I have never in my life written a strongly worded letter, not
to mention a strongly worded blog, but I have also never been more furious with a
company than I am right now.
You would think an airline who puts pride in themselves as being
the cheapest airline to fly would want to make sure their customers get the
cheapest ticket possible and defend their title. Right? WRONG. Most people
choose to fly Spirit because of the cheap fares offered. They purchase this inexpensive
flight and deal with the opportunity cost of giving up the benefits other
airlines provide including complimentary beverages and extra leg room. Spirit
removes the benefits offered by traditional airline companies and is able to
provide much cheaper tickets to their customers, because who doesn't love
saving an extra $50 every now and then? In this sense, Spirit has succeeded as an airline, however
if Spirit advertises themselves as the cheapest airline, wouldn't you think
they would do everything they can to make sure their customers’ tickets are cheap?
I have flown Spirit several times, and although it is
certainly less cozy than a Delta or American aircraft, I am a huge bargain
hunter and love saving some extra bucks whenever possible. Spirit seems like the perfect airline to get from point A to point B in the cheapest way
possible
Last August I moved to the Chicago area from Connecticut, and
my best friend and I were planning a trip for her to come up and visit this
summer. We are both in college and living off of a college student budget- aka
lots of Ramen and Easy Mac. I searched the internet for days trying to find the
cheapest possible flight for my friend to take to Chicago, knowing she’s been
working hard all summer- sometimes 12 hours a day to save up money for college
textbooks and supplies. I had some extra miles saved up on American, so I put
those to use for a one way ticket from New York to Chicago. All that was left
to do was find a super cheap one way flight for the return back to New York. GOT
IT! THERE IT IS! I was so excited to
have stumbled upon a $109 flight on Spirit Airlines from Chicago to NY on
Tuesday July 29th. Now, the flight was at 5:56 a.m., a pretty
inconvenient time if you ask me, but I didn't care and I knew Gretchen wouldn't care so I immediately emailed her the link. She was just as thrilled as I was. Only $109 for a one way ticket to New York. Dang!!!
She purchased the ticket and it was set- YES we couldn't contain our excitement-
that is, until this morning.
Now, Gretchen has only been on an airplane one other time in
her life, so she isn't very familiar with the process. It turns out she accidentally
purchased her return ticket back to NY for the 5:56 a.m. flight on July 24th,
and she didn't realize this until she received an email this morning reminding
her of her upcoming flight. She texted me freaking out realizing that she had
made this mistake. I told her to calm down and give the airline a call- they
should be able to fix it for her. Since her flight into Chicago isn't until
July 25th, it’s pretty evident that she didn't mean to book the
return flight on the 24th. I
waited 30 minutes as she called Spirit Airlines and tried to explain the
situation. She texted me. “I changed it.” Phew,
I thought to myself. “But they charged me $130.” Wait...WHAT? Are you kidding me? That is honestly the most ridiculous thing I
have ever heard in my entire 19 years of living. Not only was the mistake
flight on July 24th only $109, the flight they moved her to on July 29th was
only $102 for a ticket. It would have been cheaper for her to just buy a new
ticket all together! However, Spirit airlines charged her the full flight
change price of $130, making her original ticket price of $109 jump all the way
to about $240. Now, those of you who are familiar with flying know that this is
a pretty normal price for a round trip flight on a bigger airline, like Delta, Jet Blue, and American. So Gretchen is paying $240 for a one way flight ticket
on the CHEAPEST airline Spirit, when she could have gotten a round trip plane
ticket on American for the same exact price- PLUS a beverage, leg room, and a carry on bag. I was so furious that I called Spirit Airlines myself and sat on
hold for 20 minutes, and then spoke to their supervisor for 30 minutes. All he
had to say was “Yes, I am sorry you are upset Lydia, but as you can see our
terms and policies state that there is a $130 charge for changing flights last
minute.” I tried explaining to him how we searched for the cheapest flight on
Spirit Airlines knowing they usually have great options, and that my friend accidentally clicked the wrong date and didn't realize until this morning. “Yes
I understand but if you are asking for us to refund the flight change fee we cannot do that.” Alright, Spirit Airlines, it is very clear to me now that
sure, your plane tickets are very cheap, but in situations like this you scam
your customers. You charge customers more to change their flight than the
amount of the original ticket purchased.
You might want to consider changing your advertising campaign to the company who enjoys scamming their customers and taking their money rather than providing them with the cheapest
air fare.
My final question is, is it worth it to fly Spirit airlines
if they don’t put as much pride into their customers as the other airlines? I
have had similar situations happen flying American, and I know for a fact that
they would have considered this an exception, ignored whatever their
policies stated, and changed the flight without a fee no QUESTION. Although
Spirit airlines does offer cheap tickets, if a problem arises similar to this
one, they take your money and don’t give two shits about it- and THAT is how
the company makes their money and keeps up with the other airlines.
In the end, it would
have been cheaper for Gretchen to just purchase an American Airlines basic
round trip ticket with all the offered benefits and commodities, rather than
squeezing onto a packed Spirit plane with no beverage and no carry on suitcase
allowed....not even a bag of those delicious pretzels. It seems like Spirit Airlines would have wanted to do something about
this to make sure their customers were treated fairly and received CHEAP TICKETS
as advertised. To me, this is completely ridiculous and Spirit Airlines should
be ashamed of themselves for the lack of customer service and commitment they
have to their passengers. I will certainly not be flying this airline ever again.
Status: Strongly worded blog= Complete
