USVI-On-Line

We have flown Spirit Air many times traveling to St John and Jamaica. I guess we have been the lucky ones, we've never had problems with connections, lost luggage and the price usually can't be beat. Well our luck ran out on our return flight in March.

After spending 9 glorious days relaxing on St. John we returned to the airport for our flight home. We departed about 15 minutes late, which had me worrying about our tight connection, but the pilot made up the time and we landing early. After arriving in Fort Lauderdale, we sat and waited as we didn't have a gate. After waiting for 20 minutes we deplaned after being assured that the other flight would wait for us, ran to the next terminal building and went through security again (one machine in service), we arrived at the gate as they closed the door. Literally in our faces!! They told us there was nothing they could do. Our flight left 5 minutes early, without us.

We went back to the other terminal, waited in line and finally were face to face with a very nice woman who told us that she could get us on a flight on Tuesday. Tuesday was three days away and we had kids we needed to get back to. There were no other options until the Tuesday flight, she gave us a voucher for 30% off a hotel room and said that Spirit would refund us the "unused portion" of our fare. After some research on flights, we found only one available flight Sunday night on a 9 pm flight for only $1100.00 each. After trying every other airline and finding no other flights we decided to get a hotel room and regroup. Oh and by the way our luggage had made the flight and was waiting for us in Myrtle Beach.

Unfortunately, spring break was in full swing and there were no hotel rooms in the vicinity of Fort Lauderdale. We decided to rent a car and drive north until we could find a room. Thank you Avis who rented us a great one way rental for $68.00 . We started driving at 10:00 pm thinking we would find a room and stop when we got tired. We finally found one at 5:00 am in Georgia. Spring break, high school soccer championship, some big PGA event, a Blake Shelton concert and of course the NCAA Championships had taken every single hotel room in Florida!! We finally made it to Myrtle Beach, picked up our luggage and drove the last two hours home. We were supposed to be home at 11:00 pm Saturday, we actually arrived at 7:00 pm Sunday.

I am now a Spirit Hater! They made no attempt to help us find a room, find a car or to find another flight. Their 30% hotel coupon was worthless and the fact that I had to drive out of my way to pick up my luggage which actually made the flight didn't make me very happy either. While I realize this was kind of a perfect storm with Spring Break and the other events I think Spirit could have done a much better job trying to help or maybe holding the flight until it was actually supposed to take off knowing the inbound flights were having problems.

Lesson learned! Still had my wonderful 9 days on the Rock and already looking at Villas for next year. USAir here we come!

Wow, what a nightmare! I cannot believe they left early and wouldn't let you get on the flight.

ncsusan,
That is terrible that you had to go through all that on your vacation.
The only good thing is that it didn't happen on the way down. glad the
St. John visit was good.

Wow...that"s terrible..but I'm glad you had a good time on STJ... we use them as well and have had fairly good luck as well..however,on our last trip we were late getting out of STT and missed the Ft Lauderdale connection...but they paid for a room at the Marriott and we had food vouchers..(not enough to eat on) something like 7 bucks a person, but transportation to and from the Hotel was furnished..we had to fly to NY the next morning then back to Myr. which wasn't a big deal other than it was cold in NY, it was in November and we were in Shorts and flip flops..lol .. We had planned on staying the night in Myr as that flight gets in so late anyway..so we still got home about the same time as we had planned. There was about 10 or 12 of us that had been on the flight from STT, so maybe that had something to do with it I'm not sure..We ended up with 40% off our next flight and I forget how many air miles...but we are using them again..and will hope for the best...I have 9 of us coming in for Carnival and hopefully everything will go ok.. 7 are flying back after a week and Hubby and I will stay for an extra time, so I hope all goes well for them...But I am curious as to why you had to go thru security again once you landed in FTL? we have never had to do that out of probably..6 or 7 flights from STT into Myr..is this some thing new they have started..maybe I should call and check on it..I'd hate for my crew to be delayed because of that..btw...there's also been some bad things about US Air going around as far as flights times changing..I was keeping up with it as I have a cpl of friends that were possibly going with us in June and would use their Non Stop from Clt, but they arent going so I haven't really paid much attn to it lately..Sorry to hear you had a bad return fight..

