Customers Remain Stranded As Spirit Cancels Wed Flights

The South Florida Sun Sentinel says that Spirit Airlines has canceled its Wednesday flights, which will be the 5th consecutive day that the airline has not flown due to a pilot strike.

USAToday has done us all a favor and chopped up the media’s collective coverage of stranded Spirit Airlines customers into neat digestible morsels of misery and pain.

The AP says that Spirit is refunding fares for flights from Saturday to Tuesday, but that doesn’t help people who can’t cancel their trips or wait out the strike. Those passengers found that same day replacement tickets were “two-to three times more than their tickets.”

The Sun Sentinel says that people are having trouble reaching Spirit. They interviewed one persistent individual who claims to have been on hold for 4 hours without reaching anyone.

The AP says one couple they interviewed paid $1,300 to return home to Michigan after being stranded in Florida.

Not everyone has that kind of money laying around, so some people are just randomly stranded in Puerto Rico and not even the airport is willing to help. In fact, one man interviewed by the Orlando Sentinel says that random people who saw him on TV brought food.

“My card has been declined,” said Angel Rivera of Corozal, Puerto Rico, who traveled with a group of 17 relatives and friends. “We haven’t eaten much.”

Rivera, who’d been at the airport since Friday, said that good Samaritans who had seen them on TV news had brought them dinner Saturday night and breakfast on Sunday morning.

Travelers complained that they received no assistance from the airline or the airport’s administration.

Stranded Spirit customers tell their tales of woe [USAToday]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.