Spirit Airline: Fly at your own risk!

 

I flew into Oakland, CA on Spirit Airline for the first time.  It was the first and the last time!  I was drawn in with their cheap prices but little did I know what await me.

The standard of arriving one hour before your flight was not good enough with Spirit. You had to arrive at least 2 hours ahead of time.  I arrived one hour ahead as usual and they refused to let me check-in.  I was told to come back the next day because they were not partnered with any other airlines and only had about one flight going to Oakland a day.  Therefore, they were not able to get me on another flight.   There was also a fee for rebooking your flight.  I was lucky enough that the ticket lady waived the fee for me but the guy next to me wasn’t. There were about 5 people at the ticket counter that had the same issues as I did.

Customer service was not high on their list because they did not care that you had to come back the next day nor did they try to work with you on your situation.  The whole Spirit counter was unprofessional because you had unhappy customers not able to check in and the manager was walking around with a stash of cash in his hands as if he was a drug dealer.  It was chaotic and messy which brought the luxury of flying down a few hundred notches!

Calling their customer service number did not help because they knew the problems with their airline and refused to accommodate.

I came back the next day for my flight.  To make sure there was not a problem, I came to the airport three hours early!  Good thing too because it took me about 30 minutes to check in.  Once I was settled at my gate, the board showed that my flight was delayed. Flight delay was a normal thing so it did not bother me.  However, the way the situation was handled was another thing.  There was no announcement as to why it was delayed nor was there expected arrival time.  The plane finally arrived but was delayed even more because of a thunderstorm. Thunderstorm happens and I would not want to risk my life flying in it.  However, the Spirit workers were uninformative and rude whenever someone would ask for information.  Spirit seemed to employ young people who had no experience with these types of situations.  I understand things can go wrong but it was the way it was handled and unwillingness to accommodate made me not want to fly with them ever again!  Announcements to update on the situation would be helpful and calm a lot of nerves.  However, it seemed they were trying to hide something versus being honest and upfront about the situation. When I had a delay with Delta airline, we were updated on the situation and given a $50 gift card for our trouble.

Spirit charged for carry-on that was usually included in most airlines.  If you must fly with Spirit, make sure you pay for your luggage online because it will be more expensive at the counter.  Check-in luggage was cheaper than carry-on.  However, Spirit has a history of losing luggage so I paid more to keep my luggage with me.  They also charged to pick out your seat.

In the end, my ticket was as much as Delta but I had to jump through so many hoops with Spirit.  Fly with Spirit at your own risk!