I read that section a few times earlier today and I think the “out” for Spirit is that it’s worded as a delay. This technically isn’t a delay, it’s a reschedule. Worth a shot for sure and I hope the OP reports back the result. I agree that I’d never fly Spirit.
@natty1988 sacramento to Vegas. As of now the flight is good but she is stressing if they change it again, or if they get to the airport and its cancelled. She can’t figure out why they changed it twice and how a third time back to the original flight times.She checked Southwest and they have little non stop availability that would get them there before the concert and the prices last minute are really expensive. When they first booked I suggested Southwest but even several months back SW was significantly more per ticket.
So is the flight now leaving on time for them to get to their concert?
My BIL flies spirit to Vegas once a year. He has the packing down, and he also doesn’t have any time sensitive plans so if they reschedule or whatever, he is fine. It’s less than 1/2 the cost of the other carriers and he says he’s fine with it.
I am not interested in their flight changes etc. almost every one I know who has flown Spirit had had their flight changed.
@thumper1 As of now they will make the concert
Ambiguous to me. I am lawyer and although I deal with insurance policies not contracts of carriage I think rescheduling several hours later is a delay. The argument might not have worked if they had rescheduled them on an earlier flight but it is worth a try.
Due to the many horror stories we’ve hear, we have never booked with Spirit. They have limited flights, and supposedly they don’t have reciprocity with other airlines for rebooking.
Note - Spirit ticket cost are often much lower, even after the extra charges. Someday when retired we may try them for a flight for a trip without time constraints.
According to a survey, Spirit is more on time than Delta. That’s good enough for me. I fly light, I don’t eat airline snack, and I’d rather drink my own water anyway. I liked the quiet cabin without flight attendants pushing carts and collecting trash that one time I flew. If it cancels frequently, it will be inconvenient but otherwise, I am quite happy with Spirit.
Southwest shouldn’t be mentioned in the same post as Spirit. I fly Southwest several times a month and am A List. I rarely have any issues and when I have they are addressed immediately.
I’m a big fan of Spirit - I probably fly them 3-4 times a year to see my DD. It’s much cheaper than Delta for the same route (think $200 cheaper per ticket, or more) and in my limited experience, I’ve had no problems whatsoever with cancellations or on-time arrival. Maybe I’m an outlier, but I have no complaints.
We were stranded in Trenton, NJ by Frontier airlines when our return flight was cancelled. The next flight was three days later! People were renting cars and driving all the way to Minneapolis! We ended up taking a $$$ cab to Philadelphia and using over 100K frequent flyer miles to get our family home. It was Frontier, not Spirit, but I will not book one of the low cost carriers again. They don’t have contracts with other airlines to get their passengers rebooked when necessary. Also, they refunded half our fare, but it had been so cheap - too good to be true, indeed - that the refund was only $70 each!
These things are also true of Southwest @MomofWildChild but I’m glad your experiences have been good. I will never fly SW again.
I feel like Southwest has lots of options for getting you around the country even if a flight is cancelled. You might be a few hours late, or connect somewhere strange, but you get there. With Spirit et al it can be DAYS!!! I also like that you can fully cancel your trip on Southwest for full credit, and, of course, no baggage charge. Lots of my trips change, so the cancellation policy is essential.
Frankly, I’ve had travel issues with just about every airline. USAir was fine for us for a long while, but when it became American we had one travel SNAFU after another. Delta is usually OK…but that depends on where you are flying from/to. Southwest used to have the least costly flights but that is no longer the case much of the time. Still for us, the routes are competitive, and OK.
American Airlines has gotten better. They used to be the worst airline. For a period of 2-3 years, there was no flight that left on time. By on time I mean less than a 2 hour delay. Inspire off that, you usually made a connection since the connecting flight is also often very delayed. They were horrible. To me, being on time is the most important. Spirit got a good rating on that. Since I travel light I often felt I was subsidizing people with a huge carryon. On Spirit, I “earn” money for being a light traveler.
My advice on Spirit is no, just no. We bought my son tickets to come home for Thanksgiving one year and it took him 24 hours because they kept delaying and then cancelled the flight. He ended up on Jet Blue instead and it cost us way more than it should have because we had to buy the tickets that day to get him home. It took me forever to get my refund from Spirit, even though they were the ones who cancelled. I would never recommend them.
I just happened on this link
Maybe that was the root cause?
The thing for us with spirit, is that they’re the only direct flight to our frequent destination. I’d gladly pay more for another airline, but the travel time would more than double. (So generally we settle for a 15 hour drive instead lol )
@MomofWildChild We try to only fly Southwest or Jet Blue within the US. Southwest doesn’t charge for checking bags. The flight attendants are always so friendly. D’s flight on Southwest was cancelled and Southwest bent over backwards to get her home. It took a bit longer but she got home. A lot of the other major airlines seem to make flying more and more of a hassle all while charging an arm and a leg.
@OHMomof2 Southwest has limited flights? They always seem to have a ton when I book with them. But, maybe it depends on where you’re going and where you’re flying from…
Another reason we like Southwest is that they use some airports which are smaller, much less crowded, and quieter then the big main airports…
@natty1988 A lot of them are seasonal and only 1-2x a week from here.
I do like JetBlue. We used to be a hub but not anymore, and I miss having them a LOT. They also have limited flights of course. But their staff is awesome.
I suppose we all have stories, good and bad, about most airlines.
SW just left a really bad taste in my mouth when they screwed up flying my son to meet me in NYC, causing him to miss most of the weekend we were to spend together. And even getting him there a day late was like pulling teeth, even though it was entirely their fault, not weather or the Max or the massive computer system outage. I gave them one more chance flying myself, and it was just OK. I really dislike the boarding procedure and as I said, don’t use the baggage allowance. Also, it’s never the cheapest to where I go.
I totally get that people who fly with checked baggage and want to change their flights like those things.
I used to like SW boarding procedure. I was tired of American Airline calling gold, diamond, emerald, ruby, etc members to board. SW procedure seemed rather refreshing. Then, I was flying to Florida, and everyone was special boarding. I checked in late and I was practically the last person in the queue and practically the only on win line. Everyone else had a reason to special board.
For our first flight on SW, it was last minute funeral trip … pricey tickets. We were unfamiliar with the boarding procedure and were delighted to find ourselves at the head of the line for seat selection.
“I suppose we all have stories, good and bad, about most airlines.” - Yes, Spirit seems to be the one that leaves people stranded the longest (I assume due to limited flights). If you want to try Spirit, I highly suggest doing so on a trip where you can tolerate reschedules and delays.