LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A couple flying from Denver to Detroit ended up stranded in Las Vegas after last-minute flight changes from Spirit Airlines.
Gary Goetzinger said he and his wife had to sleep at Harry Reid International Airport after poor communication that followed their Spirit flight this week. The number of other passengers affected by the change isn’t clear at this time.
Their flight to Detroit was rerouted to Las Vegas, and when they arrived, they were met with more delays that interfered with getting a direct flight to Detroit. Today, they were trying to catch a Southwest Airlines flight to Detroit after Spirit’s continued delays.
Today, Spirit has canceled one flight between Dallas/Ft. Worth and Las Vegas. Seven arriving flights and four flights leaving Las Vegas indicate delays. All flights from Las Vegas to Detroit indicate they are sold out.
“Originally we had a direct flight from Denver to Detroit. Spirit changed the flight to go to Vegas and then Detroit with our only option was to accept the change or get a new flight. By the time we were informed of the change it really was to late to find a direct flight,” Goetzinger told 8 News Now in a text message.
“Then today they delayed immediately and provided little to no communication until they canceled and sent everyone to stand in line for hours and fend for themselves with little help,” he said.
Goetzinger said today he saw others who were booked to Dallas/Ft. Worth and Houston on Spirit flights being told their flights were canceled.
Attempts to get an explanation from Spirit were not answered immediately.
The problem comes as Spirit is in talks to merge with Frontier Airlines following Spirit’s move to reject a hostile takeover bid from JetBlue. Shareholders are scheduled to meet June 10 to consider the Frontier deal.
A recent report, April 2022 Air Travel Consumer Report, ranks Spirit as the 10th-worst airline for bumping passengers. Spirit was fined in June 2020 for violating federal policies on bumping passengers. Since then, Spirit’s record has improved. Out of 8.1 million passengers boarded, Spirit has “involuntarily” denied boarding for 94 passengers.
In this case, passengers were told just before the flight that it was being sent to Las Vegas, and they didn’t have much chance to book other flights.