1. The round trip only for non-peak season (before Feb 15th and after April 27th). If I fly during peak season, it’s only for 1 way, non round trip.
2. Can only be redeemable by me (can’t even apply to a child)
3. There are “redemption fees” for using the miles if used for flights before 180 days from now
4. During peak season – even for the 1 leg they the do cover, it’s only for hours of 5:30 am or 11:50 pm flights (from Chicago to Florida). I fly with 3 years old which means I can’t fly during these hours. They DO NOT cover the “normal” hours during day.

When I joined, I was told (and it is in the documentation that I have) that I would receive 5% rebate on airline tickets I bought with Spirit on the card. I never received that and Spirit says it is a Barclays issue but Barclays says it is a Spirit issue. Go figure.

Then I had a bunch of travel problems on Spirit, not the least of which was when I donated about 100,000 miles for a charity to take a videographer to Lima from Los Angeles. Spirit denied boarding to her in Ft Lauderdale, halfway through her trip to Peru, as there was a baggage embargo to Lima. Yes, this was on the Spirit website, but not in the ‘baggage policies’ section… it was in it’s own section at the bottom of the page titled ‘Lima baggage embargo’ and was not referred to any place else. If they were intentionally trying to trap people, they could not have done a better job. My donation of miles escalated into what I felt was an obligation to buy her ticket to Lima… $1,500 cash. Spirit would not even consider giving me back the miles for the flights that were not taken.

Then about 6 months ago, I get notices that my Spirit mastercard is becoming a Juniper card. What I didn’t realize is that now that I am no longer a Spirit Mastercard holder, that the balance of the miles I had earned (about 70,000 miles still unredeemed) would expire with 3 months of inactivity on my Spirit flyer account.

And so went the balance of the miles I earned with Spirit. I spent almost $200,000 on their flippin’ card and never so much as got a flight back (well, except for LAX to FLL, which was one-forth of the trip), at which time a charitable videographer and all her luggage were left standing at the curb in a strange town, alone.

You can’t swing a dead cat on the internet without hitting a complaint about the customer service of Spirit. I have to admit that their cheap prices did sometimes catch my eye, but I have finally controlled those urges and I don’t even look at them any more. There are a lot better ways to get to Cancun.. ways that won’t leave me needing a few shots of tequila when I get there just to settle down my frustration at some new issue I would have with them.

They are not flexible whatsoever and if you have been on one of their flights you know you are making sacrifices before you ever step on the plane.

Anyway, goodbye Spirit!!! and good riddance.

I have accrued 85000+ miles on my Spirit Card and I have decided to cut it up because it isn’t worth the space it takes up in my wallet.

I’ve used miles for travel in February, October and December with no issues. I only use the Sprit card for Spirit purchases and one monthly payment to keep the card active. But between the 3x miles per dollar on Spirit purchases, low 2500 mile redemption level and the occasional trip to LAX (2000 miles each way), the miles keep racking up.

Not thrilled with the $9 fare club being removed or the Indian call center. (Although I will say that they were very helpful in rescheduling a trip booked on miles–at no cost to me–when the itineraries changed. Even changed the arrival city with no additional points / cash charged.)

As far as the airline goes, you know what you’re getting from the start. But as long as I continue to have success using my miles, I’m a happy cardholder.

She informed me that the destination that I wanted to go to was a zone III flight and required 15,000 points (chicago to san juan). At that moment, I was looking at the website and even printed out the matrix that showed the flight was zone II, yet the woman was insistent even when I verified the link which showed it was a zone II off peak flight on the grid. So I called back later and another employee informed me that I was qualified for the free flight with the 10,000 points to San Juan.

As such, I was going to take it. But having read horror stories about Spirit mile redemption, I asked her for details before booking; such as will there be extra fees. Only because I asked, did she disclose that there was $110 fee and there would be a $175 cancel fee if I decided not to take it at a later date. Immediately after informing me it would be a 13 hour flight due to an 8 hour layover each way, she insisted I take the flight; I was hesitant due to the amount of layover time and because I was getting conflicting information from employees.

So I asked her to explicitly verify that I had enough points and wouldn’t have to pay more, and why other employees told me otherwise. Only than did she say that I needed 15,000 points and would only get credit for one way; and have to pay for my return. She deliberately left that information off; likely because had I accepted her insistent offer to book, she would have asked me for the $400 one way along with the $110 (security and booking fee); had I said ‘no’ she would have charged me the $110 and the $175 cancel fee for nothing.

After reading the reviews (before booking) I wasn’t surprised and was cautious; however I think its odd that a customer service organization would so blatantly try to deceive their customer base. I will be sure to use the points one way or the other, at a marginal cost to me and without any additional hidden charge… even if it means going to some random place with an 8 hour layover, just so that I can use a seat, causing them the opportunity cost of a paying customer.