Feeding the hand that bites me

    Those who decide at the last minute to fly north to south in the U.S. have two choices -- a rock and a hard place.  I could not make the 15-hour drive to South Carolina with my family on Monday because of a commitment to play golf (see yesterday's posting on the New Haven Country Club).  When I looked for a decent fare on Friday to Myrtle Beach from Hartford, CT or any airport within a couple of hours, the best I could do was $250 one way and more than $400 round trip.  But I found a $99 fare on a non-stop flight from Atlantic City on Spirit Airlines.  I decided I would drive the 3 ½ hours from our Connecticut home and booked myself online for a roundtrip on Spirit, with the return on the morning non-stop flight next Wednesday (so I could be on time to chair an afternoon meeting at the charity I work with in Hartford).
    Let's start with the good news.  I found a nice parking spot near the terminal in the long-term lot at Atlantic City International, a short walk to the terminal (only $7 per day for parking).  Check-in was simple and although the airport has no Wi-Fi connection, it was clean and comfortable, if a bit spartan.  The plane, a modern Airbus 319, left on time and arrived a few minutes early in Myrtle Beach.  The leather seat was comfortable and I had no one next to me for the one-hour flight.  No quibbles with any of that.
    The online ordering had gone well until it was time to specify my seat.  First, Spirit asked about baggage; I could check a bag for $15, or two for $25.  Tacky, but fortunately I had no bags to check.  Then it was time for seat selection.  I scanned the seating chart; there were no aisle seats (my preference) in the front 2/3 of the plane, and so I opted for a window seat in row 5...for a $15 surcharge.  The only seats that carried no surcharge were middle seats, and I flashed back to many years ago when I was in the middle seat between twin heavyweight wrestlers, 300 pounds apiece.  I paid the $15, although I found it annoying.
    On Tuesday morning, I checked in online for my flight later that day and printed my boarding pass.  I made one last check of my itinerary and, to my horror, found that Spirit had booked me on their evening flight this coming Wednesday, not the morning one.  I was certain I had reserved the morning flight since I knew I had to be back early (and I do know the difference between AM and PM).  
    I called Spirit's customer service number, which is buried on their web site to discourage any customer from actually using it, and went on hold for 10 minutes. Finally, someone answered...from India.  "Sorry, sir," she said after I explained I had been given the wrong return flight, "there is nothing I can do.  You will have to pay a $90 fee to change the flight."  I tried patiently to explain that I had signed up for the early flight, not the late one, but it was like talking to a training manual that indicates "Do not listen to the customer, do not show mercy, stay focused on charging them for any change."
    I asked to speak to a supervisor.  She was less helpful.  She gave me the same, "Sorry sir, $90 to change."  I asked her to make the change and charge my credit card but warned that I would be alerting American Express to what I considered an act of malfeasance by Spirit.  Then she said, "Sorry sir, we are inside 24 hours, and I cannot even make the change."  "We are not," I almost screamed, "inside 24 hours for a flight next Wednesday."  Oh, yes, "you are right," she acknowledged, adding "Sir" as the training manual surely advises.
    I'd like to say I will never fly Spirit Airlines again, but I know - and more importantly, they do too - that I probably will because, sometimes, the price is too good to resist (unless they go out of business which is a real possibility).  Resistance is futile when it comes to Father Time, the IRS and, sad to say, the discount airlines.

    Footnote:  The Internet is filled with complaints by those who have had much worse experiences on Spirit than I did.  Last year, Spirit CEO Ben Baldanza, responding internally to a passenger complaint and request for a refund, unfortunately hit the "Reply all" button and sent his true feelings far and wide. "We owe him nothing," Baldanza wrote of the complaining customer. "Let him tell the world how bad we are.  He's never flown us before anyway and will be back when we save him a penny."