Is Spirit Airlines’ new club worth joining?
This past weekend, I was a guest on Peter Greenberg’s radio show, talking about Spirit Airlines and their new luggage fees. (Shameless self-promotion alert!)
During the segment, Peter had his producer fire up the Spirit website to see how low their fares went. The answer: $9.
But there was a catch: She found a $9 fare, but only if you joined their “$9 Fare Club.” I had noticed this on their site Friday afternoon, but didn’t think anything of it, really, not realizing at the time that this members-only savings society was anything new. Since then, it has hit the news and blogosphere as something newsworthy.
I’m predictably skeptical. For starters, I’m not a fan of the new Spirit fare structure, so paying a membership fee to maybe — just maybe — have access to limited-availability ultra-low fares doesn’t seem like a good way to spend your cash.
That said, for now the club is relatively cheap to join. A 3-month trial is $9. Thereafter, it’s still pretty cheap, honestly, at $29.95 per year. If (and only if) that really gets you access to ludicrously cheap fares year-round, then it may be worth it. But I have my doubts. Besides, Spirit doesn’t shy away from sales with cutesy names.
I’d wait for the sale.
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March 14th, 2007 at 9:41 am |
Does air travel really have to be this complicated? I have never flown Spirit, and with all they have announced last week and with this new club, I don’t plan on booking with them.
mp/m
March 15th, 2007 at 2:55 pm |
Amen to that, Mike.
June 13th, 2007 at 8:22 am |
[…] “Is Spirit Airlines New Club Worth Joining?” Upgrade: Travel Better - March 14, 2007 […]
July 21st, 2007 at 8:18 am |
Please cancel my $9 club membership! I want a credit on my recent Discover bill where I was charged for $29.95 on July 11. I had no idea I was in a club and do not use your services nor do I plan to. Thank you. Patricia **** (name, address, etc., redacted)
July 22nd, 2007 at 9:22 am |
Dear Patricia,
Your request to get out of the Spirit $9 club is a fair one, but why are you e-mailing me about it? You sent it to a travel blog, not to the airline itself. This isn’t the Spirit Airlines website.
You should contact Spirit Airlines directly. Try this phone number for starters: 800-772-7117
Feel free to let me know if there are any problems getting credit. You’re not alone — several other people have complained about club memberships, and others have written to me, asking for information about their accounts.
Also, I removed all your personally-identifiable information from the comment. We don’t want that stuff out there for the world to see.
Good luck getting the refund.
July 30th, 2007 at 9:02 am |
[…] consider subscribing to the latest posts via RSS or e-mail. Thanks for visiting!Back in March, I posted about Spirit Airlines’ $9 fare club, which charges a $29.95 annual fee to provide members […]
August 1st, 2007 at 7:44 am |
Recently went up on line to check baggage (1 bag) I’m on a mac computer. After checking off my 1 bag I was not getting a confirmation of the transaction. So I continued to re enter my info. A few days later I received an alert from my credit card company of numerous credit entries. Needless to say I had 11 $5.00 charges from Spirit air. That was on the 18th of July and have called spirit air 12 times so far and cannot get through. Thier web site does not give you any other way of contacting them. Is anyone aware of another means of contacting them?
August 1st, 2007 at 6:34 pm |
Well, you could call your credit card and dispute the charges.
But first, you might try filing a request online:
http://spiritair.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/spiritair.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php
Here are Spirit’s contact numbers:
English: 800-772-7117
Espanol: 800-756-7117
Direct: 586-791-7300
In the Dominican Republic, please call 888-751-2275 to book reservations.
Good luck! And please report back with your results.
September 7th, 2007 at 4:16 pm |
I just joined the $9 club on Spirit Airlines because we always get good deals when we fly with them anyway and I figured we could save even more. Well, today I get the first club savings email and I can’t get those prices. I keep trying and don’t know if I’m logged in right and than I notice the date the sale is good for. It was for yesterday through tonight but I got it almost 24 hours after the sale was on. The cheap deals are probably already sold out. I called to complain because I feel it’s false advertisement and they are actually stealing my money if they aren’t going to send me the deals when they go on sale so I have a fair chance. The customer service rep said the manager was in a meeting, which almost always is the case when you need one and I couldn’t even understand him because he could hardly speak English. Nice. I may have to cancel the membership but will see if the manager calls me back about my complaint. I’m sure she will when the sale is for sure over! Isn’t that the American way! I’m not sure yet if this $9 club is worth is but so far, it’s not.
