Have Spirit Airlines / Flight Cancellations Been Discussed?

[Velar Fricative]

I did see this, but is it only Spirit? I thought maybe it was other airlines too. I'll have to read up more on this.

[SusanBAnthony]

Aug 10, 2021 9:10:59 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

I did see this, but is it only Spirit? I thought maybe it was other airlines too. I'll have to read up more on this.

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It's happening with others (especially AA from what I've heard) but especially bad with Spirit.

[goldengirlz]

Aug 10, 2021 9:10:59 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

I did see this, but is it only Spirit? I thought maybe it was other airlines too. I'll have to read up more on this.

The underlying factors (like weather) affected other airlines too but the problem with low-cost carriers is that they don’t have as many flights between city pairs (so if one is cancelled, those passengers might be SOL for 24 hours or more) and they don’t have reciprocal relationships with other airlines. So it snowballs for them much faster.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/spirit-cant-rebound-airlines-cancellations.amp

[pixy0stix]

Aug 10, 2021 9:10:59 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

I did see this, but is it only Spirit? I thought maybe it was other airlines too. I'll have to read up more on this.

Southwest has been having a ton of issues, too. Admittedly I don't pay attention to others as we fly Southwest more often than not.

[TR]

Aug 10, 2021 9:19:12 GMT -5 goldengirlz said:

Aug 10, 2021 9:10:59 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

I did see this, but is it only Spirit? I thought maybe it was other airlines too. I'll have to read up more on this.

The underlying factors (like weather) affected other airlines too but the problem with low-cost carriers is that they don’t have as many flights between city pairs (so if one is cancelled, those passengers might be SOL for 24 hours or more) and they don’t have reciprocal relationships with other airlines. So it snowballs for them much faster.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/spirit-cant-rebound-airlines-cancellations.amp

Yes, this. A big part was last Sunday with the storms in DFW and that affected AA big time (including my 5.5 hour delayed flight. And we just barely got wheels up before our crew timed out) as well as Spirit, but AA can recover faster because they have more flights.

[morecoffeeplease]

My parents had guests visiting and their flight home got canceled two days in a row with spirit. They finally just paid for a flight on a different airline. What a mess.

[aurora]

Yeah, I have to admit I've started taking into account how many flights/day when deciding what airline to book, especially when I have a connection (even before COVID). Much better chance of getting rebooked if you're on one of many.

I think all airlines are struggling with staffing and supply chains since travel ramped up so quickly, but the bigger ones have more options if something goes wrong.

[mysteriouswife]

This is effecting supply chain as well. We are waiting wheels up for clearance on a lot of imports. Canceled flights is a global issue. We have one airline (international) that stopped moving cargo and focused on consumers to help ease the burden of stranded passengers. Flying is becoming a complex game with cargo and passengers. it’s always been complex, but mix in staffing shortages and supply demands it makes it even more difficult.

[laurental]

My dad was affected coming back from Florida. His flight was canceled the night before and he said that they notified him that they could rebook him 2 days later. I didn't pay much attention at the time because I hadn't been following the news and thought it was maybe an isolated thing with him. I don't really understand how it was weather related when it was canceled in advance like that?

He was able to book with another airline (at a significant cost).

[breezy8407]

My sister had a trip planned in September and two weeks ago it was just straight up cancelled. I am thinking the eliminated the route altogether because there were no options given to re-book.

[orval]

My sister had an AA flight cancelled last week from Chicago to New Orleans. She could have rebooked but the next flight was like 15 hours later so she just didn't go for a weekend trip. We drove but she was supposed to meet us there. Bummer.

[bimbi284]

My coworker has had 5 out of 5 flights he’s taken recently get canceled . I think mostly SW but AA as well.

[AAM2012]

Yep this isn’t just happening for this airline. My in-laws had their 1 stop flight turn into an all day event going from Phoenix to Utah, to Texas, then Atlanta and finally home.

Last minute change/alert the day before.

[definitelyO]

IMO - a large problem with Spirit is that they can't get you another flight.... this was even pre-covid and supply chain issues. They've stranded more than 1 friend of mine. one time they said they couldn't get them back home for 4 days. completely unreliable and I won't book them regardless of cost savings.

[ellipses84]

Spirit is infamous for this in normal times and while other airlines are having staffing issues too, 50% of flights cancelled is an insane statistic. Their fleet and staff are not large enough to absorb issues like weather and equipment delays, the delays cause the pilots and crew to time out, and they don’t have enough planes / crew to replace them.

