Spirit Airlines eliminates its customer service department

Although Spirit Airlines denies reports that it’s on the verge of making massive cutbacks, there’s evidence the no-frills discount carrier is quietly dismantling its customer service department.

Well, that may be an overstatement. But it’s not much of one.

Earlier this year, I published the names and e-mail addresses of Spirit’s executives. It’s a courtesy I extend to every airline with passengers who have service problems. Spirit’s response? It apparently changed its e-mail addresses so that it wouldn’t have to deal with its own customers. None of the addresses currently work, but if there are any Spirit employees out there with the correct contact information — well, you know how to reach me.

Since then, I’ve received numerous reports of customer service inquiries simply being ignored. Two of them landed in my “in” box just this morning.

Here’s one from reader Helen Leung, who recently returned from her honeymoon in Jamaica. Not only did Spirit charge her $20 to transport her luggage, but it lost her belongings and then refused to reimburse her for the clothes she had to buy on her vacation, even though she presented the airline with the necessary receipts.

“Spirit Airlines apparently handles their problems by ignoring their customers through phone and mail,” she told me.

The second came from reader Lana Cullum, who says an error by a Spirit reservations agent cost her $200 in bank fees. The airline refuses to answer her queries relating to the charges. “There is no way to speak to a person that I have found when you call the office in Miramar,” she says. “As far as the 800 number — forget it!”

I’m not sure if Spirit has fired its entire customer service department, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s made cutbacks or has instructed its agents to hold the line on any refunds. Either way, this is a deeply troubling sign.

Spirit was never a standout when it comes to customer service, but refusing to answer inquiries from its passengers could be a sign that the cutbacks everyone is talking about may actually represent a best-case scenario.

The worst-case scenario? Well, that’s where Spirit actually lives up to its name.

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  • mike

    Was just charged an extra 200.00 to send my 13 1/2 year old daughter on a short non-stop flight. “Unaccompanied Minor”. OK Spirit, you got my 200.00. But I won’t use you ever again,at any cost, not me or my wife or 7 kids. And I never tire of telling everyone I know what a rip-off Spirit is. Hope they go out of business…

  • Kathy Kreicker

    We attempted to return home from St Thomas to Chicago on March 22. From the onset, we were continually lied to by the flight crew- bad weather in Ft Lauderdale and debris on the runway- all easily proven to be untrue using info from my IPhone. Our Chicago flight was canceled as were about seven others stranding at least 1000 people. The ground crew in Lauderdale was arrogant, confrontational, and did absolutely nothing to help anyone. Thank God we had our son at home who contacted Spirit and rebooked us for the next day. This is a classless operation that has zero customer service. They didn’t quite eliminate their customer service department. When I called to confirm that we did indeed have a flight for the 23rd, the eoman asked me if it was Tuesday or Wednesday where I was…she was in India and had a hard time keeping up with the correct day of the week. Fly any other airline but Spirit.

  • http://www.kpo.com kpo

    This is the true effects of the economic slow down. Hope it gets better.

  • EvelynDay

    I AM ASKING WHO YOU CAN DIRECT ME TO. I AM A $9 CLUB MEMBER (#103341151). Whenever I book a flight in the past 5 months…it will not allow me the $9 club price. Why???? Thank You for your help in this matter.

  • sheree neymour

    the customer service here really sucks I just recenly enrolled in the$9 fan club I was having problems with my computer and while fixing my toddler mistakenly pressed the cancellation . I tried everything to have it rectified I just had my visa charged for 35.99 they refuse to rectify my problem I payed for a service I cant use and they have my money this is fraud. shame on youSpirit Airlines.
    I am going to the media with this.

