Spirit Airlines Sucks

"...to see my friend who moved to Nowhere, Arizona, and spends the first weekend of the NCAA tournament running around like one of those little dogs whose blood is 90% cocaine."

Do you have video of one of these dogs?

Freep-Ban Status

Can we donate frequent flyer miles? I have Frontier miles out the wazoo and it is our duty as a good little MGoMinions to donate them for the cause.

I thought it was mandatory for airlines that overbook their flights to offer vouchers, raising the amount until enough people volunteer their seats. Thought it was against the law to force someone to bump. I fly all the time and have never seen anyone with a flight reservation bumped against their will without taking some type of voucher deal.

FACT: Hippies in hockey jerseys get bumped first.

I flew Delta from DTW to Lubbock, TX this weekend, and I was offered a $600 voucher to volunteer for rescheduling. Unfortunately, flights to LUB were all booked until Wednesday, so I couldn't do it. Had I been able to reschedule within 24 hours, I would have done it in a heartbeat.

...and then I found 5 dollars.

Spirit does freaking suck. I flew to LAX once and they wouldn't let us out of the plane for 4 hours! We were at LAX, how could they not get a freaking bus or a walkway just to let us off? It's because the airport laughs at how shitty Spirit is too...

My dad was trying to fly from DC to Lansing a number of years ago for Christmas on US Airways. Landed in Pittsburgh to make the connection, looked at the monitors, Lansing was nowhere to be found. Turns out US Airways had stopped flying to Lansing 3 months prior. My dad was still issued tickets for the flight. At least they got him to DTW and paid for his car service to and from, but I don't think he's flown an airline except Southwest since.

The Worst Airline Ever T-Shirt. Someone with MS Paint mock it up.

That and a Downfall video. This needs to be an InterWebs meme...

Frequent Flyer mile donation!

of the post.

Misty Pinson, Corporate Communications
Heather Harvey, Manager of Consumer Relations
and, hopefully, Ben Baldanza, CEO & President

We'll see if Brian gets the call back like this guy:

http://www.alexrudloff.com/2009/11/09/spirit-airlines-reaches-out/

this is why I only fly southwest. Sure, they don't fly everywhere...but who's to say I want to go to where they don't fly? (minus internationally...that will be a sad day when I have to book without s/w for the first time.)

Buying a ticket from Spirit sounds a lot like accepting a scholarship from Nick Saban.

There's always a catch.

Spirit overbooks constantly, but if you have flexible travel plans, it works out. I take the free flights from Spirit all the time, which is why I still book my flights on Spirit. I have 5 free flights from them, all vouchers saved up for a couple summer trips to Detroit, and a few in the fall for the Michigan games. Ill bump off my flight on purpose to get those vouchers and stay a few extra days, Spirit puts me in a hotel room, last few times it was the Crowne Plaza on Meriman, and the free roundtrip flight to anywhere they fly. Frontier is a great airline though, for those who can fly it, the Directv is great, its 6 dollars, I just flew on Frontier from Vegas to Denver, then Denver to Oklahoma City for the NCAA Tournament. Awesome flights, except the 2nd leg. I was on a propeller plane! I didnt even know they still had those!

Regrettably, the "Do you know who I am?" gambit does not work very well. Trust me on this. I learned this the hard way.

Flights should not be allowed, under any circumstances, to overbook. Instead, you should have to pay for your flight at the time of booking, or at least a few days ahead or something. They sell all the seats, and then if you don't show up, they keep your money just like you did. There, no reason to overbook and nobody who ACTUALLY ARRIVED WANTING TO FLY got screwed.

So you're saying you're not totally satisfied with your Spirit Air experience?

I feel for you Brian.............

The bad thing about having a problem at the airport is that, when it happens, I can't have my obligatory MELTDOWN and FUCK.SHIT.UP moment. I can't scare them with my temper and master physique, because, well.....the TSA and US Marshalls are a little tougher to deal with than some airline biatch.

As a guy who has to fly A LOT for work (and trust it isn't all glamorous like a Geogre Clooney movie)...

1) Alway pack carry-on. You can get a 22-in rolling bag in any of the overheads and if you can't the airline will either gate check (where they take your bag as you enter the plane and give it to you on the gate ramp after) or give you free standard luggage check (where you'd pick it up at baggage claim). You also get a backpack, so put the clothes and such in the carry-on and the iPod/cell phone/laptop/steamy romance novel in the backpack. No lost luggage. Quick exit out of airport. And most you on this board are men, so if you bring shitloads of toiletries with you that require you to check luggage, may God have mercy on your soul. dong.