September 19th, 2007 at 4:58 pm |
Finally received credit on charges for baggage. Going thru their customer web site was the only way it got resolved.
September 19th, 2007 at 7:33 pm |
Thanks for the update! Glad you were able to get the luggage fee refunded.
December 1st, 2007 at 10:46 am |
I had posted a comment earlier about not getting the $9 club prices until 24 hours after they starte the sale. I never did hear back from the manager and the reason I couldn’t understand the costumer service rep is because Spirit outsources now and the Costumer service is in the Phillipines. Nice! THat is also the “American Way”. Since that sale, every sale I get anymore is over and gone before I even get it in my inbox. I’ve called to complain and have spoke to many in the Phillipines that don’t even understand how to handle the problem, including their “supervisors”. They will not transfer you to America for assistance, even when they can’t help. They gave me one number that wasn’t even legit to try and than phone numbers for the Spirit credit cards and said they could help me. The credit card company would give me another number and so on. The funniest part of it all is that after about 9 calls, including one to the office in West Palm Beach and they gave me the number for Detoit control tower!!!! That was wierd. That man than forwarded me to a number there that could help me and than when I pressed what my need was and figured I would finally get an actual person, I was given the stupid automated center that gave me the 1- 800 number for Spirit back in the Phillipines. I screamed and than hung up I cancelled my $9 club and refuse to fly on Spirit. We have always flown Spirit or Northwest or Delta because of great prices but we will start something new and drive to Michigan from now on. Customer Service is everything and Spirit needs to bring the work back here and start providing good service.
December 3rd, 2007 at 10:27 pm |
[…] to Democrats: Drop Dead - Downgrades: Spirit Airlines to charge for ALL luggage, coffee, and soda - Is Spirit Airlines’ new club worth joining? - Spirit Airlines’ CEO flips his customers the bird SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Spirit Airlines […]
December 31st, 2007 at 3:41 pm |
I have had issues on all airlines in the US. It is the price of deregulation; capitalism’s ugly side. Gone are the days of meals, service, drinks and legroom. Now it’s sardines in a plane instead if a can.
January 2nd, 2008 at 9:10 am |
Hi Julie,
I wonder where you are from but I couldn’t resist replying to your email because you mentioned you couldn’t understand costumer service rep from the Philippines.
Well, after reading your comment for the second time I now understood why you couldn’t understand the “costumer” service rep. That is because you cannot spell correctly! It should be CUSTOMER.
And btw, your grammar is awful. I wonder maybe it’s the other way around, meaning, maybe the CUSTOMER REP couldn’t understand when you speak.
Last time I checked Call Centers are booming in the Philippines which only shows how well they speak English. I’m sure a grade 1 student from the Philippines can spell better and create grammatically correct sentences than you.
January 3rd, 2008 at 10:46 pm |
Sorry, but I have to agree with Julie. I have called Spirit several times to complain about their “Travel Insurance” when you buy your ticket. I could hardly understand any of the reps. I used to fly Spirit all the time because they were a lower price, reliable airline. I will never fly them again. I flew from O’Hare to Fort Meyers and had a horrible experience with them. For starters, when you purchase a ticket online there is a check-box for travel insurance that is automatically checked yes. When you try to get a refund (even before the flight), no one at the customer service phone number has no idea what to do. I finally just wrote them a letter, though I doubt I will get a response. At O’Hare, there are no automatic kiosks so every person needs to actually be checked in by an agent. Normally I prefer this, however Spirit had 2 people working to check in hundreds of travelers. It took 1.5 hours to check in. On the plane itself, I swear they added 2 extra rows of seats because that is the least amount of legroom I have ever had on a flight. The worst part is the nickel and dime hijinks. They charge $10/bag, automatically enroll you in a yearly recurring cost club unless you notice to uncheck the box, they have NO customer service, they even charge $2 for a can of soda on the plane. Also, we brought our dog on the plane. She is small enough to fit under the seat in front of us, yet they charge $75 (EACH WAY!). They have no extra time or cost involved in me carrying on my own bag, I still do not understand this one. I WILL NEVER FLY SPIRIT AIRLINES AGAIN!!!
