Spirit Air;bad Karma!

[blondie56]

Hate it when you think your vacation is all set, with no worries, when all of sudden you get an email from Spirit air they changed my DATES! on my flights for my December CSA trip! WTF!
Although I will say after a conversation with customer servce, we will get a full refund, but now to find new flights! Spirit no longer flys out of Ft Lauderdale on Fri, Sun or Wed! Heads up peeps!
Thanks for listening to my gripe!!

[Fluffin]

That sucks. At least you got a refund and can get another flight.

We had Air Transat out of Toronto change our dates on a charter flight to San Andres Island Colombia by 2 days. Cost us to change our flight from the States to Toronto plus additional nights at a hotel in Canada. We didn't have the option of canceling since it was our group trip.

[NoWorries4me]

We will NEVER book Spirit again. Did so few years back. They changed the flight time making it impossible for us to get to our cruise ship. They never informed us of the change, just found it myself while snooping on the net. They even gave me a real hard time about refunding the money stating the plane was still going, just at a different time!

[randi&sherri]

At least you get $$$ back and have plenty of time for alternate and BETTER flights!!

[keki60]

Is it worth staying an extra day to fit their flight schedule?

[Sue and Randy]

yes indeed, the airlines these days are something else. we have had late changes to flights that they thought an overnight layover in Atlanta would be fine for us when there was another flight available the same day of travel with a decent layover.

hope you get it all moved. the consolidation of airlines have became a real issue and with more and more travel issues with security you would think they would be more customer friendly.....not

Randy

[dirtleg]

The biggest problem with these smaller charter air services is their propensity to make changes to their schedules whenever the mood strikes. I'm sure it is a business decision, but they pay no attention to the strife it may cause for those that have already booked flights. They simply send an email telling you that you have changed the dates and time of your trip. It is up to you to deal with it.

The attractive prices for travel come with some serious caveats when you book with these charter services. That's not to say that the larger commercial carriers don't make changes, but their flight schedules and times are considerably more stable than the smaller airlines.

Hope it all works out for you and does not wind up costing you too much more money.

Good luck.

[Damenc]

Same thing happened to us with Spirit, they changed our connecting flight by about 4 hours, which pretty much killed our first day at CSA and we were only going to be gone for 5 days so every hour counted for us. Spirit gave us a full refund and we booked with Delta for almost the identical original schedule. Delta came in about $125 total but if you factor in Spirits "charge for everything" policy, it was actually cheaper to fly Delta. FYI, Delta allows 2 carryons including a personal item AND 2 check in luggages at no fee because Jamaica is considered an international flight. Spirit now charges for carryons as well as every check in luggage. It would of costed us about $150 in luggage fees so the $125 extra for the plane tickets was better off.

[schwieso]

Yes, Spirit also changed their flight schedule out of Chicago in the past month. Thank you Couples for allowing us to change our reservations TWICE due to Spirit airline. If it was not for the fact that I used miles to pay for this trip, I would have changed airlines.

[blondie56]

update:
well we haven't recieved the confirmation email as yet that we are getting the refund, but looks like it's all for the better. JetBlue flys out of Orlando vs Miami so it will save us traveling time(we live 40 mi from Orlando) and hotel costs. Only downside is the return flight will leave early morning (10:30 ) from MBJ vs the later flight from Spirit which was 2:00, but again, shorter ride home!
Now to wait for my refund!

[FrancineI]

now I am going to worry we will get shafted by spirit. We just relocated back to florida from lousiville and believe it or not although much more money we actually had great choices for Lousiville to jamaica for the 4 years we were there. being back in florida it was more stressful searching and finding proper times. as it is I am driving from Sarasota to FLL for the flight on spirit. we also got departure for a thursday and return for a saturday so we sweated by on your post that they no longer fly on certain days….. cripes -- ! Hopefully I will not have to post here again and all will be okay for us that day… airlines treat the public like cattle and don't care we have little vacation times. they have ruined whole days on us over the years as well.

[blondie56]

Francinel,
I hope you don't run into the same problems we did! We ended up flying into MBJ on American Air for an early flight out of Orlando and returning by JetBlue on a late flight. Only cost another $60 so all is good vs. the drive to FLL. You may want to check it out if they change your flight days. I wouldn't have minded the flight time change but could not deal with the day changes!!!!!

[FrancineI]

well guess what -- should have been no surprise - spirit has cut our flights and changed our travel dates …I am now in process of waiting to see if I get my full refund… anyone else in this boat? and has your refund gone through no hassle? we have since rebooked out of orlando which happens to be closer than FLL but this is a nightmare with spirit airlines… never again for anything! SPIRIT FLYERS BUYER BEWARE!!!

[Rose_dave]

Had the same thing happen here but with AIR CANADA. Booked flight/Hotel through vacation direct from YEG. 2 weeks later they call to say they cancelled the direct flight and would now have to do the Red Eye to Toronto, lay over 4 hours and then take the flight. Compensation - they stated they would not charge the extra $500.00/passenger for the change as the vacation price had increased in 2 weeks. Now Air Canada is not a small Air Line but they are very poor on customer service and ignore the fact that customers are why they are in the air! Ughh. Moved my vacation by a day and saved $1200/couple even with upgrading to first class. All be worth it when I get home to Negril

[The2ofus]

It's not just Spirt that's playing games. American canceled the non stop we have taken from Dallas on all four of our trips to Jamaica. Just canceled and reseated us on different flights w/ a layover at Atlanta. Then made us jump through hoops, chasing down the price difference. We're not real happy with the way they handled it.

[Ktaylor08]

Blondie,
JetBlue out of Orlando is always a good choice IMO. Our first trip to Jamaica, we flew Air Jamaica (I don't think they're around anymore) out of Orlando. It was ok, but our second trip, on JetBlue, was awesome! We live in the Tampa area but fly out of Orlando- I figure an hour and a half of driving is much better than having a layover somewhere. Anyways, JetBlue offers free TV/movies/satellite radio, unlimited snacks, and sometimes you can get on a smaller plane with only two-seat rows so every seat is an aisle/window seat. Definitely our favorite carrier, and their flights to MBJ from MCO are usually pretty cheap

[nyc_negril]

Hello folks, trying to get my head around the relationship between spirit air changing a scheduled route and karma. Can anyone practicing Buddhism shed some light thanks

[blondie56]

Francinel
As I stated before, we were in the boat as you. It took 2 phone calls to Spirit and telling them I could NOT change my hotle arrangements and they DID give me a full refund( well, minus the taxes!!! ) but it ook 7 days to appear in my account and another phonecall to recieve the email confermation regarding my refund! Just keep after them and DEMAND a refund!! Good luck!

[markandjannett]

Strike two with Continental for us ...... Never again ......

[FrancineI]

Blondie56 -- we did get our full refund from spirit - took about 5-6 business days to appear and we were very lucky to find the Jet blue flights out of orlando. better flights and a closer ride. Good luck to all -- the days we travel are always a crap shoot and for me no adventure -- the only crap shoot I like to take is in Las Vegas at the CRAPS table. I don't like taking risks at our expense because an airline we pay through the nose for can do what they want with our flights and schedules and they get away with it. I like to vacation so I guess its just something we have to suck up.