This past Thursday we were to fly from Sacramento to Orlando via Las Vegas. Throughout the day we received updates to purchase upgrades, I mean a lot. We received one email indicating they were low on seats and asked if anyone with flexible plans would want to defer, we did not.
We had booked through the airline and had a 1 hour layover in Vegas. We started receiving emails about delays which went on most of the day Thursday for our 8:30pm flight. We got out of the gate a little late, fingers crossed. As we landed on the tarmac the pilot made the announcement our connecting flight was delayed by at least 1 hour. We were good. The next announcement was the terminal spots were all taken and we drew the short straw thus in the plan about 50 minuets. Our plane was there, we were there, but could not get off. When we deplaned our connection was missed.
When we retrieved our luggage and hoofed over to the line were told the delay was weather and we were SOL. The next plane we could catch was the next date about 9:45PM. We were going to a 100 mile race that started at 6AM Saturday in Jacksonville (to Daytona) and this was unacceptable. We found a flight on United leaving in about an hour and asked if they could get us on that flight, after all we did not miss this connecting due to weather but due to IDK. They indicated their computer said weather and there was nothing they could do, furthermore since their computer weather they would not
comp a Hotel or anything. We had them book a flight home the next morning and stayed at the Airport in the secure area until our 8am departure. We were not the only people.
I will never fly with Spirit again, but what I really want to do here is know where to file a proper complaint? To blame this on Weather when we were there, our connecting light was there… there were 25 people trying to make connections . This saves the company a lot of money but claiming weather. While all this was going on I was able to find flights on Spirit much earlier in the day on Friday but they could not. They found flights for the a lady next to us which got her there early afternoon Friday… The manager there indicated if we booked back to Sacramento they would refund the the rest of the trip, we did this and walked around the airport for 9 hours. Today I started receiving emails on purchasing additional options for my return flight, I just called and they did not cancel.
On our return we were delayed due to them working on the plane. This was a different plane but sure would be convenient to claim weather if our plane had similar issues, I would think regulatory agencies would have this type of maintenance information, but would they care.
Looking for guidance.
Thank you!