January 24th, 2008 at 12:51 am |
I also had a horrible time with every single call to Spirit. They do NOT speak english well and they do NOT know how to help you when a problem arises. Heck, I had trouble with them confirming flights, the rep got it wrong and I was only able to get help after 3 calls.
Their english speaking employees have problems also.
At my departing airport the ticket agent checked my tickets then told me I had the wrong date on my (confirmed) ticket and forced me to buy a new one right then for a flight that had been planned for months.
I looked more closely at the ticket and saw that he could not understand the numbers. He misread their typeface and couldn’t tell the difference between a 3 and an 8. He then gave me a huge fight when I pointed out the error and asked for a refund on the new ticket he made me buy.
Most of the time you cannot even speak with them on the phone. I was stuck in Disneyworld with return ticket problems and had to spend most of the day on the phone while standing in lines. Their website was down or else I would have taken that route.
So attacking the spelling ablility of someone who has a valid complaint is childish. Whatever substandard outsourcing company Spirit contracted with has very low standards for employees.
January 25th, 2008 at 11:09 am |
Balot, I really couldn’t resist responding to your email to me as you missed the entire point of my email in trying to draw attention to a misspelled word vs. discussing obvious flaws and problems with Spirit Airlines customer care. When did your supposed superior intelligence by catching a word spelled incorrectly, turn to disrespect that had nothing to do with the entire message? I apologize for my spelling error of customer but you fogot to mention that I also forgot my “d” at the end of started as well. I will surmise from your email that you must be from the Phillipines, or an angry Spirit worker?! (perhaps an owner of your own outsourced business or just another uninformed American)
First of all, Spirit outsources their call center to the Phillipines because it’s cheap, NOT because they are truly great at their jobs OR speak english well! That is a joke! They are outsourcing just like all the other big names that are doing it.(Target does it too, but they will transfer you to the US when asked). I would like to know who, other than balot, checks to see how the customer call center boom in the Phillipines is going on a regular basis?(or ever)
Do I think it’s wrong? Absolutely! If we aren’t getting the quality of customer service where the work is being outsourced to, why outsource in the first place?
Another example would be that it is extremely difficult and sometimes impossible to find things made in the USA anymore. Do you watch the news and see all the recalls out there? I have 3 children and guess how many toys they got for Christmas that were actually toys? 1! I do not trust what is brought into our country anymore or from other places that are “cheaper” to have things made. We are a greedy nation as far as coming up with inventions, toys, clothes and so on, and than selling out American citizens in the process and giving jobs that should be here to places like the Phillipines, China and any other slave labor country out there. After getting their cheap labor, the companies who did the outsourcing do not keep up on quality control, even at the risk of upset customers or to the other extreme, death or sickness of our children.
You obviously missed the entire point in my email to attempt to belittle me in yours, balot, so let me rephrase my comment so you may be able to understand it better. Spirit Airlines customer service center in the Phillipines provides below average customer service at best and my calls to their center proves that. Years ago, and we have flown often, when they used to have call centers with U.S. employees behind the phones, I never had a problem correcting a situation or primarily making changes to our tickets. They knew what to do and fixed it. If, and when, you finally get through to the center in the Phillipines, they truly don’t know enough about the company, procedures and what to do in different situations that arise. They do not speak english well enough to provide an outstanding and excellent customer service experience that most USA companies strive for.
If you find this to be false,(balot) I believe you truly are working for Spirit or you’ve never actually had a problem and called the customer care number for assistance. I’m starting to wonder where you live?
FYI, last time we flew on Spirit, I made a comment about the call center in the Phillipines to the ladies behind the ticket counter. We paid for our luggage ahead of time and it only charged us one way so we ended up paying more for our bags and they both said simultaneously, “Oh, no. Don’t call them. They won’t be able to help you.” They proceeded to tell me how I needed to handle it but we never did because it was just one more hassle to deal with on our trip. They said that we have to send in complaints to the company about these things or they will never be changed as long as the airline is making money.
