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I want everyone to know not to be sucked into buying a ticket with Spirit since most of the time they are the cheapest airfare to a caribbean destination. Our flight got delayed because of "maintenance" which made us miss our connection to St. Thomas. The Spirit Agent told us to buy another ticket on another airline just to get to St. Thomas USVI, and to call the 1-800 number or go to the ticket counter in St. Thomas to get vouchers for the delayed flight, and that they would see that this flight had been taken down for maintenance in the system. I assumed our return flight would be unaffected, like any other airline. We made it to St. Thomas, only to be ignored by the agents at the counter (they told me they were closed even though there were three agents there in uniform, it was 1:30 in the afternoon and the agent on the 1-800 number said they were open till 5PM) no one helped us on the 1-800 number either except to tell us we "forfeited" our entire reservation, including our return flight, because we didn't take the initial flight. Trying to reason with them did not work. We basically ate our Spirit Tickets, and had to purchase last minute return flights back to the states on another airline, because our reservation on Spirit had been "forfeited". Also, I am now trying to contact their customer relations dept at their headquarters in Miramar, FL, and have been on hold for 1 hour 20 minutes now. By the way, this number is not posted anywhere on their website, I had to call information to get it - it's (954) 447-7828. I wonder if it will help to talk to them, if someone ever answers...

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1

Thanks for the info. I've heard similar stories about them AND I've always hated their little gimick of "$5 tickets" or "1 cent tickets" where they sell the one way cheap but make it up on the return. I wish they'd just post prices like everyone else. Most importantly, please let us know if/how this matter is resolved.

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2

this really sucks! I know you do forfeit your return trip, or segments of a trip if you miss one segment, but they should notate in the system when they cancel your flight and you're forced to take another airline!

not to excuse them but their fares are so cheap, they probably do have a lot of people booking RTPs and only using one way tickets to go home to visit family, etc... Somehow I bet the RTP fare is a lot cheaper than the one way...

I dont mean to suggest you were wrong in any way - who would think to ask the airline to be sure to make the notation in the record to insure you could use your return flight when you're in the thick of that annoyance, probably with lots of other screaming people around you...

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3

i flew spirit last summer from ft. lauderdale to st. thomas and back. couldn't have been better. wonderful service, kind attendants at both ends, great price, on time... can't think of one bad experience with spirit airlines at all. sorry you had a problem. NOTE: EVERY AIRLINE HAS A PROBLEM WITH SOMEONE NOW AND THEN.. NO EXCEPTIONS, EVERY AIRLINE!. i would fly with them again in a heartbeat.

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4

I applied for a Spirit MasterCard offer, met their requirements and qualified for a free ticket voucher. Guess what? I got the card, used it for the last 8 months and now have spent the last week trying to find out why they haven't sent me my free travel voucher. Of course their service department is overseas and the people I'm speaking to on the phone can't understand my problem and likewise I can't understand much of what they are babbling. What kind of low class shyster operation is Spirit running? I've flown them several times in the past few years and had no complaints but it appears they sure have gone downhill. Their credit cards will be going into the shredder today and I'll stick with a company where I can speak to an American when I need customer service. SCREW SPIRIT.

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5

Like #3 I flew with Spirit from FLL Santo Domingo and back and had a good experience. The flight down was somewhat delayed but not too bad (all airlines have delays). Price was good and it was a nice new clean plane.
OP, on ANY airline, if you fail to take the outward part of the trip and don't call them to tell them about it, you forfeit the entire ticket. You "assumed" it would still be there, but you should have confirmed that with Spirit on the day of the initial flight. If this had been American, USAir, whatever, it would have been the same.

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