Complaint Review: Spirit Airlines - Nationwide

We had a severely negative experience with this airline, one that could have been avoided altogether had they simply not been so greedy as to lie to our faces in order to prevent us from cancelling our flight. This is where the trouble began:

We were scheduled on a Red-Eye flight from San Diego to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We had one connecting flight in Las Vegas. The day we were set to leave, I received notification that our outgoing flight was delayed while our connecting flight was on time. The outgoing flight, in fact, was so severely delayed that there was no possible way we would be able to make our connecting flight. Concerned, I first called the airline directly to see if they could arrange an alternative route that would still get us into Fort Lauderdale the following morning. Unfortunately, there were no other viable options. We were told we could either take the flight to Las Vegas and see what could be done for us there, or cancel the trip and receive full reimbursement. We did not want to take the chance on being stuck in Las Vegas, so we opted to book a flight with another airline and cancel the flight with Spirit for a full refund.

Surprisingly, Spirit air refused to cancel our trip and reimburse us over the phone. They insisted that we could only do this at the airport, in person. I must have argued with them and begged and pleaded that they just cancel the flight over the phone for 30 minutes, but they refused and insisted we cancel at the airport. Finally, I relented and said that we would do as instructed, but before hanging up I asked for assurance that the airline would indeed cancel and refund the trip without penalty. We were assured that this would be the case.

So, we play their game and get to the airport, arriving early so as to give us a large window of time in which to wait in line and cancel out our flight. At the ticket kiosk, we presented our boarding passes, explained the problem, and requested a cancellation and refund. We were then told that no refund would be given because, as it so happened, all flights were now on time and we would be able to make our connecting flight. We were perplexed as to how a flight which, only moments ago, was delayed for over an hour could suddenly now be on time. They explained that the plane had been switched out and everything was fine. Still, we were shaken by the earlier delays and we expressed concern that the flight might somehow again be delayed, so we again requested the cancellation and full refund. A supervisor was brought out to speak to us. He heard our concerns, we told him that we had a separate flight with another airline all set to go and that had no delays, and we wanted to cancel out the Spirit flight and take the separate flight since we felt safer going with the other airline. He reassured us, over and over again, that our flight was on time and would not possibly be delayed. He expressed full confidence that the plane would go out on time and there was nothing to worry about. Moreover, as the flight was scheduled to go out on time and there was no delay, the best he could offer us was a credit towards Spirit airlines good for 60 days only. No refund whatsoever. 

We then asked him what would happen if our flight suddenly got delayed and caused us to miss our connecting flight, and this is where he blatantly lied to our faces: he told us that if that should happen, the connecting flight would wait for us. He insisted that the connecting flight would be held and would not leave without us. Feeling somewhat better due to his confidence and his insistance that no plane would leave without us, we agreed to keep the Spirit flight and we cancelled the backup flight we had set up with the other airline.

Long story short, not only was our flight delayed, the connecting flight would not wait an additional 15 minutes which is all that would be needed to just make our connection. Our flight would literally be touching down in Las Vegas about 15 minutes before the connecting flight was scheduled to take off. We begged and pleaded that they hold the connecting flight a little while as was promised to us to no avail. We were told that we would miss our connecting flight and the most that Spirit would do for us was cancel our trip and refund us (which is what we had originally asked for, many times, in the first place). To our chagrin, it was too late to try to make the flight with the other airline as the airport was close to shutting down. Had they just let us do what we had wanted to do when we first approached them at the airport, we would have made our trip and disaster would have been avoided altogether. Due to their greed, they preferred to lie to our faces in order to prevent us from cancelling our flight with them. I will never fly with them ever again and I strongly encourage others to do the same.