Spirit Airlines Credit Card Scam (cost, hotel, hotel, reservations)

[Coldjensens]

When you fly on spirit, the flight attendants will try to get you to sign up for a spirit airlines credit card. They will tell you a bunch of lies to get you to sign up.

Lie #1. You get 6 one way flights free when you first use your credit card.

No. You eventually get a chunk of frequent flyer miles. Not necessarily 6 one way flights. The flights are not free (see below).

Lie # 2. You can use the miles to otain freee flights immediately when you first use the credit card.

This is a complete lie. The attendants told me unequivocally that I could use the "free flights" (miles) right away the instant after I bought something on the credit card. The truth is you cannot use them for 90 days after you buy something.


Lie # 3. The credit card gets you free flights.

This is also false. Signing up for the credit card gives you a bunch of miles credited to your account. The flights are not free unless you book months in advance of the fllight. Otherwise you pay $75 - $150 for "each flight" That means that if you have a layover, you are taking two flights. Thus, if you book within a week of the flight and have a layover, it will cost you $600 for the round trip flight (plus luggage and other fees). Not only not free, it is not even a discount. You pay more in that scenario to use the miles than you do to just buy a flight. Further, you still have to pay exhorbitant fees for carry on baggage and checked baggage.

In addition the miles can only be used on certain dates. Many dates are blocked out. The only dates you can use the miles tend to be low demand times when the tickets are already comparatively pretty cheap. Again, unless you book way in advance, you will end up paying as much or more than just buying the tickets.

Lie #4. The yearly fees are waived.
Yearly fees are waived only for the first year, and only for some people. After than you are paying steep yearly fees to keep the credit card.

Lie #5. I do not know what the interest rate will be, but it is very competitive.

The interst rate will vary depending on your credit history and income, but they have a good idea of the range. They "don't know" because it is very high and not very competitive compared to what you can get by shopping around.


I recnetly learned the hard way that spirit airlines tickets are not always really cheaper when you add everything in. They play games by offering what appear to be low prices and then adding all kinds of fees that most trvelers willincur and which bring the price back up to the same or more as other airlines charge. Purchasing an airline ticket has gotten insanely complicated because you have to compare not only the published price, but all of the added and hidden fees. Are you going to have carry ons and checked bag(s)? The price can go up by hundreds of dollars. Often you do not know the real price until you complete your trip unless you know exactly how many bags you will bring and what each bag will weigh.

Of course you also need to factor in the risk of flying on dirty worn out airplanes with verylimited schedules and rude and/or condescending people ar the ticket counters (flight attendants are pretty decent when they are not lying to your about the credit card deal).

[FlyMIA]

Sounds like a normal credit card and miles to me. It does seem that the flight attendants are not really sure what they are talking about though. But why anyone would want a Spirit airlines card instead of a major carrier I do not know.

As for the added fees if you read things before you purchase you will know. The airlines are not responsible to hold your hand through the purchase process.

[lrfox]

Yeah... just about every airline credit card works this way. My only credit card is a Jetblue AMEX and it works just like that. the "6 one way flights with your first purchase" simply means that you have enough miles to book 6 one way flights on certain routes (usually the shortest routes).

The flight attendant was probably misinformed on the "immediately use the miles" issue. Not surprising. They have a number of responsibilities and credit card sales come secondary. They're told to pitch the card and aren't well-versed in the details. This is the same as anyone who pitches a credit card as a peripheral part of their job (store clerks, restaurant servers, hotel reservation associates, etc).

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

Of course you also need to factor in the risk of flying on dirty worn out airplanes with verylimited schedules and rude and/or condescending people ar the ticket counters (flight attendants are pretty decent when they are not lying to your about the credit card deal).

See, this would have been my thought process before even considering signing up for the card (regardless of the validity of all of the incentives). Not so much "dirty worn out planes" but more the "limited schedules" part. Why would you even consider signing up for their card if their schedule sucks?

All of the "lies" you're complaining about are detailed on the application form. If you're on a plane, you certainly have time to read the fine print. You could have saved yourself some keystrokes by saying, "read the fine print before signing up for a credit card."

re: the additional travel fees. Yes, there are a lot of bag fees now. Everyone should do a little research when booking flights. If a Southwest flight is $15 more expensive than the same flight on Delta, you need to factor in that Delta will charge you $25 for you checked bag whereas SWA will not. "Taxes and fees" are now quoted up front when you search airfare online. I use kayak a lot and they've that anyway. Baggage fees and meal fees are posted on airline's websites. It's your job to look them up and know what you're paying.

I've had bad airline experiences and bad credit card experiences just like you. As frustrating as it can be, at the end of the day I had only myself to blame for not knowing the details beforehand. Almost every one of your complaints could have been solved by a little more reading.

*edit*
just out of curiosity, I checked the Spirit Airlines website and as soon as you log on, a pop-up comes up advertising their new mastercard. In bold letters it says, "15,000 bonus miles after first qualifying purchase- enough for 3 off-peak round trips" and below that it says, "no annual fee for the first year."

[k374]

Virtually everyone I know who has flown Spirit has only horror stories about this airline, I have personally never flown Spirit - when I checked their airfares recently I found it odd since they were NOT cheaper than other airlines - Delta, American etc. so I am at a loss to figure out how people are getting these ridiculously low $20 fares that I have heard about.

