www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Spirit has one of the worst customer service I have seen in the service industry. My flight out of fort Lauderdale was delayed by an hr and they had no courtesy to inform on the PA system. somehow they got us on the plane to San Jose. They started circling the airport for fifteen minutes because of bad weather (early morning fog). The pilot decided to go to Guatemala city to refuel and wait for the weather to clear up. At Guatemala city airport, he decides to take us back to fort Lauderdale ( According to him , its better for us to go back than wait at the Guatemala city airport). Long story short , we were back at the fort Lauderdale airport and now they don't have any flights out for San Jose today. They wont allow us to go through different carrier (according to them, bad weather is no a reason for them to go to different carrier). They have like two hundred passenger stuck from two to three different flights. No customer service, rude agents, no information network.

I was so pissed, I just drove back home from the airport.



Amagarwa

You can see another post wrote about their CSR, but when you fly the budget airline with only limited flights per day, you set yourself up for problems. I have one flight with them and that is it, I'll go back to overpaying for piece of mind that if there are problems the Major airlines will compensate or take care of you.

Note: Many of the problems expierienced are not the airlines fault, see article below regarding SJO airport and their problems with fog.

Some Helpful tips during the "GREEN" Rainy Season:

Take if at all possible flights that land Before 2PM in the afternoon. This will reduce many of the "FOG" diversion problems as the heavy rains and or fog is often later in the day and at night.

When departing SJO in Green Season If at all possible do not take the 1st flight out in the AM.. Shoot for the 2nd choice or flights that leave between 10AM & 3PM. Often the 1st flight out in the AM is delayed as a direct result of the diversion of the previous night.

Of course the above is not possible with many limited flights to where you are going, but its something to think about during the wet months.

_________________
The Boss of All Bosses!!! Hey I'm a drunk alcoholics go to meetings!

This goes against my "green season" planning since the fog and rain often delay the early afternoon flights from departing on time.

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Living well is the best revenge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwUtj_YnNoY

Obviously everyone will have their own opinion sorry Paco.. Here are my experiences of the last 7 years traveling to CR. Yes I’m a bit wacko for knowing these stats. Also these are only Fog / Weather delays that I am referring.

Flying to SJO: Between April & November 1st

1st Flights out in the Am from NYC area direct or connecting through MIA: Diverted for weather. (ZERO EVENTS)

Flying as above landing mid day Diverted for weather 1 time to Liberia waited about 90 minutes on the ground and headed to SJO

Flying in or around nightfall or later as above. (NOTE ALSO have connected through Dallas) Diverted 10 Times, 4 Times able to get to SJO that night, 4 Times Overnight in Panama, 1 Overnight in Liberia, 1 overnight in Managua.

Returning; From SJO

1st Flight out in the AM 3 Delays of 4 plus hours or more no plane there from previous nights diversion

Mid day flight small delays plane not getting in on time but nothing drastic or massive delays as these flights usually arrive from somewhere else same day of travel.

Last flights of day.

2 AA Cancellations (Put up overnight courtesy of AA)

1 Martin Air Cancellation (Put up courtesy of Martin Air)

1 Taca Cancellation (Was told to wait 6 hours they were working on a new plane or come back tomorrow) Option of accommodations was not provided, paid for the room myself, flew home next day, (note LATE AGAIN)

Countless other delays due to weather not only in SJO but from wherever the flight was coming from.


Based on my experiences alone it is safer to take the early flights in and the mid day flights out… this is by far simply my random sampling, and others may have other ideas. Just thought I’d pass it on.

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The Boss of All Bosses!!! Hey I'm a drunk alcoholics go to meetings!

The majority of airports do not have ALS. Mostly the larger international airports that have hundreds of flights daily have it.

But in places like SJ, where visibility can be a problem due to rain and/or fog, one would think it would make sense to install it.

your right spirit sucks. Did you notice how many people were at the ticket counter pissed off and complaining when you went to check in for your flight?I saw one lady crying as she was walking to her car talking on her cell phone. My understanding is they had 2 or 3 flights completely goofed up beside the SJO to Guatamala back to U.S. fiasco. I know somebody that was on that flight as well and spirit couldn't get them back on another flight for 8 days. Freaking ridiculous. And your right there is NO customer service.
Can't wait tell the yearly complaint numbers come out for that airline. On my last trip there were 4 people on my flight getting the customer service number to file complaints. I don't care how much money you save it ain't worth the hassle or the thought of some kind of hangup delaying your trip an entire week and there is no chance they are paying to put you on another airline.

