That’s mostly bad news for you, but I even have excellent news: you bought more a refund from Spirit than you originally thought. The $279 you received in March was actually their second payment; You apparently didn’t notice the $457 Spirit credit in your card in January, right after you missed your flight. Mr. Hofmeyer said the overall of $736 covers the total value of the legs you and your loved ones missed. I haven’t any way of verifying this – it’s a couple of third of the total price you paid for Spirit tickets, but he didn’t provide an in depth breakdown. Anyway, he explained that Spirit pleaded not guilty and that the phrase was a courtesy.
Of course, an SMS alerting you that your departure has been rescheduled could be even higher. Spirit didn’t comment on why you never got it, so I spoke to Suresh Acharya, a professor on the Spirit Business School. Robert H. Smith on the University of Maryland, who has been working on airline optimization systems for a long time. He cautioned that we should always not expect all airlines to have equally efficient, customer-friendly communications systems. “It can have just been a manual oversight,” he said. “With Spirit or one other low-cost, hassle-free airline, their IT infrastructure and integration might be not as automated.”
He noted that because delays are costly for airlines, often requiring payment of time beyond regulation for crews, and causing delays that may spread throughout the system, airlines will take every opportunity to expedite departures, even after delays have been announced, although sometimes this implies leaving passengers behind. This is particularly true for international flights and at domestic “machine-controlled” airports where the FAA has imposed take-off restrictions.
That said, all delays will not be created equal. Mr. Acharya shared some handy tricks he uses when traveling to raised guess when a delay will persist and even “creep” ahead, using frustratingly accurate airline jargon. First, he determines where the plane is. If it’s already on the gate, the delay may not last if a mechanical problem might be resolved prior to anticipated or crew members stuck in traffic arrive prior to expected.
If the aircraft just isn’t on the gate, this may occasionally indicate a more final and even creeping delay. Check online or ask the staff where the incoming flight is; if it’s still hours, that is a foul sign. On the opposite hand, if you happen to’re at an airport that serves as a hub for the airline you are flying (Fort Lauderdale, Florida for Spirit, for instance), they might find it easier to alter equipment or replace crew.
