Noreen Ismail seemed to have an airtight case against Spirit Airlines. Its transgressions against her, her husband, and 11-month old included overcharging her for her carry-on luggage abandoning her in Boston and making promises it never intended to keep.
But as with so many problems I write about on this site, all isn’t as it appears to be. Spirit turned her down after reviewing her case, and my involvement isn’t likely to overturn its decision. But before I file this into my “case dismissed” folder, let’s have a look at why a problem that like such a good candidate for compensation came up empty.
Let’s begin with Ismail’s flight from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Boston in late last year. Before the family departed they phoned Spirit to find out if they’d need to make any special arrangements for their toddler.
“A customer service representative informed me that we were allowed one carryon bag each at no additional charge, which included my 11 month old son,” she says. “But when I arrived at the airport to check in I was told different. They would not allow me and my family to board the plane unless I paid for my carryon luggage.”
Ismail reluctantly paid $38 to carry her bag on the plane. Spirit is the only U.S. airline to charge passengers to carry on their luggage. It is particularly troubling when the fee is imposed on someone who clearly has no choice in the matter, like a mother with a young child who probably needs to be fed and changed during the flight.
The family tried to call Spirit when they landed in Boston to complain about the charge — a charge they were told they wouldn’t have to worry about. But they couldn’t reach anyone. Spirit outsourced its call center operations to India a few years ago. Reaching someone by phone is difficult; reaching someone who can understand the nature of your complain is even more difficult, some customers say.
But the worst part was the return flight. Ismail called before their departure to verify their flight details. Everything checked out.
When I arrived at the airport I was told the flight was delayed three hours. Hours and hours went by and we were left in the dark not knowing what was going to happen. Finally, they told us the flight had been canceled and that they were issuing refunds to everyone and offering two roundtrip tickets as the compensation package.
But just before they paid JetBlue a pricey one-way walk-up fare to get back home, a Spirit representative agreed to rebook the family on another flight.
The rep gave us no option — he just booked us a flight back home on another carrier.
We made it clear that we were getting the short end of the stick and preferred to just book our own ticket with another airline and take the compensation package like everyone else.
We were quite upset, so he stated he would get us a round trip ticket each for everything we had gone through.
We asked for something in writing, since at this point we didn’t believe anything that this airline told us. He said he could not provide us anything in writing and we had to run to catch the flight he just booked for us.
Once they returned to Florida, she called about the two free roundtrip tickets. Turns out there were no tickets, just two $50 travel vouchers. And there was no refund.
“Basically, they lied to us again and we had no recourse and nothing in writing,” she says.
I suggested getting something in writing and recommended she send a brief, polite email to the airline asking it to honor its oral agreement with her family.
Here’s its response:
Our mission is to operate as closely to our flight schedules as possible. We certainly make a concerted effort to operate on time and when we do not, it is because all efforts to do so have been exhausted.
We can certainly understand your frustration and recognize the inconvenience this can cause to travel plans. At times, airlines need to make changes because of weather patterns, mechanical issues, better organization for the passengers, and overall safety.
I am sorry the delay and cancellation of your December 27, 2011 Boston flight was inconvenient for you and your family. Please note the safety of our valued passengers and crew members is our priority. When we make a decision to ground a flight, it is done with careful consideration.
Spirit also links to its contract of carriage, the legal agreement between the airline and its customers, presumably as a way of saying: We followed our own rules.
It’s obviously a form letter. But if you spend a little time on Spirit’s site, you’ll see that the carry-on charge is legit (immoral, perhaps, but it’s clearly disclosed). And if you accept the airline’s return flight — even if you don’t want to — it owes you nothing. So the $50 vouchers were more than Spirit had to pay Ismail.
If Spirit owed her anything, it was a more thorough explanation of why she had to pay for her carry-on item even though a phone agent assured her she didn’t have to. And we can thank her for helping the rest of us understand that if Spirit promises you anything, get it in writing.