Thank you JP and Allieloopy for sharing your own experiences of what fine Customer care Spirit has and for excusing my spelling errors.
Concerning flying with your dog. We used to fly with our dog who will not fit under the seat. Spirit used to charge us $30 each way to put her in cargo that was temperature controlled and pressurized but they no longer provide this service. Most of the other airlines won’t either. The airlines that we fly currently make you pay to keep your dog under the seat also. Another money maker. Northwest charges about $400 round trip to put our dog in cargo. That’s more than what we pay for our own tickets when we fly! Very unreasonable and fortunately we have a great family that watches her for us when we fly now. That has made traveling so much easier for us. A real blessing.
January 26th, 2008 at 9:20 am |
I was charged $29.95 twice. The $9 Club website has no phone number, or contact email address. I’m going to try calling the 800-772-7117, but guess this won’t be easy. I’ll probably drop this membership, I don’t like charges like this just “showing up” without authorization.
January 26th, 2008 at 12:00 pm |
John,
You should probably drop the club but also contact your credit card company and dispute the charge. I know something similar happened to us once and we disputed the charges after calling our credit card company and than we sent a letter in writing upon their request. We ended up getting our money back.
February 20th, 2008 at 1:52 pm |
How do you know if you are logged on to get the $9 fare? I booked tickets this morning just like they informed me to on the e-mail and now it is showing that i owe the full amount? Customer service line is busy and nothing pisses me off more than bad service!!
February 28th, 2008 at 8:49 pm |
Believe me, they don’t need your booking! Their flights are always full!
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:47 pm |
I am furious at Spirit Airlines .
I bought a RT ticket for $317 in January 2008 for a flight in April. This included a return fare with a higher price due to a feature: “A Big Front Seat” (we didn’t care, but that was all that was left that day.)
The airfare just dropped today to $222 ($95 less)… for the regular sized seat.
I decided that the $60 online change fee was warranted, since I would net approx $35. I wouldn’t do it otherwise.
I entered the change online, but when the final total came up- it was $264.
I called their 800 number.
The rep said the low price has gone up already.
I went online again while we were talking; it was still there. I asked him to check and he verified that the $222. fare was still available.
I told him I was in the middle of processing a change, but did not want to complete it till he could tell me why the lower fare wasn’t coming up.
He stuck to that higher price being the only one available when changing, and offered to do the change for me for $70- which is their correct change fee when not going online.
I said I will pay $70 change fee but only if I can get that $222 price.He said he couldn’t do that.
I asked for a supervisor.
I was put on Hold.
I stayed on hold 45 minutes.(thankfully on an 800 line and with a speaker phone!)
I hung up and tried again; same run-around, no reason.
Offered to put me through to a supervisor.
After another 20 minutes on hold, I hung up again.
The next person I spoke to gave me their direct Customer Service line. I tried that and when I pressed 3 for Customer Relations, it was busy for 5 hours.
I tried every Voice Mail option- no one answers there. I left two messages; none returned.
I finally called their direct line in Miramar Florida- nearby, and same voice mail choices.
I decided to try different extensions and finally got a human being.
I explained my concern. This person said “that’s the rules” .
I said “what rules, where?”
She said in the Terms and Conditions; I told her I was looking at the Terms, and there was nothing there to describe why a price that is available is not available when you Change online.
She said “That’s the rules, the price is different; I can’t help you.”
She said she was a manager and I could go no higher.
I flew Spirit a few times when they first started out; they were Ok, and a good value back then.
Two months agao I was warned by a friend who used to fly SPirit 10 times a year for business. He warned us not to use them anymore.
Now I know why.
March 7th, 2008 at 4:25 pm |
it is definitely not worth it. it’s very complicated and there are very few flights and if there are any, they are full. unless you travel every other day and have lots of time and very flexible life, i wouldn’t recommend this at all.
southwest is the best
April 15th, 2008 at 10:48 am |
HOW DO I CANCEL MY MEMBERSHIP?
