Polite staff, and bad compensation, or the opposite?
This clip is meant to be humorous, I think...
I don't think the concept of "free" exists in Spirit Airlines
I am glad you are home safe from your trip, especially the Chicago adventure! I am curious from this statement it appears that British Airways is doing this because of that EU261 law that you all have over there, does the UK still follow it just because, or is there an equivalent UK law requiring reimbursement for late flights?
Not specifically EU261 as that ceased to have force in the UK upon Brexit. But the UK did incorporate EU261 rules into their own law, a "UK261", so the result is the same.
Spirit is the US version of Easy Jet and Ryanair without the robust consumer protection laws that exist in the UK and EU. If you wanted to, you could file a complaint with the US Department of Transportation. You won’t get any compensation but Spirit’s chicanery shouldn’t be excused.As the originator of this thread, I thought I would give my thoughts on the three airlines that I used on my recent trip to America.
First up was American, flying from Boston to Chicago. They made the last boarding group, of which I was one, leave their "carry on" bags to go in the hold, and collect from the luggage carousel at Chicago. There was still empty overhead bin space when we took off. Staff were very cold and distant, but got the job done. Flight was a bit delayed, and my seat neighbour was going to miss her connection. Overall a pretty negative vibe.
Next was United, a 777 flight from Chicago to Los Angles. Nicer, large plane, got a free coffee, and happy to have a window seat and no one next to me! The staff seemed happier, and I thought it went well.
Last was two Spirit flights, first from San Diego to Las Vegas, budget carrier, but all went fine, no complaints at all. The second Spirit flight from Las Vegas to Chicago was a different animal... We boarded, pushed back from the gate. Sat, returned to the gate. Pilot said there were "crew time out issues" due to long waits to take off, so we all got off the plane and hung around. Six hours later they said we should be boarding again soon, just need to find one more pilot. Anyway, we did fly to Chicago, arriving after midnight. Riding the Blue line "EL" at that time from O'Hare is not a comfortable experience at my age, guys drinking, smoking blunts, etc... Got to the Hostel safe, but a bit rattled!
My stepdaughter's family flight on British Airways from Las Vegas to London two months ago was delayed by 6 hours, she is expecting compensation of £1500 for that delay.
I asked about compensation at Spirit Airlines, they just said, nothing doing, weather and such. Not even a free cup of coffee on the flight...
All airlines hit snags at times, but I would avoid Spirit in future, a very poor customer service ethos.
I flew to Boston and back with Aer Lingus, I will include that experience when I get around to writing up the full trip report...
Thanks for your thoughts. In my experience AA (American) is getting worse over time. They've been cold and distant toward coach customers for decades but ever since SQ321 they've been abandoning drink and snack service because of "turbulence" that never seems to happen. Oddly this phantom turbulence only prevents coach service and never first class. I have not flown Spirit Airlines myself but I've also never heard anything positive about them. Whenever my flight is near a Spirit gate it always looks like a zoo over there. Crew time out issues are the airline's problem, so you were probably due some minor compensation in the form of snack/drink vouchers, but that's about it. In the US most protections are for bumped passengers, cancelled flights, or getting stuck on the tarmac. If you were brought back to the terminal and you flight eventually took place most of the airline's liability was avoided.
Spirit used to be a regular airline decades ago but they have been losing lots of money lately and are talking about bringing full service tickets back again. Supposedly these will include priority check-in, priority boarding, luggage allotments, drink service, and blocked middle seats. Even Southwest is apparently working on implementing assigned seating and some sort of premium service product in the next couple years. I can say I honestly never saw that coming.
B6's (Jet Blue's) network is a bad fit for most of my trips but I hear good things and it seems like they know how to leverage what they have. They're also one of the few airlines where most of the news is about things they're doing to improve the experience. I was hearing the same things about VX (Virgin America) before AS (Alaska) bought them out and removed everything that made them appealing.
This is becoming the "catch-all" excuse for no service on shorter flights - even in the front cabin. "The captain is predicting turbulence so the flight attendants will remain in their seats" on several recent flights. Turbulence never materialized and neither did any service. Austrian Airlines and Air Canada are among the repeat offenders. AA did manage to distribute water bottles on a short flight with turbulence, albeit on a small regional jet.
