Complaint Review: Spirit Airlines

Spirit Airlines has a completely ridiculous travel program. I traveled with them monthly for almost 2 years and accrued a great deal of mileage. All of my Spirit Airlines travel was International and my main focus was accruing mileage to redeem on a future flight. It is a program that they push heavily and promote even while you are on a flight.

As time went on I decided that it was in my best interest to use my mileage through Spirit Airlines. For personal reasons I did not need to travel as frequently and decided that instead of my hard earned, and payed for mileage going to waste, I will use them.

I called about a one way flight to Panama through Spirit Airlines. They told me that the month I wanted to travel already had the maximum number of Free Spirit tickets and that I could not travel on my selected date. They did however remind me that I could buy [another] ticket and get more points! Well, that would be great if those Free Spirit points were worth something. But they are not.

I decided that it was not a big deal, and I will book a flight and wait to use my mileage. I was very surprised to learn that all of your mileage will be wiped away if you do not fly with them during a 90 day period. That is correct! If you do not travel with Spirit Airlines for 90 days, all of your Free Spirit points will be wiped out and you will have to start over.

When I learned about this, I had no other choice but to call and ask if I could use my points for a one way flight to Buffalo, or Niagara Falls, NY. I would be flying from Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale, or Miami. Amazingly I learned that yet again the month that I wanted to travel already had the maximum amount of Free Spirit flights booked and I was out of luck. I had one option. Pay for another flight and continue to accrue more Free Spirit points. When I asked if I was able to use my 26,000 points any other month to fly one way they told me no. They stated that I needed at least 30,000 points (which I would be able to obtain by reserving another flight).

My question is this: Who can possibly use their accrued Free Spirit mileage if I was unable to use it for a single one way flight to Panama by giving them a 2 month advance notice or to Niagara Falls / Buffalo. I know that not many people are rushing to the airport in order to get on the next flight to Buffalo. If anything people are trying to leave Buffalo.

Do not apply for the Spirit Rewards Mastercard or fall into the trap with Spirit Air. They tell you that you will have enough credits for 2 round trip flights but that is a complete lie. There is a different tier for each flight and you will have an extremely diffcult time using any frequent flyer mileage through Spirit Airlines.

Spirit Airlines is a dishonest company and they should learn to appreciate their customers. They do not list their phone number on their website, and when you do find it [from another site], you will be connected to an international call center that delivers cookie cutter responses.

I challenge them to file a rebuttal or explain their program in greater detail. I am eager to listen to a response and will openly share my previous rewards number.