1. I have had a similar bad experience with Spirit Air, and I too wrote them a letter. I do agree that they have the WORST customer service I have EVER encountered. That actually told me that a supervisor would not talk to the same passenger twice about the same issue. I could not believe that was a policy of their's. I just sent the letter today, and they said that it can take up to 30 days to reply, so I am awaiting to see what they tell me.

10:44AM on Aug 24th 2007 by Amanda

2. I saw the article in today's Sentinel and laughed out loud!!! And I thought I was the only one being dissed by Spirit Airlines. On a return trip to Orlando from Ft Lauderdale I was told that luggage was now $5.00 per bag and since I had not purchased it online it would be $10.00. I was angry, so of course I complained and the only response was "how would you like to pay for your luggage?" To make matters worst the only currency I had was my Spirit Airlines credit card. Upon returning home I called Barclay (they issue the Spirit Airlines card) and paid my balance and closed my account. I am tired of handing over my money to be treated like crap!!!! Take that Spirit Airlines with you BIG LEATHER seats!!!

11:24AM on Aug 24th 2007 by Kesha

3. I saw the article in today's Sentinel and laughed out loud!!! And I thought I was the only one being dissed by Spirit Airlines. On a return trip to Orlando from Ft Lauderdale I was told that luggage was now $5.00 per bag and since I had not purchased it online it would be $10.00. I was angry, so of course I complained and the only response was "how would you like to pay for your luggage?" To make matters worst the only currency I had was my Spirit Airlines credit card. Upon returning home I called Barclay (they issue the Spirit Airlines card) and paid my balance and closed my account. I am tired of handing over my money to be treated like crap!!!! Take that Spirit Airlines with your BIG LEATHER seats!!!

11:45AM on Aug 24th 2007 by Kesha

4. I think you look sexy in the print version's photo.

2:45PM on Aug 24th 2007 by Chris

5. Since the printing of the Sentinel is so spectacularly crappy (is registration that hard?) , you can barely tell it is you, much less how your hair looks :-)

3:48PM on Aug 24th 2007 by Chris Scott

6. Alex,
Thanks for being so cooperative with the story.

I think the photo looks good. (It's posted on the online version of the story now).

If it makes you feel any better, we chose to run that photo big, as the centerpiece of the biz section, because my editor thought the photo came out nicely.

Etan

8:37PM on Aug 24th 2007 by Etan Horowitz

7. Etan,

Hahah man, my friends have been tooling on me nonstop ;) It's all good though, it's all been in fun.

Thanks for the great piece and for spreading the word.


-A

8:39PM on Aug 24th 2007 by Alex Rudloff

8. My mom had the same experience like 2 weeks ago, but she knew about the cancellation of her flight when she got to the airport. She wait for 4 hours and have to flight in another airline.

9:25PM on Aug 24th 2007 by Ivette

9. Hi Alex,
First of all, congrats on a great blog and a great scoop. I know how much work it is to balance a blog with a regular full-time job, so my hat is off to you.

Second, you might want to add either Conde Nast Traveler Magazine or The Perrin Post, which is my Conde Nast Traveler blog, to your Blog Press or MSM Press list (I'm not sure which the blog falls under). The MSNBC post you list actually comes from my Conde Nast Traveler blog (we're syndicated on MSNBC).

Just thought you should know.

Cheers,

Wendy Perrin
Consumer News Editor
Conde Nast Traveler Magazine
http://cntraveler.com
http://perrinpost.com

7:31AM on Aug 25th 2007 by Wendy Perrin

10. Thank you so much for alerting the public to your horrible experience. You have saved me time and energy with my travel plans. I receive weekly updates from Spirit Airlines via on-line. I am planning to travel to a wedding and had all intentions of booking a flight with Spirit. Corporate has got it all wrong, word of mouth is the most powerful advertising tool.

Today I am unsubscribe to receiving any further emails from Spirit. I wish I had been as tenacious as you with blogging my experience with Sprint PCS. I have been a customer for roughly 6 years. However, the I have had a terrible time with my blackjack phone. I now realize I should have never given up my Treo. Well I was on hold with Sprint in June for 3 hours. It took me days to recover from that nightmare. The following day I was on hold for and hour and a half. I actually took pictures of my home phone that display the number that is dialed and the duration of time on a call.

I think more people need to speak up. It would save us all more time and money. Blogging is the greatest tool to tell is how it is!! Celebration, Florida

9:28AM on Aug 25th 2007 by Deidre Blair

11. Alex,

this is definetly the alex i know, I work at MCO and I hear day in and day out about all the stuff that the airline (especially Spirit which my office is by..) are doing to their customers.

POWER to the PEOPLE!!!


Adryanna

9:42PM on Aug 25th 2007 by Adryanna

12. Spirit is the worst airline I have ever flown. Here is my letter to them. I had to address it "To the Person in Charge" b/c I wasn't able to locate the CEO's name on the website. After many weeks, someone called and said they would refund my money. They never did. Finally, American Express stepped in, investigated and refunded my money. Here is my story: April 5, 2007

The Person in Charge
Spirit Airlines Corporate Office
2800 Executive Way
Miramar, Florida 33025

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing this letter because I have given up talking to a human being at Spirit Airlines.

