Careful Of Booking Spirit Airlines

[jezzdogg]

As of tomorrow,( for new ticket purchases) Spirit will allow only 1 checked piece per person and to top this you need to pay for this piece of luggage!!! You can see if their is room on the plane to pay for a second checked piece(also to be paid for) but they will not be responsible if it needs to be left behind..

Will no longer fly this airline

[jumponboard]

I had not heard that. Where did you hear/see about it?

 

Thanks

[jerseygirl3]

You know, about a month ago, they started allowing only one bag and each add'l bag would incur a charge of $5.00 Now, announced today, they will charge $5 for the first and second bags (if the reservations is booked online, if by phone, the charge is $10 per bag). However, as the original poster mentioned, they will only guarantee that one bag will make it on the plane! This is absolutely ridiculous. Spirit recently upgraded their fleet and purchased larger planes, yet they can now only guarantee that one bag will be allowed on! They claim they will be lowering their prices, but how would one know that? Their prices are all over the board, so you'd have no way of knowing if they have overall lowered their fares. I also see they've changed the name of their "first class" seats from "Spirit Plus" to "Big Front Seat." According to their website, the "Big Front Seat" offers the following (in addition to a larger seat):

 

 

For flights through June 19, 2007 BIG FRONT SEAT will provide Spirit Plus service that includes free beverage service.

 

So, I take that to mean that after June 19, the first class seats will no longer offer free beverage service.

 

Unbelievable. I've been flying Spirit Airlines forever, but this luggage thing is a real deal breaker. There's no way (with all the limitations with carryons) that I can pack one suitcase for a 2-3 week vacation. And then what do you do if you get to the airport and find out they have no room for the second?

[CruiseNut7]

A few weeks ago I flew for the first and LAST time on Spirit Air from FLL to ATL.

 

I was told that the second piece of luggage would be $10. Well, they didn't charge me the additional cost - I think because the policy was in the process of being changed - whatever!

 

Then I arrived in Atlanta - one piece of luggage showed up. When I asked about the second piece, they said it was on the next flight - WHAT! :mad:

 

I had to wait over 1.5 hours for the next flight to bring my second bag - NEVER again - I missed the last shuttle home and had to pay $90 for a taxi!

[howard6933]

I've flown Spirit a few times when I cruised out of San Juan, but they are now on my "no fly" list. What a ridiculous way to squeeze a few more bucks out of people's pockets than to charge for luggage and also for soft drinks on the flight. I sure hope that this fails miserably and that some of the other airlines don't follow Spirit's lead in this. :mad:

[johninri]

What are they thinking? I wanted to email them and tell them "I've now lost my Spirit" but they very cleverly have not included any email addresses or message facility on their website (at least not that I could find). The guy who is now their President is the same guy (Ben Baldanza) that made history when he was VP of Marketing for USAirways by instituting a policy that if a customer booked a discounted coach ticket their frequent flyer miles wouldn't count toward the Dividend Miles preferred tiers. So the fact that I could plan ahead and book discounted tickets would have prohibited me from reaching any preferred level even though I flew over 50,000 miles per year on their airline. It lasted a week and he had to issue a public statement saying the policy was being withdrawn and that there were some factors he hadn't considered. This looks like he has struck again. Pathetic!

[RhondaC]

They claim they have lowered their fares 40%, and I do see some great deals right now, including 1 cent fares to Nassau! :o

[Eclipsepearl]

A few weeks ago I flew for the first and LAST time on Spirit Air from FLL to ATL.

 

I was told that the second piece of luggage would be $10. Well, they didn't charge me the additional cost - I think because the policy was in the process of being changed - whatever!

 

Then I arrived in Atlanta - one piece of luggage showed up. When I asked about the second piece, they said it was on the next flight - WHAT! :mad:

 

I had to wait over 1.5 hours for the next flight to bring my second bag - NEVER again - I missed the last shuttle home and had to pay $90 for a taxi!

 

Diane,

 

Just for your information, technically speaking, they should have sent your luggage to your home. If it isn't on your flight, they're supposed to then send it to where you are, even if it crosses borders.

 

Once, Lufthansa didn't get around to boarding one of my bags arriving from the States. They then realized that I didn't live anywhere near Frankfurt and there are no flights to where we live (only a shuttle bus from the airport). Lufthansa had to fly my bag to Paris and then connect it here on Air France. Paris is twice the distance from Frankfurt than to where I live. Poor bag did a lot of miles that day! (some rule prevented them from using the shuttle, which is a licensed to another company...)

 

I used to work for two U.S. airlines and the same applied. Sometimes bags don't get on because of "weigh restrictions" but I think this excuse is overused. The only thing that is tricky is when you're actually traveling on from your destination but even when I cruised to Anarctica, there were a couple of bags that were sent on to Ushuaïa. They belonged to someone else in my group. My bags were there, for once in my traveling life...

 

Did you complain? Did you at least ask for the $90 back?

 

Oh and everyone, go ahead and use any address you can to send feeback to an airline. Corporate HQ's, local airport, local ticketing agent, anyone who directly works for the company. I even took them from passengers onboard and used comail to send them on. It'll get to the right place!