Help! Spirit Airlines Left Us Behind in Guatemala City
The family's flight was delayed, but the airline later rescinded the delay without letting the family know. The columnist finds that the airline played by the rules, as unfair as they may seem.
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We checked in three hours prior to the first leg of the flight back to Detroit with my two sons. While we waited for our flight to depart, Spirit sent me two texts announcing the delay. First by 20 minutes, then an additional 15 minutes, the new departure was 4:18 pm. We used this time to eat and monitor our phones, but no updates came. We returned to the gate at 3:40 and were informed that the plane was ready earlier than anticipated. The doors had also been closed. The gate staff told us that it would take three days for another flight to be available and refused to book another airline. JetBlue forced us to pay over $3,000 in order to get a one-way ticket for the same day. Spirit eventually gave us a partial credit of $297, but we still want to be reimbursed for the JetBlue flights, as they should have informed us about the new departure time. Tom, Ann Arbor, Mich.
We can do anything we like with the half-hour we have if a friend or hairstylist we were planning to meet at lunch texted us to say they are running behind. As long as we arrive on time, it's okay. Air travel is a different world, with strange rules and customs that often contradict real-world logic.