SPIRIT Airlines

[Marvin1968]

We are just going to cancel our Spirit flight and fly JetBlue out of Newark tomorrow. They cancelled the morning flight out of AC. I’m going to lose a Disney Springs day but I can’t take the chance of our return flight getting cancelled.

 

[mouserrificmom]

We are just going to cancel our Spirit flight and fly JetBlue out of Newark tomorrow. They cancelled the morning flight out of AC. I’m going to lose a Disney Springs day but I can’t take the chance of our return flight getting cancelled.

Good luck......I am looking at doing the same as well....

 

[Tumbles10]

I have been compulsively checking the site, and my flight isn't for 2 weeks. I know that I have checked the website before bed and everything is fine, but when I wake up the flights are slowly being canceled. I want to book another flight just incase but there's 5 of us. It would be an extra 1000 for 1 way. Then what do I do for the trip home?
Well sometime between 1:30am and 6am the early flight was canceled. I know that the only flights that went out yesterday were connecting flights PHL-DTW-MCO (there was another that looks that it had an added stop PHL-DTW-MYR-MCO that stopped in MYR)

 

[ricosuave]

Do you think the reason they are saying it's weather related is so people's trip insurance will cover it? I don't know of any that will cover costs if the airline just cancels it for no reason

 

[EACarlson]

The low cost carriers are great until they are not. They do not handle IROPS(IRegular OPerations) well at all.

This melt down seems to be partially weather related. Bad weather in several places kept their planes and crews in the wrong places and often times not in the same places. American suffered the same problems but was able to recover quicker because their business model allows for better IROPS.

The low cost carriers tend to not have extra planes or crews sitting around doing nothing waiting for IROPS. All the planes and all the crews are scheduled and working all the time. There is no excess capacity to use during recovery.

The low cost carriers are more likely to have limited service to an airport, it might only be serviced a couple days a week so recovery takes much longer than if serviced daily or multiple times a day.

Plus it sounds like the pilots may be performing an informal "strike" working exactly to contract which may be making the current situation worse.

Good luck.

This is exactly why I'm hesitant to book trips on any of the ULCCs. I have heard reports of people having their flights cancelled and Spirit telling them they are rebooked on a flight Aug. 28. I am a paranoid enough traveler that I want to have a back up plan and know what I'm going to do if my flight is cancelled or seriously delayed. When Spirit only makes a flight once a week, it makes it very difficult to just put you on the next flight. Same thing happened in March with Sun Country. Under DOT rules the only thing the airline owes you is your money back. I wouldn't have an issue using them if it wasn't going to be a huge deal if I didn't make it. But for something like a WDW trip, I'll stick to the big 4, maybe 5.

 

[mouserrificmom]

I think they are saying "weather" because it STARTED with weather. From what I've read, the storms on Sunday caused multiple cancelleations- which was true of other carriers as well. Apparently, Spirit has only the staff they need and the planes they need for the scheduled flights.....so when the flights on Sunday were cancelled, the planes and the staff (pilots and attendants) were not able to get where they needed to be for the next flight they were scheduled to service. And as more cancellations continue this just gets worse and worse. I've been watching flightaware and there is a plane set to take off from MCO headed to Philly that is now reading as "delayed" in Philly (scheduled to take off at 10, but still on the tarmac at MCO) . . .. it has been "taxing/delayed" for 2 hours now, those poor people on that plane. I bit the bullet and bought a one way ticket for each of us that will get us to Orlando earlier than planned with another carrier. I am not happy to be out the $$ I just paid, especially if our Spirit flight ultimately ends up NOT being cancelled, but I felt like I had to do it because I am watching all the seats disappear and prices rise astronomically for every other carriers flight on my route and even though I CAN....I just don't want to drive from Philadelphia to Orlando.

 

[GingerPilot]

Do you think the reason they are saying it's weather related is so people's trip insurance will cover it? I don't know of any that will cover costs if the airline just cancels it for no reason

They're saying it's weather because the airline doesn't have to pay for expenses/accommodations to passengers for "acts of God". Operational issues including staffing/maintenance the airline has to cover hotels, food vouchers etc.

