Spirit Airlines Review

Overall 2.19 of 5 view all 32 reviews

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doesitmatter
Astoria, NY

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Spirit airlines: spirit of deception

flying solo

Pros

Easy to book online, A variety of destinations

Cons

bad on-time record, My return flight has changed twice, Extra charges, poor customer service, Poor Service, no complimentary in flight service, charges for ONE checked bag

JUN

2008

Spirit airlines is hands down the most inferior airline I have ever experienced. It suffers from: (the following list is based on multiple and consistent experiences, each example can be backed up with at least three incidence)

1) The most delays:

I have never had an on-time flight, and I have used it for over 10 flights.

2) The worst communication of gate attendants:

Incomprehensible
Do not use overhead speaker regularly to convey important information
Do not repeat information about flight status

3) The most useless customer service:

Agents do not have the authority to do more than book and change reservations, nor can they put you in contact with anyone that does: I was on the phone for a half hour with an agent explaining the situation (delay or cancelation) repeatedly and then when I asked to speak with the manager, because I was getting no where, the conversation continued to go in circles.
Even when you call, the calls are not recorded for "quality assurance purposes"
If you call during a heavy traffic time you are more likely to receive the busy signal than be placed on hold, and even while on hold the time frequently exceeds 15 minutes: once I was lucky enough to be placed on hold, and waited over 45 minutes
Only one phone number is available on the website.
No email address is available on the website.
No phone number for the mileage club is available on the website, and I was even given the wrong number by the toll free customer service agent (the one mentioned in the first bullet of this subheading).

4) Deceivingly low rates, masking the hidden costs of:

Checking in luggage
Additional costs for a refundable ticket
Steep taxes
It may seem you are saving $50+, but in the end you may unfortunately find that this is either overcompensated by the time you lost because of delays (resulting in you missing meetings, being late to work, etc), is trapped in a "shell account" because it was "non-refundable" for you to use on another delayed flight, or spent wasting time and prime time cell phone minutes trying to determine what is going on with your flight and how you can be rebooked or refunded.

I must commend the idea of reducing airline costs by eliminating complimentary refreshments, reducing the business class and promoting minimal luggage. In theory this would work well for the frequent flyer/commuter.

However, Spirit Airlines takes advantage of the consumers frugality by:

providing inferior customer service training as evidence by the ineffective communication of gate attendants
eliminating a core of customer service agents that would increase customer accessibility: customer service agents really only serve the purpose of making and changing reservations and cannot deal with other issues that arise such as flight cancelations, delays, refunds, and the long wait times seem to imply perhaps they are understaffed or inadequately trained or empowered to handle the issues they face.
having what appears to be an overall small crew, staff, and fleet which translates to flight delays due to an overworked crew
being ellusive with customers about refunds, and as I have experienced obvious inconsistencies: being told I was on a flight, that I was then later unbooked from and given no warning or notification about.

All that being said the the crew is quite good. The pilots are competent and safe and the flight attendants are cordial, they would be best off switching to another airline, before Spirit folds because of lack of a customer base.

If you value your time, your money and your sanity please stay away from the abyss of Spirit airlines. Your time is money, your sanity is priceless and Spirit airlines has no respect or understanding of either and so violates them with every opportunity they get. I do not work for any airlines, and I am no way employeed in the transportation/travel arena, I am simply a frequent flyer who has been victim to Spirit airlines and seen many others suffer from their intentional incompetence. I hope this has been informative, and a rather objective assesment (as you can tell I've given them multiple chances), but mostly that you will learn from our mistakes.