Our daughter and her family had almost the same experience with American. They also ran and got to the gate before the flight left but were refused entry as their seats had been filled. Finally got out the next am after a night in a seedy hotel in Miami. All this and traveling with 2 autistic boys (which they had notified AA about) .

Flying is such a nightmare now-a-days. With all the airlines doing mergers, it is only going to get worst. Glad you had a good 9 days on the rock and like someone said, at least it didn’t happen on the way down. Not only do you make reservation months in advance to get a good fare, but the airlines change your trip 500 times before you go. Then, don’t tell you that you don’t have seats any longer. You have to constantly monitor your reservation and spend hours on the phone trying to fix their changes. Use to be that you went to STJ to relax from your job – now you need to go to de-stress from the airlines. We flew Virgin American from LAX to SFO and it was the best experience we ever had flying. I wish that they flew to the Virgin Islands. Hopefully you will have better luck on your next trip.

It's like playing Russian roulette when it comes to flying with connections anymore. Heck, I even lost a bag for a day on a direct flight.

I feel your pain. We've flown close to 10 years spirit, till 2 years ago. Kinda same stuck in Ft lau and missed connection. All those years didn't see it coming! When it did ..aggh.. I've vowed never to fly spirit unless non stop... Switched to US Air last year and on our return from STT they delayed us liike 12 times!! Finally left at around midnite! But being a nonstop it wasn't nearly as painful knowing we'd be home 6 hours late instead of the poor folks who knew they were gong to be stuck in Phila missing their connection.... No more non stop for me.... and I'll pay extra for it........

Thanks for letting me vent regarding my Spirit experience. It definitely could have been worse had it happened on the way to St. John. Ironically, during my very long four state drive back home I got a customer service survey from Spirit asking me to tell them about my recent flight. I truly enjoyed filling that survey out.

That's the Spirit Air experience. I expect nothing different. We won't fly them unless we can leave early, return late and deal with travel disruptions. Unless Spirit is $200 less per person it ends up costing more for unreliable service. For us at our airports, our order of preference is United, Jet Blue, American, Delta and Spirit Air dead last.

Cheers, RickG

I agree with RickG, except for the order (based on personal experience). As far as Spirit goes, without riling any feathers, I think it's a case of you get what you pay for. I'm not sure I would use Spirit even if they were $200 less, as Rick sez. We now feel the same way about American.
We used to sort of rotate between American and Delta every year to STJ, based on who had the best rates. But after 2 nightmare return legs, one from STJ and one from Curacao, I've vowed to never fly American again. We've been quite happy with Delta going to STJ and back. I've had previous not-so-great experiences with United and USAir, so for us, it's Delta or nothing.

We just returned on American and got exactly what we paid for. With the large number of flights between STT & MIA and MIA & WAS we can get same day service even if we miss a flight. We had a five hour layover in MIA on Sunday, but a long lunch at La Careta was good. That's the price we pay for cheap tickets that allow us to visit frequently.

Delta would work for us if we lived further south, but a 5:45AM flight and a 45 minute layover in Atlanta is too close for us.

United has our dream connection with an 8:30am flight and a 12:30pm arrival. Jet Blue is probably #1 for service so far.

The airline discussion is fluid. We'll likely all change opinions based on future performance. But, with the departure of American Eagle out of SJU, AA no longer wins the convenience and price battle consistently. We frequently fly different airlines coming and going.

Cheers, RickG

We had a bad experience flying to BVI several years ago...going and coming. In Miami, American caused us to miss our flight from STT to Beef Island and refused to take any kind of responsibility. Ended up having to charter the flight for $800. On the way back they caused us to miss our flight in SJU. Flew us to to NY (we were trying to get back home to Dallas). In NY we flew into one airport and flew out another causing us to have to go through security again. The rum we brought back to my father-in-law had to be checked and the seal broke. Thankfully I had it in a plastic bag and tightly wrapped it and avoided a huge mess. I was so pi$$ed at American. There's just not too many options out of Dallas unfortunately. I'm so envious of everyone else's cheaper flights and other airline options.

This year we are flying American on US Air. DFW-CLT-STT We'll see how that goes. That flight was about $300-400 cheaper per person than the AA flights to Miami or SJU and it was still $700+ per person...in summer! Ridiculous. Oh well, I'm finally going back to St. John. Last visit was 2006. This time taking the kids and my sister's family. We will have fun no matter what the airline experience is. Can't wait!!