David writes:
I had purchased a ticket on Spirit Airlines for a friend of mine in Brooklyn, New York to come and visit me in Orlando. I had purchased the ticket about three months prior to the departure date so I could get the lowest fare. To make a long story short, my friend had been diagnosed with colon cancer and had to start treatment immediately….This meant that he would not be able to make the trip down to Orlando and when I explained this situation to Spirit Airlines they couldn’t care less. I even offered to give them medical documentation on my friends condition and they said, “sorry but Spirit policy is no refunds”.
This airline is a complete joke and as heartless a company as you will ever find. Just thought I’d share my hellish experience with you guys to go along with the thousands of other complaints against this joke of an airline.
-David M.
We wonder what CEO Ben Baldanza would say if he received this complaint letter? Probably something like, “Please respond, Pasquale, but we owe him nothing as far as I’m concerned. Let him tell the world how bad we are. He’s never flown us before anyway and will be back when we save him a penny.”
Maybe your credit card company will let you do a chargeback?
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Is it just me or do I find a clear black and white policy BETTER than multiple CSRs and supervisors deciding what constitutes a person’s inability to travel or fly…
Again – that’s why refundable and NON-refundable fares exist.
I side with Spirit – assholes or not…
I’m very sorry for your friend, and I sincerely hope he gets better soon.
Sadly, if that is their policy, it looks like Spirit Air’s customer service doesn’t have to do the morally right thing and are completely within their “right” to keep your money and give you nothing. Poor customer service and an unwillingness to do the right thing are sadly too often completely legal. There is something to be said for going above and beyond the minimum to do the right thing, but apparently, Spirit Air isn’t interested in that.
I think Spirit Air would be better off refunding your money – they would look like the good guys, they would have lost nothing, you would be happy, and they would have gained at least one loyal customer – really, who knows how many if the story we were reading here was different?
Maybe you can get some comfort knowing that the next person who searches for Spirit Air’s customer service record on a search engine may see your story here and will choose to fly with a company that is willing to treat their customers like people.
Same thing happened to me this past summer with another airline (colon cancer — can’t fly due to thrombosis risk of the chemo treatments). However, I would never have dreamed of obtaining the refund from the airline in question and would not fault Spirit Air here. I understood at purchase time my ticket was cheap and non-refundable — that’s life. But don’t most people have travel insurance? It’s exactly for these kinds of occasions and I was able to get a full refund from my insurer (as I also did earlier in the year for another cancelled family trip due to kids getting chicken pox!).
quote: “may see your story here and will choose to fly with a company that is willing to treat their customers like people.”
And odds are they won’t. They’ll fly what’s cheapest. That’s been of issue recently: No matter how many “X airlines suck” stories come out, people will still gobble up whatever airfares happens to be $20 bucks cheaper than another.
Even if an airline posted on their site “Our planes our filthy, our safety record sucks, our FAs are miserable curmudgeons and wenches, we sold our ONE gate to another airlines, but we fly for $50 less — I have a feeling the flights would be packed.
@FitJulie: This has nothing to do with blaming the victim. It is OK to blame the victim if it IS their fault. Not looking before crossing the street, buying drugs from unreputable dealers, etc. Buying a non refundable ticket is a gamble. This guy lost, and I’m sure we all feel bad for it.
Having a compelling story does not change the rules. I don’t want to be denied a refund for being late for the plane because some guy with cancer has a better story than me.
This story is antithetical to what we as consumers ask for: fair policy implemented fairly.
Nice work by the “trolls” who . . . actually read the policy at issue.
@swalve: Depends on what your definition of “fair” and “fairly” is. I would think that many people here would disagree with your definition of “fair.”
Also, I’m not sure “fairness” is the issue at hand here. Your approach to this story seems to focus on the idea of their being strict rules that must be followed by all.
At the point that rules cause a company to lose customers due to ignorance of the experiences of life, I’m not sure how helpful the rules actually are. The company didn’t do anything “wrong” legally here, but they may have perhaps isolated themselves from the same customers they are trying to woo.
Great job following protocol. Poor job winning over a customer.
The idea of “winning over a customer” is absurd also. At least with airlines.
My local Ace Hardware won me over. My dry cleaner removed a stain and won me over. Nobody gets won over by airlines.
Also suppose they did “win someone over.” What would the PR benefit be? ONE return customer should the routing and airfare qualify.
No one is going to set up an “I love Spirit” blog. Or tell all their friends about the great refund they received. They’ll forget about it and move on.
So yes – GREAT job following protocol. Cool by me.
href=”#c3379402″>jamesdenver: I disagree that winning over a customer is absurd. I paid more for a ticket on an upcoming trip to Europe because I’ve been won over by certain airlines with top-notch customer service (unfortunately none of them are domestic carriers)
I also paid extra for travel insurance which isn’t much and anyone should consider if they’re worried about this type of thing happening.
Either the airline can follow the rules and be completely within its rights to do the wrong thing and get bad press in winning its lawsuit; OR
the airline can bend its rules and do the humanitarian thing and get good press.
I like cheap airline tickets, too.
Stupid Colon Cancer guy! If he had eaten more fiber and exercised regularly, his friend wouldn’t be stuck with his non-refundable ticket! How long will my tax dollars be used to help people dumb enough not to predict unforeseen circumstances such as this?
^sarcasm^
Wow, is that a real quote? That is ridiculous.
maybe they figure any press, including bad press, is good press.
@ceejeemcbeegee: No relationship between colon cancer and fiber.
@FitJulie: first thing you learn about pylon83 is that he is the only one that really cares about his opinion. if they had a kill filter on here, i have no doubt he would be on everyone’s list.
The policy may have changed but Spirit used to allow you to cancel nonrefundable tickets for a “credit” but charged you a $25 fee when you rebooked.
@comopuedeser: It’s not your place to dictate Spirit Air’s policy. Who are you to say what attitude they should have toward unprofitable customers? What do you do for a living? What would you say if your employer/customer said to you “I know you just sold me this service and worked all day to do it, but I can’t use it and want my money back.”
Someone explain to me where this avalanche of “good person” will come from – other than the complaintant stating “Cool I got a refund” directly after hanging up the phone.
@consumingall: Pfft. Travel insurance is for chumps. If you need to cancel, just call them up and tell them your dearest Aunt Gertie died and threaten full Consumerist retaliation unless they bow down to your demands immediately.
All it takes is for them to flex on one person’s request and it will open the floodgates for the liars and cheats.
This article comes at the perfect time:
My sister had booked a trip to Iceland for her wedding. I got diagnosed with cancer, so she cancelled it to stick with me. Now that I’m no longer going to die (knock on wood), she’s trying to get a refund (or at least a credit). We’ll see how that goes…
You have got be kidding, I can see raising such a fuss over an $600 ticket but Cmon, you bought a cheep ticket from a really cheap airline. What re we taling here $180?
You were rolling the bones just purchasing from Spirit in the first place. Now your feelings are hurt and you want a couple of dimes back? Life is tough, rules is rules and that is what you get when you do not buy quality.