April 15th, 2008 at 11:16 am |
To cancel your membership, follow the instructions here:
http://www.upgradetravelbetter.com/2007/07/30/this-is-not-the-spirit-airlines-website-and-i-cant-cancel-your-club-membership-so-why-are-people-asking-me-for-refunds/
May 1st, 2008 at 10:24 am |
Spirt air Lines, is a good air line no problems with my flight from Forth Lauderdale to Agudilla P.R
June 12th, 2008 at 2:59 pm |
Hope Spirit keeps flying. We live in Tampa, FL, and fly frequently to Cancun, about 300 miles “as the crow flies”. Only two airlines offer even fairly reasonable fares today, AA and Spirit. AA requires a change in Miami–always a nightmare. Spirit has it’s own terminal section in Ft. Lauderdale, making the plane change quite simple. Both flights are close to 750 miles each way in the air. No wonder fuel costs are a nightmare? Why can’t some of the airlines from the north connect to Tampa, a wonderful, easy to use airport, and proceed directly to Cancun?
We use both airlines, but have found Spirit to be more dependable and cleaner. yoggii@tampabay.rr.com
June 18th, 2008 at 2:02 pm |
I joined the $9 fare club for a short while (the cheapest fares seem to be November-March)…we actually had a vacation booked in St. Thomas, but cancelled because the airfare was going to be $1000/per person(due to the date being the last week of the year)….so we cancelled our trip and got such an AWESOME deal through the Spirit fare club that we flew to Mexico in January. The rate was actually referred to as “We’ll pay you to fly”. It was -$2.00 each way to fly. The only “catches” were paying extra for each bag of luggage, which I think ended up being $10 for each of us round trip–I think this went up to $10per bag each way. I didn’t mind because we saved SO much money!
June 18th, 2008 at 2:08 pm |
Also wanted to note that yes, I did have some difficulties with it and the customer service, but it was worth it in the long run–we saved alot of money….YES, you DO need to check your email OFTEN…most sales are only for 24 hours…and I noticed that the best ones were offered on Fridays “Fabionicci Friday” ??? So, if you can tough out the customer service crap, you’ll save some dough….
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:19 am |
Do not EVER join spirit airlines $9 club. Currently on the phone (while I type this message) trying to cancel the $9 club membership and it is proving very difficult. Customer service is POOR and no one s knowledgeable about where to refer people.
I get highly irritated when this kind of stuff happens.
July 1st, 2008 at 9:17 pm |
[…] tales of piss-poor customer service, it’s Spirit. Whether it’s their “club,” their automatic opt-in for travel insurance, or their CEO’s screw-the-customer […]
July 7th, 2008 at 8:35 pm |
Well I can assure you that all airlines have their own ways to screw up. I fly to Costa Rica once a month and only through spirit I can get a RT for less than $200 for a direct flight from Ft Lauderdale. Yes sure they’re a little complicated but nevertheless it takes me to my final destination.
AJ
www.costaricanguru.com
July 18th, 2008 at 6:00 am |
Good news in the Tampa Tribune this morning
(7/18/08). Jet Blue has filed for direct non-stop flights from Tampa to Cancun starting in December. Perhaps they will go on to Costa Rica?
July 18th, 2008 at 1:52 pm |
I believe some airlines are not aware yet of how profitable Costa Rica results. For example, last night I flew to Costa Rica on Spirit from FLL on a 11:20 pm flight.
I bought the RT for $211 including taxes and they had a full flight. So if we guestimate the following: $30,000 per flight (125 seats, $200 average fare pp, bags and seats) x 3 daily flights so yes, they make big bucks. Yes, sure they have big expenses but if they weren’t making a profit they wouldn’t be flying three times to Costa Rica.
I spoke to the stewardess and she mentioned that all 3 daily Spirit flights to Costa Rica were always full. I hope more low cost airlines will soon have direct flights USA/CR, otherwise, I am ok with Spirit Air.
AJ
July 29th, 2008 at 2:20 pm |
All,
The topic of this page is “Is the Spirit $9 Fare Club worth joining?”.
The answer is a resounding ABSOLUTELY NOT!
Because you will VERY rarely actually get the low fare at all. Today, I received my email, clicked on it, logged in and was denied any discounted fare at all. The email advertised $8 fares, the site showed the dates I wanted both ways. Then when I went to book (6 minutes past receipt of the email) it was $164 one way and $104 the other.
