Complaint Review: Spirit Airlines

Spirit Airlines lost our child car seats and stranded us with our sick children at LAX for 8 hours.

Spirit's CEO,  Ben Baldanza, didn't bother to respond to my complaint. Instead, he had his Luggage Resolution Agent Tiffany respond. Below are my original letter (our last names and children's names are redacted) and Tiffany's response.

Ben Baldanza

CEO of Spirit Airlines Inc.

2800 Executive Way

Miramar, FL 33025

Dear Mr. Baldanza:

We are writing to request reimbursement of the cost of our flights on your airline. A copy of our e-ticket receipt for $1,191.12 is attached.

Flights:

Thursday, November 28, 2013 flight 868 LAX to Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX.

Monday, December 2, 2013 Flight 867 Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX. to LAX

We were on our return trip from Dallas Fort Worth to Los Angeles with our two children. We drove to the airport and checked in with plenty of time to spare for our 6:00 AM flight, which was due to arrive at 7:22 AM, an arrival time which should have allowed my husband plenty of time to report to work on time that day.

We checked two bags and the car seats for our two children, ages five and two. We were careful to follow all instructions regarding checking in our car seats. Our flight arrived at LAX on time, but our two car seats, did not. As car seats are required by law for children under the age of eight who travel by car in the State of California, pursuant to California Vehicle Code § 27360 (a), we were stranded at the airport without said seats. We immediately informed your representative in charge of baggage about our missing car seats. We were sent to the ticket desk and back down to baggage again. Eventually we were told that our car seats had been sent to Las Vegas and would not arrive until 3:00 PM. After that we were told that the seats would not arrive until 5:00—then not until 5:30.

We asked the sole representative who stood in the baggage claim kiosk if he had any replacement seats we could borrow for our two-year-old boy and our five-year old girl. He gave us two booster seats. We explained that a two-year old cannot ride in a booster seat. He took the second booster. Half an hour passed. He returned and gave us an infant car seat. We informed him that a two-year-old is not an infant and an infant car seat would also be unsafe for our two-year-old. He said that those were the only car seats they had, urging us to take them. It was clear to us that booster seats and infant seats were the only car seats that were ever stocked, as when we asked what people with children between the ages of twelve months and four years did when their car seats were lost, we were told that that the stranded person was expected to send out a friend to buy a car seat at her own expense and bring it to the person who was stranded at the airport with his children. Given that the loss of car seats clearly does occur, to not even stock appropriate car seats for a whole age range of children is entirely reprehensible on the part of your airline.

Meanwhile, our daughter came down with the stomach flu from which our two-year old son had just recovered. She was suffering from diarrhea and stomach cramps so bad that she was screaming in the bathroom. Of course, we couldn’t take her temperature at the airport, but when we got her home we measured it as 102°.

Our pleas for help fell on deaf ears. When we said we had no one who could go out and buy us a car seat, your staff told us that they had no employees to spare to go out and buy us the appropriately sized car seat.

At no time were we offered meal vouchers or even a place for our family to wait. Only through our insistence were we issued meal vouchers. However, for our potential ten-hour wait, we were given vouchers in the amount of $7.00 per person. At airport prices, that is the equivalent of a soft drink and a bag of chips each. Furthermore, even finding a place to sit proved difficult. As the majority of the restaurants in our terminal were behind security, we were advised to go walk to the international terminal, but when we got there, we found their main restaurant section closed for renovation.

Given no other option, one of us (Robert) travelled to the distant, off airport campus lot at which our car was parked due to the Thanksgiving dearth of parking. We wish to note that the staff of Spirit Airlines did not so much as offer Robert a ride to our car. The other of us (Nicole) stayed with our sick and crying children in the last open restaurant while Robert went to a Target located ten miles away to purchase a car seat. It was 3:00 PM before we were able to reunite our family and leave the airport. Robert missed a day of work and was forced to use a vacation day.

Our car seats were not returned to us until after 3:00 PM on December 3, 2013, approximately thirty-two (32) hours after our flight arrived.

We have filed for reimbursement of the $140.15 we spent on a temporary car seat. We feel that we are also entitled to reimbursement for our flights due to the fact that Robert was forced to take an extra vacation day from work and the extreme circumstances your airline’s actions forced our family to endure. Finally, we wish to add that we are outraged by the behavior of your employee who suggested that we use either a booster seat or an infant car seat for our two-year-old child because they were the only seats he had. Using either a booster seat or an infant car seat for our two-year-old son would have placed us squarely in violation of California Vehicle Code § 27360 (a), [a copy of CVC § 27360 is enclosed]. More importantly, your airline’s direction that we use either of these seats for our son bordered on willful endangerment of his life.

cc: Denise Masella, executive assistant to CEO Ben Baldanza