Spirit Airlines: Why you should NEVER fly with them.

I have flown on many different airlines, and thought I had experienced the worst. That is, until I flew Spirit. Let’s start from the beginning: The purchase. I searched Kayak.com for a flight to NY and Spirit Airlines came up as the cheapest. I clicked the link to purchase the flight and I was transferred to Spirit’s homepage. Since Spirit’s website is not compatible with Kayak, I was forced to enter in all the flight info again. I purchased two tickets from Ft. Lauderdale to La Guardia for my brother and myself. When I was getting ready to pay, I noticed that the prices had jumped up quite a bit, so I took a closer look. Spirit decided that I wanted the optional travel insurance ($12 per person), and also enrolled both of us in a 3 month Spirit membership “trial offer” which cost $10 per month per person (after the trial you are auto charged the full monthly fee unless you cancel). No wonder the price had magically increased by $40 (we can refer to the charges as Spirit Tax). I unchecked the “Spirit Tax” they were trying to charge me for, and purchased the tickets. Thankfully I know my way around the Internet and was able to notice that Spirit was pulling a very underhanded move by trying to sneak in extra charges in my ticket purchase and force me to opt-out (its kinda like spyware). I am guessing that most people don’t even notice the “Spirit Tax” and end up throwing away a lot of money.

Upon completion of my ticket purchase, Spirit notified me that passengers are only allowed one carry on bag, and that in order for you to check bags, you must pay. Of course! If I pre-pay for my checked bag, it is half the price they charge at the airport, so I pre-paid $5 to check one bag on my flight. Once I was finished, I realized that I wanted to secure seats, an option I was not given during the purchase process. I like window seats and my brother likes aisles, so I found an empty row in the back of the plane and tried to select the seats. Ooops, another problem. Spirit will not allow my brother and I to sit in a row together unless we are sitting next to each other, meaning one of us had to have a middle seat, so I sat in the window, and my brother took the aisle in the row behind me. Ridiculous!

We arrived at the airport and go inside to get our boarding pass and check my one bag. As we got to the front of the line, the Spirit agent tells us to go use one of the kiosks. None of the kiosks were working. Nice. So, the agent printed our boarding passes and checked my bag. We passed through security and got to the gate to find out the flight has been delayed. Apparently it wasn’t actually Spirit’s fault – something about the weather which was beautiful in Ft. Lauderdale, and clear in New York. The Spirit agent said, “C’mon, yall know what its like in New York.”

Once we boarded the plane and found our seats, I realized that Spirit doesn’t have TV’s and my knees were flush against the seat in front of me, and the seat wasn’t even reclined. Apparently Spirit is not a fan of legroom. I was forced to sit at an angle with the laptop resting on the tray table of the middle seat (I was in a window seat) because I did not have enough room in my seat to open up the laptop and be able to see the screen. As the stewardess’s made their way to my row with beverages, they handed me a menu which listed the prices for all drinks and snacks. Spirit is not the only airline who charges now, so I was expecting to have to pay for a soda. I get out my wallet to pay for the $2 soda, pull out two singles and hand them to the stewardess. The follow exchange takes place:

Stewardess: I’m sorry, we do not except cash.

Me: What?

Stewardess: We only accept credit cards.

Me: Are you kidding? You have to accept cash. It is illegal not to.

Stewardess: I’m sorry, no cash, just cards.

Me: (getting louder) Let me explain something here. I am holding a note issued by the government as legal tender. If you do not accept it, it is worthless. You are required by law to accept it. Are you telling me that my government issued money is of no value?

Stewardess: Sorry, I don’t make the rules.

Me: (Handing my credit card to her) Please, when you have a chance, I would like all the contact information for Spirit so I can complain.

Stewardess: You can find all the contact info on our website.

So the stewardess told me that I have to go back to the website, the same website that pulls ponzi schemes with all it’s customers. This is officially the last time I will ever fly with Spirit, and I urge anyone and everyone to participate in my boycott. We live in a world where common sense, honesty, and rationality are common practice by no one. I am not sure how much more of it I can take. The answer might be to leave the country. The country I was born in and proud of, or at least I used to be proud of.