    so not fair

  • James Russo

    The spirit airline operation is a scam and a scumbag ripoff,0peration. I am taking them to court. for scamming me. out of booking fees. I booked two tickiets via teliphone contact. because their web site crashed in the middle of booking the fares. I thought I was talking to customer Serivce. but It was a scumbag trtavel agent. who they contract out to scam peopl.e the low life scumbag name is Corey. he charged me double to book one flight .my wife and child. I tried making a complaint but they have no web address for customer service. anyway ,I am making a formal complaint to the FAA and the Florida Attorney General for Fraud. and also a small claims waarrant for fraud and deceptive practices; Even If i DONT WIN .I WILL FORCE THEM TO SPEND MONEY ON LEGAL FEES. I HOPE THEY GO BANKRUPT. OR WORSE. THEY SHOULD INVESTIGATE THE SCUMBAG CEO. THE GUY YOU SEE ON THEIR TV AD .,HIDING IN A STORAAGE COMPARTMENT ON THE PLANE. THATS PROBALBY WHERE HE CONDUCTS HIS BUSINESS. THEY TAKE HIM OUT ,WHEN HE HAS TO GO TO THE jOHN. A TERRIBLE OPERATION. EVEN PERSON I HAVE MET AT SPIRIT IS INCOMPETENT. MORONS.

  • Beth Schulte

    Spirit Airlines customer support is horrible. Spirt overbooks a flight and I kindly give them my seat so a child can travel with her parents. I spent 11 hours in the airport for which they gave me a travel voucher.

    When I need to use the voucher to attend a funeral – even though there were seats they would not let me use my voucher.

    WAY TO GO SPIRIT…WON’T USE YOU AGAIN.

  • traci messenger

    Sitting here waiting to see when my son arrives after being on an 8 hr flight, he’s told by the attendent, you’ll miss your next flight(at 7am) so it’ll put you alittle behind heres your flight for 8:15-oops he forgot to say 8:15PM!! Try 13 hrs behind!!! Get on web site to see whats happening and its “down” call phone #, cant understand service personal who gets angry, because I can’t understand him so he yells. He said he’d fly standby, but the service desk@ spirit says your bags scheduled for the 8:15 pm. I will never schedule w/spirit along w/anyone I know. I wonder w/all the incompetence of the support line(if you call it “support”) How competent are your pilots? Never mind, I’m never using your carrier again anyways-

  • http://www.naturallookmakeup.com geegee beatty

    I have been on the phone for 49 minutes waiting to make a reservation
    for the $9 Club. THERE IS NO CUSTOMER SERVICE. THEY JUST
    PUT YOU ON A SPEAKER AND THAT IS IT.

    We hung up and called back to make a REGULAR RESERVATION and LOW AND BEHOLD THEY ANSWERED. We asked to make the $9.00
    reservation and they said you will have to go back on hold and wait.
    IT NOW IS 52 MINUTES AND I AM TYPING THIS AS I AM ON
    HOLD.

    WHY DONT WE ALL REPORT THEM TO CONSUMERS AFFAIRS FOR
    MISS LEADING ADVERTISING AND MARKETING.

  • http://yahoo sheila tropp

    wecannot get a conformation on the flights i booked cannot get to speak to a customer dservice in the mirimar office in florida when you call to book a flight and tlk to someone you can never understand them im not against people in india but you cannot understand them i called 8 times before someone said the email was 1 letter off even though i spelled it 8 times where can we call to speak to a customer service person in florida who speaks english and the email you give out is no good ialso took out insurance and dont know whether it was confirmed our confo numbers arex4p7jf and n8g74t please respond either to email and phone 954 6834159 also a letter would be nice 11421 nw 39 place sunrise fl 33323 please include phone number for customer service with extension of person to talk to not just a phone number with no options or place to leave message which never gets returned we are loyal flyers when we do fly dont let us change our choices

  • http://www.uwsp.edu/athletics/mbb/camps.htm Summer Camps

    Maybe you should change the page name title Spirit Airlines eliminates its customer service department to something more generic for your subject you write. I enjoyed the blog post yet.