It’s a complete scam. I do not believe that if there were any decent number of seats available at that lower price, that they would be gone in 6 minutes. This is False Advertising at it’s finest and I will keep you posted as to my progress with the legal action I am planning to take at this time!!!
A very frustrated customer.
K-
August 2nd, 2008 at 5:18 pm |
THIS PROMOTION IS FRAUDULENT!!!
The way they’re able to offer these fares is through identity theft–they got my debit card (God only knows how), charged the $39 fee, then charged a slew of airline tickets to my card for Spirit Airlines and Easyjet, neither of which even serve the US, where I live.
I’ve reported them to the FBI’s Fraud Division and I’m pursuing the matter through a number of legal channels. I’m a federal prosecutor, so they really screwed up by stealing my debit card number. My complaint was not the first the FBI has received on this company. If you give them your card number through one of their promotions, expect fraudulent charges at some point down the line.
Buyer BEWARE.
August 2nd, 2008 at 7:52 pm |
Um, Kristen, first of all Spirit Air does serve the US. It also doesn’t steal debit card numbers, that would have been an individual. A Federal prosecutor would know this. They would have also capitalized the word Federal. Stop spreading rumors that don’t make sense.
August 3rd, 2008 at 6:01 pm |
I don’t think they just stole your credit card information. I mean, did you UNCHECK the $9 Fare Club box?? Because if you didn’t then it’s automatically checked for you to join the club, and yes, you’ll get billed automatically as well.
They have a disclaimer (always read the fine print) so liability is out of the question. Sure they shouldn’t automatically check the box for you but most online services do this. Don’t you just love Corporate America??
AJ
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:57 pm |
So, we got highjacked into this club sometime last fall. I travel for business but have to make my own arrangements. I booked a flight from ATL to FTL and obviously didn’t see I was getting opted into some club. A couple months later my credit card card was billed the annual fee of $29.95.
I called their customer service line and was told by two separate reps and one manager that they couldn’t do anything about refunding my money or cancelling my membership. That I had to log on to their website to cancel it there. I was pretty certain I could do so by putting in my email address and hitting “Forgot my password” but just figured that would allow them to say, “Aha! If you figured out how to login, then obviously you knew you were a member.”
So, I called my credit card company (BOFA) and explained the situation and that we felt we were fraudulently joined into this club and wanted to do a chargeback. They did, sent us some papers we signed to that effect, and we got our money back.
Fast forward to now. I’m still getting occasional emails indicating Spirit still thinks I’m in their useless club, but the annual fee hasn’t hit yet. So, I finally went online and hit forgot my password, signed into the site, and cancelled my membership.
So, this is where I say that I think this whole thing is fraudulent and I’m going to complain to the Miramar and State of Florida Better Business Bureau, but we’ll see if that actually happens.
–Hope this helps. Their customer service line certainly doesn’t help for jack.
August 30th, 2008 at 8:18 pm |
how do they know if you are carrying a pet onboard?
August 30th, 2008 at 9:19 pm |
Well unless you plan on putting the pet in a body cavity…all bags are scanned in the airport.
September 2nd, 2008 at 1:14 pm |
I cannot get on the membership website, I am a member however my password and user name is not accepted.
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:23 pm |
DONT EVER FLY SPIRIT FOR YOU WILL REGRET IT!/ yea i said it…fly spirit and you dead shyt/ i’d rather travel back and be beheaded/ im a lunatic and they charged my credit/ i found out where one of their employees work/ and you can bet you bottom dollar i’ll make them hurt/ i’ll have them burn cuz the money they stole is the money i earned!/
julie is the man!
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:24 pm |
eyooooooo spirit sucks nuts
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:29 pm |
SPIRIT AIR-they just dont care-i hope they choke on my pubic hair-bad service-worthless-a spirit cursed-they pay minimum wage and deserve to be squirt with sperm!
September 10th, 2008 at 2:08 am |
I flew to Bogota and I was ok, but I joined the $9 club to save some money and I don’t see how.if you try to use they codes like 48 hours ended with the same regular price, I will wait a few month and if nothing happen I will cancel the membership.
