Spirit changed my flights 11 hour difference

[Melissabo]

We were supposed to leave Orlando at 10:40 a.m. on december 4th now we are scheduled to leave at 9:30 p.m. I have a 5 and 2 year old we aren't landing in Atlantic City until 11:30 pm. My 5 year old has school the next day and dh leaves for work at 5:30 a.m. the next day. I've heard that Spirit often has major delays/cancellations later in the day which was why I booked early flights in the first place. What are my options? At this point I'm so pissed I'd rather just book another airline and pay $400 extra to fly out of philly.

Will they refund me? If not I see there is a 10:40 am flight for the 5th, I could buy another day of park tickets, see if I can extend POR for one night? However, I'm nervous that if I did this and rearranged everything they may change me again.

What is my best move help.

 

[CourtneyL]

Call spirit and ask. I'm not sure what their policy is, but our JetBlue flights were changed and since it was more than a 3 hour difference we were able to have our flights changed without charge. It's worth calling and asking what can be done.
My only piece of advice: be calm and ask nicely if anything can be done.

 

[Brian Noble]

Spirit's contract of carriage says this:

7.2. Rebooking

When a customer holding a confirmed reservation on a flight will be delayed because of a schedule irregularity (including but not limited to, a missed connection, flight cancellation, omission of a scheduled stop, substitution of equipment, a different class of service or schedule change), Spirit will rebook the customer on Spirit's first available flight on which seats are available to the customer's destination without additional charge.
Spirit will not reimburse customers for flights that they take on other carriers.

Spirit will not reimburse customers for flights that they take on other carriers.

If I am reading this right, it looks like you *can* change to another Spirit flight, but cannot change to a flight by a different carrier. Under the Refunds section, it says:

9.2 Involuntary
In the event that Spirit is unable to provide a previously confirmed seat and is unable to reroute the customer via Spirit, Spirit will refund as indicated below:
9.2.1. If no portion of the reservation has been used, the refund will be equal to the fare paid by the customer.
9.2.2. If a portion of the reservation has been used, the refund will be equal to the amount of the unused portion.
9.2.3. Customers involved in a Spirit Airlines initiated cancellation in excess of two (2) hours will have three (3) options available to them: 1) re-accommodation, 2) Future Travel credit, or 3) a refund.

So, if your original flight was *rescheduled*, this might not apply. But, if it was *canceled*, it might.

Your first step is to figure out if there is another Spirit flight that same day that you would be happier with. If so, ask to be moved to that one. I don't see how moving to the 5th helps you---your five year old still misses school, and your husband still misses work.

If there isn't another flight you can take, you might be able to get this leg refunded, but I'm not 100% sure. With any other airline, I'd say no problem. Spirit? I'm not sure.

 

[Melissabo]

This is the only flight departing Orlando now. Now sure why they changed because they orginally had 3 flights to choose from on the 4th now only the single 9:30 pm flight.

Booking on the 5th wouldn't be ideal dh would have to take another day off work, ds off of school but at least we'd get an extra night of vacation.

 

[Brian Noble]

In that case, if it were me, I think I would ask whether you can get the return flight refunded, and if so for how much. I don't like your odds of the next day's flight not changing.

 

[Melissabo]

The problem with getting the return trip refunded is that we would need to book our return flight with a different airport since Spirit is the only carrier into Atlantic City. Our car will be in Atlantic City since our departing flight is there.

 

[Melissabo]

Dh wants to just keep the 9:30 pm flight and go to work tired the next day. I'm worried about that flight getting cancelled or delayed even later. However, if we do that can I just ask for a late check out (if available) and add park tickets for that day? I was also supposed to return a rental car in the a.m. if I keep it until early evening do I need to pay for another whole day?

 

[Sandi]

Dh wants to just keep the 9:30 pm flight and go to work tired the next day. I'm worried about that flight getting cancelled or delayed even later. However, if we do that can I just ask for a late check out (if available) and add park tickets for that day? I was also supposed to return a rental car in the a.m. if I keep it until early evening do I need to pay for another whole day?

I think you need to add the day to your park ticket when you still have days left. Check CheshireFigment's sticky on the Strategies Board.

With your car rental, you'll need to check to see what your contract says. If you are keeping it longer than you originally contracted for, you will likely need to pay more. You may be better off changing your rental time period time now so you know what you're going to have to pay. (If you're staying at POR, why not take ME and not worry about a rental car at all. You may be wanting it for something else, but just wanted to throw that into your mix.)

 

[Melissabo]

We got the rental a midsize from Thrifty for $124 for the week It seemed like a good rate and will cover the cost of cabs since we have several ADRs at resorts. We two young kids we don't really want to loose time switching busses. I like that the rental will give us flexibility with going offsite if we want. If I modify the reservation for the car now will the rate go up? I checked rates last week and the same car class was now $180 for the week.

 

[Brian Noble]

The rate might well go up, but you might get even worse sticker shock if you just return it late. Check your confirmation to see what you will be charged for an extra day.

