Dr. Michael L. Bennett  [send email]

Double payment of fare, added charges Complaint Rating: I will never fly Spirit Airlines again! Although my family and I have used Spirit for over six years and are members of the "Nine Dollar Club", never will the seven of us fly with Spirit after our horrid experience of 6/15 and the return flight on 6/22. I had booked the flight some two weeks prior, via the Internet, making use of various low-fare bargains and "special deals". My family and I were ultimately traveling to Ontario, California, but noted that Spirit does not have service in Ontario. Therefore, we needed only to fly from LaGuardia, New York, to Detroit, MI, and there to make connections with another airline. Thus we booked the LGA to DTW flight at a deeply-discounted rate. Imagine our horror when we stepped to the counter, only to be told: (a) that our flight had been booked for the prior day, and therefore that we all were one day late [definitely NOT true]; (b) because we all were one day late, we would have to pay for the fare AGAIN, at a much higher rate and for the entire round trip, at a cost of over $380 per person!; (c) there would be an additional charge of $10 per checked bag. As you can readily see, it cost me over $2,000 to fly the seven of us for one hour and 43 minutes from LGA to DTW. Or, we could have simply canceled the flight. All logic and reason would demand, of course, that we simply cancel the flight and "tell Spirit what they could do with their fare, etc." But I couldn't really do that. The nature of the entire trip [to California, not just to Detroit] made the travel a necessity. I guess we could have sought other airlines to help us make that "Leg" of the trip, but we were caught off-guard totally; there were many people in line behind us; we needed to make our decision quickly. After paying the outrageous second fare of $380+ per ticket, we were herded through security and to our gate, only to learn that our flight had been delayed for over 90 minutes, thus totally derailing all the other connecting flights with a different airline. When we finally boarded the Spirit flight [remember, we had paid $190+ for our brief flight to DTW] we were told that if we wanted a snack or drink of any kind except water, it would be at additional charge per item. The flight attendants were nothing but rude. The service was dismal and minimal at best. The company's name may be "Spirit", but the spirit in which they are conducting their business is a horrific spirit indeed. They have provided us the "Spirit from hell" as far as we are concerned. Never, Never, Never, will any of my family fly this outfit again. Sincerely, Dr. Michael L. Bennett