September 13th, 2008 at 2:54 am |
Spirit Airlines is the most awesome value! It’s unfortunate that so many stupid people try to buy tickets online and don’t pay attention to what they’re doing. If you don’t read EVERYTHING before you click “submit”, then you deserve whatever you get. Please learn how to be a smart consumer, and don’t blame your foolishness on Spirit Air or any other company.
Secondly, I can’t believe people are griping about not being able to find the $9 flights. The answer is simple… LOG IN, FIRST. Then, ta-da, the bargain $9 price will appear. And they ARE available.
Thirdly, there is NOWHERE else that you’ll get this good of a deal. And yet some of the people here are acting completely bent out of shape that they aren’t treated like royalty. Duh. You just got a $9 ticket. You should be thanking your lucky stars. If you feel you need better treatment, pay $500 for First Class elsewhere.
Fourthly, don’t buy a ticket if you think you might change your mind later. It is ALWAYS a hassle trying to get a refund from any airline. If you know you’re the kind of person who gets irate about hassles when trying to change reservations, then go ahead and pay $500 for a refundable ticket so you can feel free to change your mind numerous times after purchasing a flight. Me, I’ll just stick with the $9 fares.
Fifth, if you want a $9 ticket bad enough, maybe you should be willing to check your email daily. Spirit has no blackouts, so the only thing stop you from getting the $9 price is all the other people who also want the $9 price. I guess if you want it bad enough, you’ll check your email more often. Everyone else is checking theirs. Don’t be a baby about not getting a $9 seat just because you’re too lazy to look for it and somebody else beat you to it.
Sixth, if you get the Spirit credit card, you don’t have to pay the annual club fee. However, the card has an annual fee which you will have to pay. But the card entitles you to “Elite” status, and gives you miles for every purchase. It’s a good deal.
Seventh, need I remind you we are discussing a NINE DOLLAR flight? Incredible opportunity to fly international for a bargain!
September 13th, 2008 at 2:52 pm |
I totally disagree- and it has NOTHING to do with the fact that you can get $9 airfares if you join their club and also irrelevant that they have a customer unfriendly method of dafualting tothe club if someone doesn’t take the check mark off.
What is patently and consistently true is that Spirit Airlines Customer Service is the WORST of any airline.
I am not talking about the Phillipine based assistants who dutifully - and politely -follow their instructions to a T.
I am talking about the fact that there is NO WAY to correct any Spirit Airlines caused problems.
NOT all airlines, have difficult return/adjustment policies. Not all airlines have NO way to escalate or address a problem.
Not ALL airlines have defective computer software, and do not admit it nor have any way to address the problem.
I have spoken to their corporate heads in their Miramar office to escalate a problem (no easy feat getting through) Getting a redress once at corporate level is VERY difficlut- and still causes more problmes in itslef.
For instance:
their online ticket credit system is defective: it does not accurately reflect current prices, so even if airfares fall enough to justify their change fees, when you go online, follow through data entry up to the last screen- only then do you find they do not have all fares (including the low one that is STILL available!!!!)on that system.
Response all the way up the chain: that can’t be, the low fare must be gone. Over 12 employees told me that EVEN AFTER I PROVED TO THEM- and the CORPORATE MANAGEMENT!!! that it was still available. That is called Bait and Switch, as far as I know. They get my high change fee for a higher priced ticket exchange!
ALSO: when I finally got a credt, NO VOUCHER was emailed or mailed to me. I had to TRUST it was there on their very in-efficient computer syste,m.
THEN when I weent to use it,knowing it would not cover the fees and taxes, I used part of it.
I went online a month later to use the balance- and LO AND BEHOLD, there is an UNWRITTEN rule: you cnnot use the voucher twice.
Itt is NOT WRITTEN nor documeted ANYWHGERE. Talk about a rip off. This airline is headed for a big fall.
September 14th, 2008 at 12:56 am |
I’m sorry that you aren’t able to enjoy the benefits of the airline. I don’t know how difficult it would be to contact them about changes or problems or whatnot. I just pay my $18 for an international roundtrip ticket, and call it good. Never had a problem. And never had this good of a value on ANY other airline.
If I ever had a problem with Spirit, I would probably just tell myself “Oh well”, and think about all the times I had saved $400 per trip by choosing Spirit over another airline.
