Spirit Air strands customers
My mother-in-law was booked on a flight on Spirit out of Macarthur airport on Long Island, NY. We left at 6 AM to make the 55 mile ride to the airport where I dropped her off, when she got to the ticket counter she was informed by airport employees that spirit had moved out of the airport, not only was no one notified, but all of Spirit's signs were still in place. After multiple frantic phone calls and less than satisfactory response by Spirit customer service she was put on a flight out of Laguardia the following day. For those of you unfamiliar with NY, Laguardia is about 70 miles away from Macarthur. At that time her nephew had to call in sick to drive 40 miles from his house out to Macarthur and pick her up. Not only did he lose a days pay, but now I have to take a day tomorrow to drive her to Laguardia, my father in law took a day off to pick her up in Florida (which he will have to do again tomorrow) and my mother in law will also lose a days pay tomorrow. None of this includes the ridiculous amount of money spent on gas to cover a couple of hundred miles of wasted driving plus the aggravation and inconvenience.
Doesn't Spirit keep customer's phone numbers on file? Did Spirit know a week ago when she flew to NY that her return ticket was worthless? Is this something Spirit does on a regular basis? Why wasn't she afforded the opportunity to take another carrier at Spirit's expense? This is possibly the most amazing case of poor customer service and mistreatment that I have ever experienced and there were several other Spirit customers stranded at Macarthur this morning, what about all of them?
When we called Spirit's customer service they said that we (quote) "should have known that Spirit had stopped flying out of that airprort". When asked how we would have known, their response was "we are sorry for the inconvenience", never an explanation. They refused to refund the money or offer anything other than, "we are sorry for the inconvenience". This little "inconvenience cost about $400 in lost wages (for 4 different people), about $40 in gas and about a day and a half of wasted time (for 4 people). But I guess it is OK since they are sorry for the inconvenience"
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Michael
New Port Richey,Florida,
U.S.A.
Spirit should have told you about this on the outbound flight
#2Consumer Comment
Thu, November 27, 2003
To answer one of you questions - "Doesn't Spirit keeps it's customer's phone numbers on record?" - If you booked through a travel agency then there is a 99% chance that Spirit never had your number to begin with. I work for another airline and I can tell you that when a travel agency books a reservation they put their own number in, instead of yours.
Although Spirit should have told you about this on the outbound flight to NY, this is a good example of why they tell you to reconfirm your reservation at 24 hours in advance.
It's not right what happened, but I would also ask to see a copy of their contract of carriage and see what it says. They are legaly obligated to allow you to veiw a copy of it at any of their ticket counters, and if you call and request a copy there should be no problem having one sent to you.