Given that you can't change air carriers, I'm with your husband: keep the flight you have. It's not ideal, but you'll lose a day of work for sure if you return the fifth. Add a day to your tickets---you may as well go to a park that day. You're in a bit of a hard spot with the 2 year old re: naps. You probably can't get a checkout late enough to cover that unless you pay for an extra night.

 

[sam_gordon]

I don't think Disney offers a late check out option. However, that doesn't mean you can't go to the parks. Let Bell Services hold your bags (or put them in your car), go to the parks, then go to MCO whenever you want.

Depending on what time you picked up your car will determine how much more you need to pay.

 

[tinka-belle]

As far as late check out, you might just have to add an extra day. Late check out is up to the housekeeping dept. and usually can't be requested until the day before or day of checkout. If it's a busy day they might say no. Once we were declined, couple of times have got noon, rarely 1pm.

IIRC (it's been awhile, I asked for specifics a few years ago since we frequently have late flights) this is what we were told. They can give you one or two hours free depending on if the room must be cleaned right away for new guests, so will say you are OK until noon or 1pm.

If it's possible to keep the room later (i.e. no expected guests) after 1pm and (I think) until 4pm it was 1/2 of rack rate, after that it was full rack rate. Memory fails me on the 4pm part, might be +/- an hour from that.

Might be better just to book the room for an extra night for naps, etc. especially if you get a discounted room rate.

 

[Greysword]

The safe play would be to book yourselves on a flight the day before (Dec 3rd) and give up a vacation day. It is possible there could be an overbooking situation on the late flight, due to the cancellation of (at least one) flights.

Spirit isn't very forgiving, so be prepared to shoulder the bill (hotel and food) if your 9 PM flight is cancelled, you are bumped due to over booking, or other issues.

By getting on a flight the previous day (mid to early in the day) you'll have a better chance of getting home on time for your commitments.

Good luck!

 

[Melissabo]

I'm calling Spirit on Monday. I'm not comfortable flying with them after this change. It now looks like instead of three flights a day from MCO to A.C. there is only one each day for our return trip and the day before and after our return day. I don't want to extend to the 5th and risk something happening with that flight. I really don't want to come home a day early either. So, this is what I've decided to do:

Call spirit Monday and see if I can get a full refund for both flights, my argument being the return flight we booked changed by 11 hours and no longer works for us. There is no other carrier from MCO to AC, so since I'll need a return flight to Philly I'll need to fly out of Philly as well. If the don't go for this but are willing to cancel and return our return flight plan B:

Get a refund for the return flight and book US air for return to Philly. Fly out of AC on Spirit and return US air to Philly. I can work something out with rides to and from the air ports.

If no refunds then I guess we will suck it up and hope for the best. We will have a great trip regardless.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Good Luck!

Spirit is not in the business of (A) giving refunds or (B) making customers happy

You may get a refund, but you may also get told "we are flying you on the flight we scheduled too bad"

(There's a reason I won't fly Spirit under any circumstances!

 

[kristenrice]

Back in 2009, I booked a flight with Spirit (DTW-MCO). They changed the schedule three times, resulting in a 6-hour difference from what I'd originally booked. I called, fully expecting to be told "no refunds", and politely told them that the 6-hour change would not work for my itinerary. They apologized and issued a full refund. I used it to rebook AirTran which ended up cheaper anyways. I fully believe the horror stories about Spirit's customer service, but my experience was a pleasant one.

 

[lizzytizzy]

Call spirit and ask. I'm not sure what their policy is, but our JetBlue flights were changed and since it was more than a 3 hour difference we were able to have our flights changed without charge. It's worth calling and asking what can be done.
My only piece of advice: be calm and ask nicely if anything can be done.

I'm not as computer savvy as any of you here. But, how did you find out that your Jetblue flight got changed? Did they email you? I booked a Jetblue flight at the end of November and was wondering. Thanks!

 

[Melissabo]

I'm not are about Jet Blue but Spirit sent me an email informing me of the change. Also when logging in to their site the change is listed. Last spring I went to Mexico and Air Tran changed flight time leaving mexico a few hours earlier and I only knew when I went online at the resort to confirm our flights.

 

[supersuperwendy]

I hope they can refund you OP. How frustrating. My husband flew Spirit out of AC in June (kids and I flew out of Harrisburgh Pa). He HATED it. He said he'd never fly spirit again. It was our first experience with them. yuck

Keep us posted..crossing my fingers for you!!!

 

[bianca]

OP ...... Same thing happened to us. They went from 3 scheduled flights down to 1, changing our flight schedule. Instead of arriving at 11 am, we are arriving at 5 pm. We were unable to acquire another day at our DVC, so it is pointless to come in a day earlier to gain back vacation time. I can't really blame them, though, as I flew last week with them and had a half empty plane from Ft. Launderdale ..... Not a good way to stay in business. In addition, I think most of the changes they made affect people flying on Tuesday and Wednesday, which are slow. My kids are flying in the day after me (Thursday) and they are not affected.

For what it's worth, my December flight was only $58 each way and I carry a personal bag only since I have an Owners Locker in Orlando. Simply, I can live with the slight inconvenience for the price!