If an airfare falls below the price you paid, that’s simply the cost of purchasing early. I don’t even think a person should be entitled to a later “sale” price, because you’ve had the security of a seat guarantee the whole time. I don’t think anyone should be able to reserve a seat and then complain about a sale that came later. It’s just like stuff going on sale in a store. People who buy something at one price and then try to take it back when they discover the item is on sale and then buy it again at a lower price are SCAMMERS. Buying early is a gamble… sometimes you’ll capture the lowest price, and sometimes not, but the one thing you do capture by buying early is the guarantee of a seat. People who wait for a sale may lose out entirely because the plane will book up.
If I was an airline, I would NEVER allow a current ticketholder to change to a lower price. (Reason being that the later sale prices are determined by the number of vacant seats remaining.)
It does sound like you had a lot of difficulties, but doesn’t sound like your expectations are reasonable, considering it’s a discount airline. You get what you pay for. Discount airfares are for straightforward consumers who want straightforward purchases and don’t need special exceptions. Just buy, and fly… period. No other fluff.
It’s just like any other discount company.
September 14th, 2008 at 10:21 pm |
For one thing- I have never gotten a $9 nor $18 ticket from Spirit. All tickets I’ve purchased from Spirit in the past 3 years were over $200.
On your basicv premise: we disagree totally.
Whether for $9 nor $18, if you get on a plane and they provide bad service- whether online or on the plane, losing your luggage or delaying a flight due to their own errors in scheduling, you SHOULD bring it to the attention of Customer Service.
If I buy something inferior at Walmart for a sale price, I do go to their Customer Service, explain the situation politely with all proof and expect a rational and efficient customer service response.
By not doing so, we Americans are lowering our standards. If we want inferior Chinese products or bad airline service, then that is exactly what we will get.
On the other hand, I have flown Southwest Airlines 100s of times- with excellent customer service, no excessive fees, and whether I purchase a low cost or higher fare, I expect, and get, good service. That’s why Southwest will outlast all other low cost, and most legacy carriers.I only wish they would fly to more places I go to regularly.
October 1st, 2008 at 3:33 pm |
I agree with R.Richardson the fan fare club does work, it’s fantastic for someone who is on a strict budget as I am. Yes they do have different promotions such as 48 hours, 24 hours that you have to book the flight for the 48 or 24 off. However they have flights that are 1, 2, 8 and 9 bucks and the dates of travel. I am so happy I joined this club. I got a flight for 1 dollar to the Bahamas in June, however you have to pay the international fees and taxes but it was 89.90 round trip with taxes and fees includes from Fort Lauderdale to Bahamas. Hey come on I couldn’t go wrong with that. The regular price was 250.00 round trip well I like the 89.90 price much better. Well in August they sent something to my e-mail for 2 buck flights guess what I went to the Bahamas again this time the ticket was 105.00 round trip with taxes and international fees included. Well I’m going back in November but this time I got a 9 dollar fare going but had to pay more coming back because all the 9 dollars seats coming back were probable booked but I’m still not paying but 120.00 round trip so it’s still a deal. Guess what in December I have a trip booked for Montego Bay Jamaica and the total cost was 105.00 round trip all fees included it was a 9 dollar fare each way. Hey I can’t beat that no way. As far as I’m concerned I’ve already earned my 39.95 membership back already with all the savings. All my trips were smooth sailing and no problems.
If I was not a part of this club that spirit offer I know I would not have been flying like this since June with two more trips booked and paid for at those prices. See you have to remember when they offer those cheap prices they only have so many seats for them so who ever jump on it first get the deals. I check my e-mail each day cause they are always offering good deals. With the economy like it is I’m glad spirit has a way to give me a break in the finance department of my purse. Take all the tips that R. Richardson gave because I’ve had to ask some people I know if they were logged in when trying to get their deals and they said no. I’m sorry for those who have had the bad experiences with the club but the ones who have gotten the benefits as i have I know you are like me a $9 dollar fan fare fan and you are enjoying your discounts to the fullest. I know for a fact I would not have booked these past or future trips had it not been for this club. Spirit is giving me the opportunity to fly to places I’ve always wanted go and hotels can be booked through them as well. Thanks Spirit!
Yes this spirit club is worth it if used correctly.