Complaint Review: Spirit Airlines - Miramar Florida

To Whom It May Concern:

On Oct 24, 2012, I purchased a round trip ticket, PDX HOU, on Spirit Airlines, and got confirmation via email.

On Dec. 12, 2012, I received via email an itinerary change for one leg of my round trip.

On Jan. 12, 2013, I decided to check my reservation on the Spirit Airlines website. Using the confirmation code, I could only locate the outbound flight.  I sent an email to Spirit Airlines asking what happened to my reservation for the return leg of my
round trip (Feb. 12), and received no reply.  On Jan. 14, I sent another email asking the same thing.

On Jan. 15, I decided to talk to someone at Spirit Airlines.  With much difficulty, I was finally able to speak to Spirit Airlines Customer Service agent Rashid.  Rashid informed me that my return flight was cancelled, and said that I had been sent an email to that effect. 

I received no such email, and challenge Spirit Airlines to produce one.
I asked if they could reschedule me on another flight. 
I was told there were no flights in February from Houston to Portland on Spirit Airlines.  Rashid asked if I wanted a flight to some other city.  He did not answer my question: and how will I get from there to Portland?  After much waiting while he
(supposedly) conferred with his supervisor, he offered me a flight from Houston to Las Vegas on January 14, with a connecting flight to Portland the following day.

I asked if the airline would pay for the hotel, and he said no.   I asked whether that was the only option.  He assured me it was.  He then offered to refund my ticket, which he said would amount to $38.   I assumed, given the strangeness of the whole scenario, that Sprit was going out of business, and finally accepted the refund, paltry as it was (not even half the price of the ticket I had purchased).

Later that day, I went online and tried to make a reservation on Spirit Airlines from Houston to Dallas (the first leg of my
return flight), for Feb. 12, the very date of my cancelled flight.   I was surprised to find my original flight
still available.   I could make a reservation for it.  I also found a connecting flight to Portland.

In other words, I was lied to; tricked into believing my flight had been cancelled and accepting a refund, because Spirit Airlines did not wish to honor a ticket they had sold me at the price they sold it. 

I called Spirit Airlines Customer Service again, and spoke with Nathan.  Nathan had apparently not
taken accent reduction training, and was barely intelligible.  He had me on the phone for 50 minutes, putting me on hold repeatedly, probably hoping my cell phone battery would run down. 

I insisted that Spirit Airlines honor my original reservation and ticket.  I objected to having been
deceived about available flights, and tricked into accepting a refund.  Nathan said since I had accepted the refund
(earlier that morning - under false pretenses and believing I had no other option), I was no longer eligible.  I
told him it had not yet been refunded, and that my credit card company as yet had no knowledge of any refund.  But as this
was clearly and transparently a ploy to get out of honoring the ticket I had purchased, I was given no satisfaction. 
Nathan put me on hold, supposedly to connect me with his supervisor, but 15 minutes later I had to accept that I had been tricked again.

As any passenger would, I object to being treated this way.  I have been harmed by the actions of Spirit Airlines:  my final destination was Corpus Christi, Texas, a place Spirit Airlines does not service.  I had purchased non-refundable tickets for
the final leg of my flight.  I would have been left high and dry at an outbound location without any means to return to
my home; a fact I only discovered before the day of my outbound flight by accident.

These actions, besides being despicable, are also not in accordance with Spirit Airlines Contract of Carriage:
Spirit will make every effort to assist our Customers and minimize their inconvenience resulting from cancellations or misconnections.

In the case of a cancellation or misconnection, our staff will focus on rebooking Customers on alternate flights, either direct to the destination or via connections through otherairports to best accommodate the Customers needs. If rebooking options are notavailable until thefollowing day, we will offer complimentary overnight hotel accommodations for non-local Customers.

I would like Spirit Airlines to compensate me for this incident with a free round tripticket, PDX Houston, and in return, will hold Spirit Airlines harmless and not pursue further FAA or other complaints, or civil legal actions.  Consumers entrust airlines with their lives.  These actions of Spirit Airlines do not merit any level of trust whatsoever.
Linda, Portland, Oregon