My family and I fly a lot because we like to take our kids on trips as often as possible to make memories together. Unfortunately, flying seems to be getting worse lately, as we’ve experienced a lot of delays, even when booking with major carriers.
A number of bad weather events have also led to flight cancellations, which can be a huge hassle.
We’re lucky we haven’t had any major disasters, where we ended up stranded for days due to flight disruptions. Unfortunately, not all passengers can say the same.
In mid-February, one bankrupt airline canceled hundreds of flights, leaving many passengers scrambling for options. Multiple news outlets reported on the incident, including Fox News, which shared some stories from struggling travelers.
Unfortunately, the troubles faced by the airline’s passengers were compounded by the fact that other airlines didn’t step in to rescue the stranded flyers.
Those who travel on this airline need to understand why they were left with few options, as it could impact their flight booking decisions in the future.
An airline insider says Spirit Airlines’ most recent flight cancellations were not related to weather issues.
TheStreet
Why did Spirit Airlines cancel so many flights?
According to multiple reports, Spirit Airlines — which has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy twice — canceled more than 250 flights since Feb. 13. Fox News explained that it wasn’t a weather event causing the disruption. Instead, operational issues arose because of the airline’s financial struggles.
“Spirit Airlines has been suffering crew shortages for months now,” Gary Leff of View from the Wing told Fox News Digital. “They’ve been acknowledging a lack of crew in many of their cancellation announcements.”
Leff also told Fox that the airline had been cutting pay for crew members, and that some employees might have been taking time off while searching for new jobs, given the uncertainty of Spirit Airlines’ future.
Why aren’t other airlines rescuing Spirit Airlines passengers?
News of multiple canceled flights is never ideal, but an additional factor added to the chaos, making it more difficult for stranded travelers to reach their final destinations.
“In the United States, most major carriers like United Airlines and Delta Air Lines participate in interline and alliance networks that allow them to easily transfer passengers between airlines when schedules fall apart,” Simple Flying explained.
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These types of agreements give passengers more options as they can get booked onto other flights when there are issues. Sadly, the stranded Spirit Airlines flyers were not able to benefit from transfer agreements.
“Spirit Airlines, however, does not have any of these kinds of agreements, which forces it to rebook passengers exclusively onto its own flights, and it has no contractual mechanisms to shift customers to a United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, or other flight in the event of a cancellation,” Simple Flying went on to explain.
Spirit Airlines passengers are left with few options
Since the U.S. doesn’t have many consumer protections for air travelers, it largely falls to the airlines to try to make arrangements for passengers who have been displaced by flight cancellations.
Since Spirit Airlines had experienced widespread disruption and couldn’t work with other airlines to get passengers out, flyers had essentially no option to get on another plane in a timely manner. They could either get refunds or wait for a seat to open up on a Spirit flight that was actually able to travel.
When booking flights, passengers need to be aware that because Spirit lacks these agreements, they may face real problems getting home if something goes wrong with Spirit’s schedule.
This could lead to many flyers making different choices. In fact, as one displaced traveler told Fox News, “I was supposed to fly home and no flights out for the next three days after that. … Not booking Spirit anymore.”
They likely won’t be the only ones to abandon the bankrupt airline.