Tag: Spirit

The Reasons We Didn’t Fly on Ryanair and Probably Never Will

We like to poke fun at Ryanair on here every once in a while. After all, looking at how Ryanair operates gives us a welcome break away from being upset about how United, Delta and American are constantly one upping each other with customer unfriendly policies.

I’ve shared the time when the CEO called the customers a bunch of whiners because they didn’t pay for seat assignments. Sharon found what might be the funniest customer complaint letter ever written by a passenger after their experience with Ryanair agents at the airport when they were running late for a flight.

The airline was previously in the news over their decision to cut over 2,000 flights from the schedule over a six week time period. The airline said the cancellations were to increase on-time performance of the airline but it was quickly figured out the cancellations were because they didn’t properly schedule for pilots’ vacations. Even the company CEO has said this situation was handled poorly, while at the same time saying that it was the correct decision to make.

Cancelled Flights board

There was one time when we could have taken a Ryanair flight. Here’s why we considered it (for a split second) and why we still didn’t fly with them.

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Spirit Is #1? Wait, Did I Read That Right???

For years, Spirit Airlines has been dead last, or nearly so, in just about every sort of airline category you could think of. From May 2015 through May 2016, they ranked last in their flights being “on time” in every single month except one. They had a LOT of cancelled flights. They’ve had complaints and sometimes even class action lawsuits and fines regarding customer service, deceptive advertising practices, how they treated customers with disabilities, working conditions for employees, and the list goes on and on. They’ve been the airline that people loved to hate and even their flight attendants became known for making self-deprecating jokes about Spirit (some of them were/are really funny!).

This continued until former Spirit CEO Ben Baldanza stepped down in early 2016 and was replaced by former AirTrain CEO Robert Fornaro. Since then, Spirit has slowly been inching up in quality, with improvements to working conditions and the guest experience, implementing multiple changes such as teaming up with Disney to create new service standards, and changing policies to create a more welcoming environment.

But has it been enough?

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Spirit Has A Lot Of Issues But You Can’t Say Their Flight Attendants Don’t Have A Sense of Humor!

I make it no secret that I’m not a fan of Spirit Airlines. No offense to those who do; I’m just at a point in my life where I’d rather pay a little more and get a few creature comforts like, you know, a cup of soda.

Spirit has known that their reputation has been iffy at best, and I give them credit – they’ve been doing a lot to try to better themselves, including working with Disney to improve its customer service. And it’s working – their website is the best it’s ever been in terms of having everything out in the open, and they’re now on time more often than two major airlines.

Despite this, Spirit is still not the best (or even close) and they know it. So I find it kind of refreshing when I see their sassy flight attendants throwing some zingers, self-depreciating and otherwise, around…

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Airline Boarding Groups: The Master List

When you check in for a flight, either by printing a boarding pass on your computer or by using a mobile device, you’re provided with a boarding group. This lets you know when you’ll be getting on the plane. Getting  group 3 on one airline might be great but could be terrible for another airline.

Regardless of that number, just know you’re not getting on the plane when the boarding process starts unless you’re a super elite frequent flyer or a disabled passenger in a wheelchair. The passengers with some sort of loyalty with the airline or one of their partners and the passengers who paid for first class will go next. Why not stay seated until your group (or at least the one right before it is called) cause you’re gonna have a long wait just to have your ticket scanned and all you’re going to is stand on the jet bridge for a while before getting on the plane.

Just be patient and don’t be like the people in this video from JetBlue

 

 

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Problem With A TSA Officer, Customs Agent Or Airline? Here’s Where You Can Complain

It’s been said over and over again – flying is stressful. You’re stuck in crowds for a long period of time, there can be delays or other issues that may or may not have an explanation, or a whole myriad of other things that can make you feel ready to punch a wall. On top of that, the TSA officer is confusing your elderly parent-in-law who has dementia, the Customs agent is barking orders with her head turned so you can’t understand them, and the airline employee who has been unreasonable about whether or not your carry on will fit in the overhead is now becoming irate. You can’t do much about the first few examples but here’s what you can do about the latter ones:

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