07/02/2024
Here is a copy of an email I sent to Investor Relations department at Spirit Airlines. I just felt the need to share this and I hope it goes viral. It probably won't get far as there are no pictures but it's still worth a shot:
Spirit Airlines
I am writing because I would like as many people as possible to know about my experience using the Spirit.com website and the subsequent horrible customer service I received when I called to get help with the booking I was trying to make on the website.
On 2/6/2024 I searched spirit.com for a flight, as I have done many, many times before. I found a flight that had enough seats for my family of 5 and I had enough points to cover the entire thing. This was the first time I ever found such a scenario. I entered the birth dates of my three children and went on to book the flight. A window popped up that said I did not actually have enough points to cover it and that I could buy 2000 more points for $53.00. So I did. The screen froze and would not allow me to click the button to continue with the booking.
I went back to the beginning, found the flight, entered all the birthdates again, this time, a window popped up saying I needed another 2000 points and I could buy them for $53. It was at this point that I called the customer service line. All this took place in the space of about 3 minutes. Customer service said there was nothing they could do because prices are subject to change at any time. ok, sure. Makes sense. But at the time I am in the process of booking the flight and BUYING MORE POINTS TO COVER THE DIFFERENCE, (the difference which only popped up after I attempted to book) the price should remain locked. It was mere seconds.
I spoke to 3 different people about the issue and no one offered to help me in any way. No one suggested a solution, or the ability to help me complete the booking, nothing. They all just said oh well and sorry.
I went back to the booking page and began the entire process over again. I even tried checking just the cash price, and the points plus cash. I tried everything. I went back to just points. I found the flight, entered all the birthdates, BOUGHT 2000 MORE points for another $53 and hit the button to continue with the booking. I followed all the way through luggage and picking seats, etc and clicked the button to book. The message came up saying a confirmation email would be sent to the contact person listed (my husband).
I checked the confirmation email this morning (that would be the following morning) so I could share the itinerary with the family we were planning to visit. The only problem was it said confirmation pending which I had never seen before. Inside the email it said payment was not processed, which is really weird because I was "paying" with points. I immediately called customer service because the email instructed me to do so, and, the day before I was told that if I had had a confirmation number then they could have helped me with the booking. So this time, I had a confirmation number! I gave it to the representative and she said ok, you're all set, it was processed and you will get a confirmation via email. Just to be sure, I asked to confirm that it was for all five of us and she said no, it was only booked for my husband.
The conversation continued with me in complete disbelief. I had not only gone through this process multiple times but was forced to buy extra points TWICE (to cover the balance for ALL of us to fly!) because the system, or the customer service, or whomever, would not honor the original price. And I had resigned myself to the fact that I would just pay the extra and get on with it. And THEN THIS happens. Why would the system tell me to buy more points to cover the difference if, after all, it wasn't booking all of us????? After going back and forth several times with the rep who had to consult her supervisor, I was no better off than before I called. And she even had the nerve to say it was more than 24 hours after the booking so she couldn't help me but if I had reached out 3 hours sooner, she could have helped me. What a joke! So, my husband had a ticket to fly to Florida but none of the rest of us. And I had 4000 extra points to just store in his account and add to the 44,000 remaining points that were just not quite enough to cover the 5 tickets.
Even after all of this, still on the phone with the rep, I went back to the website to see if I could still book 4 more tickets for the rest of us. Well, it said there were only 2 seats left at the listed price, which by the way, was hundreds of points more than the previous day. I tried to book it anyway and it said I needed to buy more points. I had been here before and with Customer service's unwillingness to offer support, assistance or understanding of any kind in this matter, I just asked for a refund of the points and the extra money I was charged for the one ticket. (yes, still charged money on a purchase that was supposed to be just points on top of buying points)
I can't express how disappointed I am with the entirety of spirit airlines. I have flown spirit for 19+ years. I have taken my entire family on countless trips. I always heard nightmare stories from friends, family and complete strangers about their awful experiences with spirit and I always defended the airline. I would proudly announce that I had never had a bad experience at all from booking, to getting seats, to the flight itself. I am sad to say, I can no longer proclaim this. I am angry that despite my attempts to relay the situation to multiple people, I was told repeatedly, oh well. I was even told that the system only saved my husband's information because the booking was made using his account. This really made me scratch my head because I ALWAYS book the flights for my kids under one of us. They don't have their own accounts. I mean, it was baffling to hear this. How would one go about booking flights to include their children if the system wouldn't recognize them anyway? I was conned into buying more points to cover the difference between what was advertised and what I was being charged, and then cheated out of the tickets anyway! Three times!
I'm sure this email will just get deleted and ignored but at least I know I tried to tell someone. As far as future travel, I'm not certain I will ever fly with spirit again. And maybe the loss of my business is no big deal to anyone, but I think your investors should at least get fair warning about how the customers are being treated by this airline before they bother investing. I know I would not want my name or business associated with a company that operates in the service industry and behaves this way. And if enough people are disgruntled enough to boycott, it's only a matter of time before there's no one left to be suckered by Spirit Airlines. I wonder if maybe we should all hire an attorney to take this on.