Jeff767

My daughter was traveling from STT flt 277 yesterday to MCO connecting to Charlotte. They added a fuel stop out of STT claiming fuel was not available in STT. Every other flight that day went nonstop and had no issues getting fuel. The pilot in a PA said they put on a large cargo load and had to limit fuel for the short STT runway which makes sense. She still had time to make her connection in MCO however on arrival they had no gate available so she missed the connecting flight. There were 20 people connecting to CLT. They pulled into a gate just as the CLT flight was pushing yet Spirit did not hold the flight. No one would provide any assistance in the terminal and they finally had to exit and go to baggage claim. Spirit rebooked her and the family for Tuesday the 26th. They stated that was the earliest option. They offered no compensation, hotel or meal voucher ect.. Not even a we are sorry. They said fuel was not their issue see you Tuesday night! The group of 20 wanted at least hotels and Spirit called security and had them escorted out of the airport. My daughter was able to purchase tickets for 800.00 plus a 150.00 uber ride to another airport to get home today. Spirit says they are rebooked so no refund.
At this point I am having her fill out 5 DOT complaints for each member of her family. What other options should she look at to get Spirit to do the right thing?

jjbiv

I would definitely write a complaint to Spirit. Keep it factual and to the point. Leave out the part about how "every other flight that day went nonstop and had no issues getting fuel" since lots of flights out of STT have been stopping in SJU regularly due to lack of fuel availability in STT. I would also keep an open mind about the possibility of there being more to this story if the police were called. That's never a good sign but sticking to the facts in your complaint letter will avoid that issue entirely.

I think you have a pretty strong argument that fuel is the airline's responsibility and they are responsible for the misconnection, especially if they didn't tell your daughter about the possible missed connection before she left STT. If they told her before she left and she decided to go anyway, that's a different matter. They should provide hotel accommodations and meal vouchers until they can get your daughter home. They likely will decline to reimburse the offline flight and Uber but may offer a voucher as a goodwill gesture. Spirit vouchers can be difficult to use, however.
ETA she is definitely eligible for a refund of the MCO-CLT segment and Spirit CS is very behind with email responses now so she may be waiting months for a response. The DoT complaint is a good idea to help accelerate the resolution process. Also see if the credit card used to book the tickets (or any other coverage she has) provides any travel insurance to cover the unexpected costs to get home.

xooz

I never thought about it but if there are some headwinds that cause a need for a fuel stop or otherwise delay the flight.... Is that"weather"?

Jeff767

Only Spirit did not fly nonstop that day. Most diverts to SJU are because of aircraft performance restricting weight.

jjbiv

It's your daughter's letter, so obviously she can include whatever she would like. However, JBU886 (STT-EWR), JBU808 (STT-BOS), AAL359 (STT-DFW), JBU830 (STT-JFK), UAL1445 (STT-IAD), and UAL1784 (STT-EWR) all stopped in SJU on 4/23 (in addition to two Spirit flights to Florida which also stopped in SJU, one of which was your daughter's flight). It's not an uncommon operational situation right now but it should have been handled better by Spirit and that's your strongest argument.

Jeff767

The Jet Blue flights always go to SJU. The A320 does not have the performance to depart STT and go non stop. They are scheduled to SJU and the flight is marketed as a 1 stop. All American flights to CLT and MIA and Delta flights went non stop.

Jeff767

The Jet Blue flights always go to SJU. The A320 does not have the performance to depart STT and go non stop. They are scheduled to SJU and the flight is marketed as a 1 stop. All American flights to CLT and MIA and Delta flights went non stop. AAL 359 is not a STT flight. The United flights did go to SJU. They are 737’s which can also suffer performance restrictions. All 757 flights which normally don’t suffer performance restrictions went non stop.

dlnewbie

The JetBlue is just a tech stop for fuel. They know they have to make the stop and its usually pretty quick. But you can only buy the through ticket, there is no opportunity to get on or off at SJU. Spirit should have been able to know and mitigate some of the misconnects before the plane left STT since they knew it was making the stop.

wrp96

There has been an ongoing issue with fuel supply at STT. DL, UA, JetBlue, AA, etc have all had to made tech stops on different days in recent weeks. It's not a Spirit only problem and they aren't lying about it.

dlnewbie

Agreed. I don't think anyone is blaming Spirit for the stops given the issue that STT has been having. I think the OPs issue was more with the handling. I also realize that the airline can't make everyone happy in the event of IRROPS, however it does suck when you get the short end of the stick.

In my experiences with Spirit I have only had one catastrophic failure of scheduling, however I did do some homework with creative routing, which the Spirit agent was more then happy to rebook me on. In the end I got to my destination mid-morning the next day rather then the 3 days later that the autorebooking had me scheduled for. You do have to be your own advocate sometimes.

danielonn

I would have told the agent to get their Duty Manager down to the desk and stand my ground not leaving until we get a hotel and meal vouchers until the 26th. Or I would ask Spirit to refund my ticket portion and to pay the difference between the cost of a new ticket.

Taking on more Fuel and not having a gate is not a force de majeure. The weather was not an issue, no ATC delays etc. Spirit should have and could have held your Daughter's connecting flight as there were other people I am sure making that connection. Its not like you had to clear customs arriving from the US Virgin Islands.

A 10 minute delay would have saved Spirit Air in the end from paying for your hotel and meals. Your Daughter would be happy to be able to get home on her scheduled flight.

TomMM

My guess is you would still be standing there.

buckeyefanflyer

Why not hold the flight for 20 passengers