Spirit has never been known for their reliability or responsiveness to customer needs. If you actually want/need to get somewhere close to on-time (or at least on the correct day) you shouldn't be booking an ULCC (Spirit, Frontier, Allegiant).

 

[DebbieB]

Do you think the reason they are saying it's weather related is so people's trip insurance will cover it? I don't know of any that will cover costs if the airline just cancels it for no reason

if it’s weather, they are not obligated to provide rooms and meals.

 

[Ngwira]

https://www.the-sun.com/news/3422428/spirit-airlines-disruption-continues-cancellations-fifth-day/

 

[Disneyfan754321]

I have to say today was better than yesterday..
They are comparing it to jet blue 5 day meltdown a few years ago.
We used the new chat function on the website. It worked better than the text/ whatsup. We are flying monday to Dallas from Fort Lauderdale and so far so good. And yes I think its crazy that they are selling tickets on the flight still.
The only thing I am watching is the tropical storm forming they said it should early in the week. I do not need weather keeping me from coming home.

 

[ricosuave]

I've never dealt with a canceled flight, so I have a dumb question.
If I find an alternative flight down to MCO and they cancel my original Spirit flight, BOTH ways are canceled, right?

 

[mouserrificmom]

I've never dealt with a canceled flight, so I have a dumb question.
If I find an alternative flight down to MCO and they cancel my original Spirit flight, BOTH ways are canceled, right?

Gosh, I hadn't thought about that but I kinda hope not, because after reading the commentary from the CEO i figured the chances that my flight home will be much better and I only booked one way.

 

[ricosuave]

They just canceled more flights out of CLE tomorrow. I'm looking at options right now

 

[Heather07438]

Hope you all make it work out somehow. This is the pits

 

[Tumbles10]

I didn't want to take the chance and just booked another flight to and from. Now I have to cancel my flight with spirit. Pray that Southwest is better

 

[Dpflake]

Saturday morning flight for me. It’s currently still scheduled, but I’ve been checking nonstop all day. I found a backup flight on United and plan to jump on it instantly if mine is canceled (good thing I still work from home and can check my phone a million times a day), but it’s super frustrating to not know. I just keep telling myself that it’s all good unless the flight is canceled last minute.

I’m checking my flight status so many times during the day that I have lost count. Lol. I think it’s a great idea to have another airline booked just in case. Are you just carrying on your bags? I was wondering what would happen if you checked your luggage with one airline and then the flight gets canceled, how would you get your luggage back to put on new flight?
Hope you have a wonderful trip!

 

[Magnoliafan]

They just canceled more flights out of CLE tomorrow. I'm looking at options right now

Yeah, this is me. I ended up booking United with a layover, which I hate to do for such a short flight. But at least the flight was canceled today and not some time while I was sleeping or on my way to the airport.

The awful thing is that I was stalking my flight all day today (I got the cancel email around 4) and the seats kept filling. So a number of people likely rebooked a canceled flight only to have the new one canceled as well.

 

[elsbit]

I am not an experienced flyer. I have a weekend trip to Disney in a month, with the return flight being spirit. I am wondering if I should book up a refundable back up flight with SW. I am traveling with my daughter and cannot get stuck. I would say rent a car but that seems impossible these days. Anyone have experience with canceling a backup flight with them?

 

[Tumbles10]

They have just canceled the 6am flight out of PHL again. The 7th day in a row, I think. making me feel better about booking the other flight. Next step needing to cancel my flight plans.

 

[gharter]

They screwed us twice. Cancelled our flight, refunded the money and said good luck finding a new flight.
When this has happened with other airlines, while annoying, they have booked up with another airline and flight at no additional cost. Both times when Spirit cancelled, it cost us more to book late with another airline. Never again.

 

[CrystalClear82]

They just canceled more flights out of CLE tomorrow. I'm looking at options right now

Im headed out on Wednesday from CLE... We're currently looking at other options as well.