My only question is, Did spirit offer to let them off the plane in guatamala city, a cheap bus ride wouldnt take 8 days to get to san jose. My experience with spirit is that they had excellent customer service in San Jose, but their customer service, sucked badly in Ft Lauderdale, Their employees in ft lauderdale no matter what their job, seemed more interested in sitting around doing nothing.

Also on our flight back from San Jose, they said that if anyone had a problem with the flight, please Write Delta, so maybe the stewards on the plane knew more than they were willing to let on.

Well, tonight is my turn. I'm schd. to fly out (45 min. past midnight) to FLL.
If I get out on time, I'll be making a connection to LAS. Will report on how they did tomorrow or the next day. Please help me by keeping your fingers crossed for me.
LVSteve

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Just an old horney, fat gambler.

Here is another Spirit Airlines experience that was posted on another board.

"Now Spirit is another story: If flying out of Ft. Lauderdale it is a
zoo and you should allow 3 to 4 hours to get to the gate. I made it
with no time to spare with a 2 hour window. Once I arrived, my bag
was not here and it took two days to get it. They don't deliver lost
bags, but Nella patiently took me to the airport twice! Spirit may be
cheap but they do not have the systems in place to handle the volume
of cheap tickets on sale. Just a word of caution and maybe things
will get better."

Certainly a lot of bad experiences being reported for such a short time in the market. Caveat emptor

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

Bueno suerte mi amigo, keep us posted. I have been flying Taca almost exclusively now for the last 1 1/2 yrs w/o any major delays....Taca does the non stop to LAX

Just returned to LAX on Spirit 2 days ago. Had the "big leather seats". which IMHO is well worth the small extra charge.Perfect flights coming and going. All segments on time and no lost luggage. An interesting thing happened on my flight back last Friday. As we were getting ready to depart and the staff ready to close the door a passenger said his friend was not on board yet but was on his way and asked if staff could could closing the door for 2 minutes. The Spirit attendant said if they waited another 2 minutes it would offically mark the Spirit flight as late taking off. Needless to say they left without the guy. According to his friend, his friend had been drinking heavily at the bar and lost track of time. (he called him via cel phone)

Unless the flight was already off schedule 2 minutes would not have mattered. Government record keeping, which is used to publish monthly on time rankings, use a 15 minute window. A flight scheduled to depart at 8:00 AM is considered on time if it leaves the gate by 8:15 AM.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

I will not fly spirit again, their customer service sucks. I purchased a refundable ticket because I was flying into San Jose with no return ticket.

Did not need it, because the airline and immigration never asked for a return flight ticket.

I called on May 15 and asked for a refund to my credit card. I was told it takes 8-10 days to get the charge credited to my card.

I waited till June 3 called again and was informed the accounting dept. was running behind and they did not know when I would be credited.

Today I called and got a message to call back as they were overloaded in calls.

I have called my credit card company and disputed the charge. Who knows when I will be credited.

Well, I got to the airport about 2 hours before the dreaded red eye and paid my departure (no line) with ease. Stood in line at the spirit counter for about 15 min. They gave me a boarding pass (little piece of paper) and told me to go thru security. No hang ups in any of these lines.
Once at the boading area, noticed just about everything was closed so I napped until they made the boarding call which was hard to hear as they didn't have access to a mike.
I was in the first group called. Flight was about half full. We got out on time and arrived in FLL where I breezed thru customs giving me time for a couple of smokes outside before proceeding thru security for the next spirit flight to Vegas which left on time but was very long (5 hours).
Next time, I will upgrade to the big seats because I'm a big guy and I felt a little cramped in the smaller seats.
Bring food as the snacks are limited to cookies, chips and muffins and they will charge you for them.
LVSteve

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Just an old horney, fat gambler.

After reading posts here I decided that Continental was a much better choice,
even though I am not tied to the exact window of my flight, I thought that it would be better to pay a few more $$ than take a chance on Spirit.
only 4 days and a wake up to go

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Kiltman