Spirit Airlines review by Kristn 2014-02-24

My boyfriend and I have both given Spirit multiple chances to see if they were just having an off day, sadly, it seems to be a consistent thing. We have both flown with Spirit about 6 times combined and not one of those flights were on time. My experience this time (return trip from Detroit to Tampa) was absolutely terrible and neither of us will be giving them another chance again. I had been watching flights a couple days before my departure date just to see if things were delayed each day at the time I was leaving and of course they were, every single day. We usually monitor the plane we will be taking on the flight before it(ie; this time as I was returning home we watched the Detroit -> Tampa flight as it would be the plane I would be taking home upon its arrival.) It started out about 30 minutes delayed which was no big deal. I arrived at the airport an hour before my flight(it was supposed to originally depart at 2:15pm however was delayed to 2:44pm at this point, no biggie, right?) only to receive a text from a family member saying my flight had been delayed until 5:00 pm. At this point, the monitors still all said everything was still just delayed until 2:44pm. People seemed shocked at the Spirit gate as they did not see it was delayed to 2:44pm let alone 5pm. I informed one woman that it had actually been pushed back to 5 pm now on their website. Up until about 2:00 pm there was 0 spirit customer service reps near the flight gates so people were beginning to get frustrated as their were no weather issues in either Detroit or Tampa and no one knew why it was delayed. The flight before ours from Detroit to Tampa had been marked as taken off on their website which also did not make sense. The lady I spoke to ended up calling Spirits customer service line and waiting on hold for a while. Once she finally got to speak to someone the lady told her it had been delayed due to mechanical issues and had taken off in Detroit then had to re-land. The Spirit customer service rep then told her that they were actually sending another plane for us so our flight would be leaving on time still. At this point it was 2:20pm and our flight was still saying 2:44pm on the monitors with still 0 Spirit reps at their gate desk. We kind of laughed that off because it was obviously not happening. Around 3:30 pm someone began speaking about our flight over the announcement system saying there had been a mechanical issue, the flight had taken off but had to reland and they were swapping to another plane and now they would be here for 6 pm – still no one to be seen at any of the spirit customer service desks. So, after waiting 4 hours at the airport they finally announced the plane we would be taking would be landing soon and we would be able to finally board and leave. Once we had finally began to board the flight attendants were all talking and joking with each other, not saying a word to any of the passengers. The captain announced that they had been working since 6 am and had had a very long day so to go easy on them (this was 6 pm at this point). They were friendly once everyone had sat down so I cannot complain about that. I finally arrived in Detroit at 8:30pm, thankfully. The back of their seats where magazines, barf bags, and safety pamphlets are USUALLy(Most seats seemed to not have anything or if there was something it was a very ripped safety pamphlet) stored instead of having an elastic to hold them in has a metal bar that digs into your knees as there is such little leg room. Between luggage fees and my ticket it would have been cheaper to go with a non ‘discount’ airline from my actual home town in Ontario rather than having to drive 2 hours to and from the airport, or in my case because my flight was so delayed pay another 100 dollars for a Robert Q. On the way to Tampa my luggage was some how 6 pounds over their weight so I had to pay an extra 25$ on top of the 45$ I already had to pay for it which is my fault, however, fair warning be careful when packing! They also charge for your carry on rather than letting you have a free one. You are playing a gambling game by bringing a ‘personal item’ as if they feel it is too big you have to pay 100$ at the boarding gate for them to allow it on. Your personal item is also your purse ladies, so make sure you bring a big purse that will fit under the seat in front of you or a bag that will fit your purse. They offered us a 50 dollar credit for our next flight with them, however, mine will not be getting used. They also seem to feel the need to try and push their MasterCard on you multiple times through out the flight(mine was only a 2.5 hour flight max…)They have used up the last few chances we have given them and completely abused them all. I would rather drive the 24 hours to Florida than go with Spirit again.