[michellio84]

I frequently fly on spirit because its crazy cheap. I flew round trip from TPA to ATL for $70 with taxes total. Great deal. Went from FLL to Cancun for $249 round trip total. So no complaints there. BUT, on two separate flights this year, the flight attendants on both flights explained that if you apply for the Spirit MasterCard, you would get a free flight and IF approved you will get 3 round trip flights. Great right!? I went ahead and applied for the credit card thinking I would get the free flight. Came home, registered my voucher only for it to show that the gifted 2500 miles is only a 1/4 of the miles needed for a one way ticket. This cant be correct, flight attendants on two separate flights explained the same thing. We called Spirit, the first customer service agent couldn't understand me and just kept telling me the benefits of the MasterCard. The second, passed me along to 2 other people who then just said, 40 minutes later they said all they can offer is an Im sorry. That's all they could offer. Just great. ....although I still will be happy to pay $70 roundtrip! While my complaint about the misinformed or misleading flight attendants still stands...I do appreciate being able to travel twice as much as before.

[herky927]

All I can say is...I did my research on the credit cards 15,000 miles offer and I'm flying 3 people from ORD to FLL, roundtrip, for $15. It's just under the 2000 mile rule. It took a little bit of time and research on my part, but I'm not going to complain with flying three people round trip for $15. That's $5 a person. It's a gamble by the credit card companies that people won't do the research. I'm the type of person that is willing to spend a little time up front, do the research, and it paid off. I will also cancel the card before my year is up and not pay the yearly fee, and go right back to my no fee airlines card that I can use on this trip and create more airline miles. I recommend using this if you are willing to do a little research and plan a trip around the "OFF" times. You will not be able to use this offer during any holiday or most summer times unless you want to pay extra.

[FLntv]

[CENTER][CENTER]Spirit Airlines[/CENTER][/CENTER]
[CENTER][CENTER]$36 flight costs 10,000 miles + $77.10 if I use my miles….WHAT??[/CENTER][/CENTER]
On a Spirit flight 8 months ago I was told if I applied for a Spirit Mastercard I would get 15,000 free miles - "Enough for 3 round-trip flights anywhere", plus another 2,500 miles for turning in my application during the flight. After making sure I used my card every month to keep from losing the miles (I was saving them to use this summer), I needed to take a flight from Tampa to Ft. Lauderdale. The 7:40 AM flight was offered for $36.00. "Hey, I can get a free flight and hardly use any miles", I thought. Yeah…. Riiight. When I clicked on 'Book with FREE Spirit miles' it came up at 10,000 miles + $77.10. So for an extra $41.10, they’re willing to take away 10,000 of my miles? Unbelievable! The Saturday flight - usually $49.00 - was offered for 25,000 miles + $102.50.
As an infuriating prelude it took me over three hours (NOT an exaggeration) to get hold of a human being just to combine my miles onto one account - they issued the credit card miles with a separate Free Spirit number. Spirit wants you to do everything online but have no online option for merging miles (or for solving other simple problems), and all their phone numbers tell you to go online or ask for flight numbers, etc, with NO option to speak to a human and hanging up on you after you waste your time listening to multiple options/messages that don't apply to your problem. No online help or chat, either. Gethuman.com said call 801-401-2220 and press 0, then 2, 5, 7, and 3 (took 3 tries but it worked). After 19 minutes on hold I finally got a reservations 'specialist' who told me I had to call the Free Spirit Center at 801-401-2210 and press option 7, then 3, 3 again, enter my phone number, then select ‘Change Name’ or ‘Update Contact Info’. I had already gone through all these options on my own 2 or 3 times and then the system hung up on me so he offered to hook me directly to a human but when the phone picked up it was the same option menu! I can't remember ever being so mad, but being a masochist I pressed on. After hold times of 13 and 17 minutes my third 'specialist', named AL (had to ask him 3 times because of the thick accent) actually connected me to another human (also named AL - what are the odds?) who solved my problem! AND he gave me a phone number for the future guaranteed - he insisted repeatedly - to be answered by a human. You guessed it. 801-401-2220. He didn't have much of a personality, so maybe it sounds human to him.
And what's with the 801 phone numbers? All the 800 numbers have recordings giving you an 801 number (801-401-2200, 801-401-2210, 801-401-2220, etc.) "To give you more options and serve you better". I thought maybe it's a new toll-free exchange, like 866, but turns out it's an area code in Utah - which makes sense since Spirit is based in Miramar, Florida and the call center is in India. After 18 calls and over an hour of hold time total just to solve my simple problem, I can venture a guess that Spirit has discovered a new source of revenue in the form of a cut from the phone company.

Until today I actually liked Spirit because they had low fares and were upfront about added costs.

[ATLater]

I have flown from MCO to Atlantic City several times. I sign up for the email alerts and around 3:12 am on Tuesday mornings you can find $70 round trips. Plane is small and uncomfortable but its a short flight so I deal with it

[madhavmad]

Thanks for sharing,your post shows exactly what i need...

[Amelorn]

What does one expect from a credit card issued for a bottom-of-the-barrel airline?