I’ve only flown them once a few years ago and it wasn’t a great experience but we made it to our destination late. A bunch of people in the airport with us had their flight to a weekend destination canceled 2 days in a row and were trying to get on a 3rd flight for the next day (but it’s not like the 3rd day flight could accommodate 2 extra planes full of people from the previous cancellations). This has happened to several people I know in other cities.

[dancingirl21]

DH has to start flying every other week for work and at this point we are only booking him on United.

He's flying for a bachelor party in October on AA on the way there and Delta on the way home and both sides of that trip have already been changed 2-3 times.

He and I flew at the end of June on Southwest and our flight coming home was delayed 3 hours. All of the flights on the board were delayed majorly - not weather related.

Airlines seem to be having major issues right now. And charging exorbitant prices for flights.

[tiramisu]

I'm going on a trip with friends in October and our flights on Southwest have already been changed once. Out return flight was moved to earlier in the morning, so we all switched to the only other non-stop flight that day.

[meltoine]

There are several issues at play. Weather is always an issue, but at this point it's only exacerbating bigger problems.

Most airlines furloughed a lot of pilots last year. (And flight attendants, if theirs are unionized). Furloughed pilots need to be retrained and re-qualified before they can go back to work. This is done in flight training facilities on flight simulators. Each airline only has so many simulators. They are running them 24 hrs/day at this point, and some are even renting out space at others' facilities. But they can still only get X number of pilots through the process each week. So they are short pilots and will be for a long time. There was already a pilot shortage pre-Covid and now it's just 10x worse. They also offered early retirement to their oldest pilots, so they lost them for good and need to hire more, but the same training issue persists.

In addition, most airlines fired any non-unionized staff they could - flight attendants, baggage handlers, ground crews, call center people, crew services people, etc. Hiring more of these people is going to take a while.

The issue with Spirit in particular started with weather. Then there were not enough crew services people to adjust the schedules and call in new crews to fly the planes once the weather cleared. Several crews were stranded in various places when they were needed elsewhere. Customers couldn't get through to the call center because they're understaffed. Crew members couldn't get through to crew services because they're understaffed. And it snowballed into a giant clusterfuck.

Spirit is especially bad because they operated on razor-thin margins of all these employees pre-Covid, and now they've really screwed themselves by firing and furloughing. But the issues are there in every airline, particularly those that furloughed.

[carmenere]

I'm currently stuck in Chicago because my flight on American was delayed and then canceled due to weather. My rebooked flight has been delayed and there's a narrow window in the weather so I'm afraid I may be stuck here for another night. AA definitely has fewer flights so rebooking is harder.

[JayhawkGirl]

-weather (I type this with air quotes) gets them out of any credits/paying for hotels, yes?

-I do wonder if staff & crews are getting hit with the delta variant also

[goldengirlz]

I had the unfortunate experience of having to fly during the winter surge (because of a family emergency) and these issues were all apparent back then. Flights cancelled without notice, entire routes eliminated. I wasn’t exactly in a rush to get home, but I ended up staying days longer than I might have otherwise.

What’s interesting is that I don’t think consumers really appreciated that things are still pretty dicey for the airlines; we’ve all been so eager to be reunited with loved ones and resume vacations. Airports are packed!

Hopefully things will start to correct themselves in the fall; the summer travel season will slow down and there won’t be as much business travel to make up for it (there’ll be more than last year but a lot of the major East Coast and West Coast employers are still pushing off most nonessential travel and even office reopenings for now). So they’ll get a bit of breathing room before the holiday rush.

[aurora]

After reading this thread I feel especially lucky about my only two post-COVID* trips (one on Alaska, one on United). For the United one they changed our plane 3x in the 2 days before (switching between variations of 767s) but everything was close to on time.

I guess I didn't realize just how bad it's been for so many people. I hope things get better soon.

*ETA I realized this might make it sound like I think COVID is done. I just meant my first flights since Jan 2020.

[mpc]

I had a terrible time on United last week. cancelled flights, missed connections... I had one flight delayed by an hour because they couldn't get a cleaning crew right away in between flights. My delayed flights meant I arrive at my destination after my rental car agency was closed, so then I was without a car. All the other ones that were still open were out of cars. The whole thing was a mess.