On Friday, March 16th, I was scheduled to fly from Orlando to Atlanta (Confirmation Code: KNNXNG). Due to illness I had to postpone the trip to Sunday, March 18th. When I made the date change, I upgraded my seat. At check in, I received my ticket and noticed I was assigned to row 11. I told the gentleman behind the counter and he said, “Oh, you’ve been bumped from first class but here is a $100 voucher for the inconvenience.” First, I was shocked that he didn’t tell me upfront I was bumped. Second, the voucher is not an acceptable remedy for me. I paid for an upgraded seat and should have had my money refunded if the Airline didn’t provide it. I told the man just that and after some conversation he put in a request for a refund. The fact that he was able to eventually request a refund is evidence that he could have done it without a lengthy conversation where I had to keep insisting that I wouldn’t take a voucher. As of this date, I have not received a refund nor have I received any paperwork about it.

My return date was Wednesday, March 21st. My husband called Spirit the day before to upgrade my seat. When I arrived at check in, I was told I wasn’t booked for the flight at all. After 10 minutes of investigation, the clerk behind the counter discovered that when the telephone representative upgraded my seat, she had also accidentally changed my ticket to the next month. The counter person at the Atlanta Airport said that if I wanted to fly out that day, I’d have to pay a fee for the change. I told her that it was the Airline’s mistake and that I wasn’t paying an additional fee. The woman didn’t know how to fix the problem so another woman stepped in. Lady #2 proceeded to work at the computer trying to remedy the situation. A man named Jason was giving her advice, which Lady #2 didn’t want to hear. She got angry and told Jason if he wanted to deal with it, then fine. At that point, she walked off in a huff leaving me unattended at the counter. Jason was obviously stunned but stepped up to the counter and apologized. He tried to fix my reservation but didn’t know how. In the end, he made a new reservation (Confirmation Code: KPQTYD) and told me that I’d have to call the 800 number to cancel the April flight so I could get refunded. Again, I was surprised at the lack of professionalism at Spirit. I asked Jason why he couldn’t cancel the April flight and clean up the financial end of it right then and there. He was polite but didn’t know how to do it and said as much.

I got on that flight and sat in the upgraded seat. I was surprised that an upgrade didn’t entitle me to a snack of any kind. It was more a passing thought because at that point I was just grateful to be heading home. The next day when I spent over a half hour on hold to speak to a customer representative about the April reservation, I heard over and over again how an upgraded seat entitles the passenger to snacks. Not on my flight.

When I finally got someone on the line on March 22, I spoke with a woman named Janice. She did not sound sure of herself but I am assuming she cancelled the flight. Janice said that I was entitled to a refund. I asked how much. Her response was that she didn’t know because that was handled in accounting and she would have no way of knowing. Unbelievable!!!!! Once again, I have heard nothing from Spirit Airlines about that refund.

When I originally booked my reservations, I also booked for my husband and kids as well. They were booked under separate reservations because our return dates were different. I took out travel insurance for all 4 of us. Under their reservations, I got a little discount because I applied for the credit card. When we had to cancel (their tickets were cancelled, not postponed), I contacted the insurance company and that claim is now being processed. Yesterday we received a bill from the credit card company saying we owed a $39 annual fee…a fee that wasn’t disclosed on the website. My husband called and said we weren’t taking a card that had a fee. The phone rep said “No problem, we will give you a card without a fee”…gee, that was easy. In conversation with the rep we learned that when we booked with the credit card it came with travel insurance automatically. Why on earth would Spirit not explain this on the website? Well, why should it? Let your customers pay for travel insurance twice…what a great way to increase revenues. Your company sets up the website (which is the only practical way to make a reservation since your phone set up is horrible) to lead your customers astray….pushing a special program where getting your credit card gives a $40 discount on the tickets, not mentioning there is a $39 fee just around the corner, and then selling the travel insurance on the same page. Outrageous!

I want my money refunded for the bumped upgrade and for the extra flight that had to be booked. And I want it now. Making the reservation, you set the system up to take my money right away. When you don’t deliver, you need to refund the money as promptly.

I have flown many times in my life and it hasn’t all been pleasant. But I have never had to deal with incompetence at this level. It is scary actually. I hope your flight crew and personnel have it more together than the administration side.

Please remedy this situation ASAP.

Sincerely,


Donna Render
PS I have had to address this letter to “The Person In Charge” because no names of real people are given on your website…at least that I could find.

2:30PM on Aug 26th 2007 by Donna Render

13. I, too,

12:27AM on Aug 28th 2007 by Melanie Seasons

14. I, too, posted about this (thanks for reading, Alex), as Spirit infuriates me to no end. But I will say this, and only this, in their defense: They do send out e-mails - I think I got at least two - reminding people that they are now charging people for checked baggage and that it's less expensive to pay online prior to check-in than it is at the airport.

12:29AM on Aug 28th 2007 by Melanie Seasons