2) ALWAYS check in online and print out your boarding pass at least 10 hours before. No bumping, you can usually show up just outside of an hour and still make it to your flight, and if you HAVE to check luggage, most airlines now give you a discount when paying for checked luggage.

3) AVOID the following airports for connections at all times when you can avoid it: Chicago Ohare, Atlanta Hartsfield, NY Laguardia. Seasonally, avoid Dallas-FortWorth in late summer (lightning storms) and Minneapolis-St Paul in winter (obvs). Salt Lake City, Denver, Washington National, Phoenix Skyport I've not had many issues with in terms of connecting flights.

4) If it's under a 10% difference, get the full fare ticket-- more options if you get bumped / delayed / etc and worst case you get your money back.

5) Know the airline alliances. If you get bumped / delayed, your airline should be able to put you on an allied airline with out a problem (again another reason to avoid checking baggage... you tell the agent you don't have checked bags, and whole world of alternate flights / itineraries await you)

My reccommendations for airlines? I like in order of preference:
A) Frontier: Nice modern planes, you can get most anywhere with one connection in Denver (and Denver is a NICE airport), cheap prices for flights, TV on the plane, and food / drinks on the plane are actually relatively reasonable ($3 for decent chips & salsa, $5 for a Newcastle). They also have a REALLY good frequent flier program. Now since they've been bought by Republic Airlines as well, you have some other airline partners to help you out get you where need to go (Midwest Express through Milwaukee, alliance with AirTran gets you through Baltimore & Atlanta)

B) Delta: caveat-- as long as you're flying through Detroit. With the merger with Northwest, they have a lot of "hub" airports now that offer you a huge variety of itneraries and options if you have issues along your trip. Also if you're going overseas, the number of airlines in the SkyTeam alliance is a big benefit.

C) Southwest: limited in some cases to non-central airports and no partner airlines, but for price for the experience, hard to beat. And baggage handlers who paint "FREE BAGS" on their chest.

D) United: more a case of just that their size and alliances allow them more options and their airport hubs (Washington Dulles, Chicago OHare, Denver) have a lot of traffic that almost ensure you'll get another flight somewhere.

Your trip is EXACTLY the same time frame mine is going to be. Leaving Wed (much cheaper) coming back Sunday. I am going out for a wedding/KY derby/Mayweather fight. Were flying out Wed night at 8:01 pm. I paid the fee to select seats so hopefully that helps out in the event of an overbooking issue. Its amazing that airlines can do what they want when they want and if theres a sniffle of hostility your ass is grass. I'll report about my hopefully not dreaded experience.

Time to spare? Travel by air.

Man, that totally sucks......i was thinking good thoughts all weekend for you guys. I was sure you hit it big with Murrary State, given your company for the weekend. Not to mention, I was imagining you all crazed trying to find the hockey score Friday night

Bummer

But, here's a thought, if I could offer one, for the next time your fly. Dont worry about price. I mean, you're going to Vegas, right? All you have to so is write a post or two about the experience, and BOOM write off as a busiess expense on your taxes.

You most certainly could have done that with the with the blogger convention......then, you dont have to worry about saving a few bucks with the dillweeds at Spirit.

Regardless, that blows.

I spent 11 hours in a terminal waiting to catch a delayed flight. They kept delaying the flight for 45 mins, an hour, whatever, but never once said that it would be 11 HOURS! I was 13 and coming back from a boy scout trip in florida, picture 20 dirty, smelly kids who just spent a week in the woods with no running water sleeping on the floor in the terminal; worst day at an airport ever.

I won't let my family members fly Spirit, either. My father-in-law is notoriously frugal, and used to fly them a lot to go places. Unfortunately, it was up to me to deliver him to the airport, and retrieve him. I got sick of the flights being cancelled, bumped, late, or whatever, so I told him I wouldn't do the ferry service if he was flying Spirit.

I agree with Brian in posting this on HIS site. I would have done the same thing if I was treated like he was. The wonderful thing about being the owner of anything is that you can do whatever you want because you OWN it. This is a very popular site and posting here as a warning to all of us that come here is very informative. I will never use this company now, so thanks Brian.

Plus it was a fun read!!

Brian, you showed some impressive restraint here. I realize it was days later, but I am sure you are still furious. I have already ruled out four airlines due to my own experiences. I will add this to the list due to yours.