  • NUNZIE J MOLLICONE

    CORPORATE CONSUMER AFFAIRS,SPIRIT AIRLINES,ATT:KARIANNE SILVA, I NUNZIE J MOLLICONE AM STILL WAITING FOR A CREDIT OF $197.00 THAT YOUR REP SAID IWOULD BE GETTING REFUNDED $100 FOR AN ESCORT THAT I PAID $200 FOR MY MINOR GRANDAUGHTER ANNMARIE PAPADOPOULOS FOR A ROUNDTRIP TICKET FROM ACY TO TPA ,THE RETURN FLIGHT HAD BEEN CANCELLED IN TIME AND TY YOUR REP,SAID THAT CREDIT WAS FOR $97 FOR A TOTAL OF $197.CREDIT WOULD TAKE ONE WEEK TO 10DAYS.BACK TO MY DISCOVER CARD.CONF#D1PYVL DEC.4TH AND DEC 9TH 2019

  • liz

    Reading the remarks about Spirit Airline’s cutbacks i can vouch for the elimination of the customer service department, i was on hold for two and half hours and no one picked up.  I finally wrote an email to the corporate office but doubt that it will ever be looked at or answered.  Another airlines signing off. 

  • Jeannine

    I’ve just recently been scammed by Spirit Airlines.  When I went to make the reservations I was told that it didn’t go thru.  My debit card has now been charged with $1533.00.  I called and they told me they would issue a credit and send my bank an email confirming.  My bank hasn’t received the email and I haven’t received the credit.  I’m calling again now, on hold for 15 minutes so far.  I can only hope this is a temporary scam.

  • atc_av8er

    Just in case someone is looking to e-mail them, the address is first name.last name@spirit.com

  • Medmurphy

    We flew San Jose, CR to Ft. Lauderdale on Spirit Aug 31st and tried to checkin our baggage online 24 hours before. It was not possible, the website was not responding correctly and finally we checked in our bags (two checkin and one overhead) and was charged $120 at the counter. I  told the Spirit employee I was not happy and he said that the website indeed was not responding but to pay the full price and then collect from the company later.  Ye, right !!! what choice did we have, so now I find there is no customer service, this company heavily sucks but it’s still cheaper, what can I say.

  • Millenniumproperty

    m very disapointed haw work castomer service.I call to castomer service four time and mananger hangap the phone,to not ansver question.

  • D K

    With their recent debacle concerning the “no refund” to the dying Vietnam vet, their bad image is getting worse.  Let’s hope the veteran boycott of Spirit puts them into receivership.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/MQHQIUIODOESDREUNNL3PXATMI Kathi Skytta

    Hi Christopher,

    Thanks for letting me vent. On May 27th we arrived at DIA to fly to Fort Lauderdale on Spirit Airlines. The flight had been cancelled and we were given a refund of our original fare and told by the four ticket agents who were talking to other customers that we would all have two free airline tickets anywhere Spirit flew to in the next 12 months. Little did we realize that the ticket agents were lying. We were then given the choice of waiting 24 hours to take the next flight out but decided to see if we could get on the last flight out with Jet Blue. When we told them the story they suggested we get everything in writing. We booked with Jet Blue paying an additional $ 800. and ran back to Spirit to see if we could get them to put their offer in writing.They insisted that they did not need to and that it was on our credit card. The receipt we were issued did not have the two tickets on it. We asked again and the Spirit people insisted we did not need it. We then went onto Jet Blue’s flight and made our connections on time in Fort Lauderdale and did not loose a night’s reservation at our destination.

    No reason was given for why the original flight was cancelled. On our return to Colorado we attempted to reach Spirit many times by phone and were hung up on three separate times and put on hold innumerable times. When we tried to send an official complaint into Spirit their web-site would not allow us to send in the complaint saying that our last name was a misspelling and that our flight reservation number was also misspelled.

    Spirit’s customer service which we now know from your newsletter has been disbanded but only after many people had the same experience that we did. I guess we were lucky. We are out approximately $ 800. but we got to our destination and did not loose our connecting flights or our reservation at the resort. It is hard to believe Spirit’s staff acted so dishonorably and told everyone outright lies but after reading the letters of complaint about Spirit I only wish we had read about them before we even looked at their fares.

    Thank you for publishing your newsletter.

    Kathi and Keith Skytta

  • sam

    Economic slowdown – hardly – bad bad sense of business and customer service is more like it! They have absolutely no concern for their clients and treat them with utter negligence – the customers will in turn tell everyone they know – I for one hope Spirit Airlines does not change because our family, friends and neighbors will be better off never to have to deal with this horrible company…..Outsourcing all customer calls ONLY to India was their DOWNFALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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