My daughter had a flight from STT back to FLL in November. She was ticketed for flight around 2.00. On the trip in from Maho she goes to check herself in since that was the first time she had a data connection. During that process she learned that her flight was now leaving at 10 something. She calls the airline. They tell her if she doesn't like the change they will give her money back. She tells them she doesn't want her money back - she wants a seat out of STT and she's not sure she can make the 10 flight. Too bad - if she doesn't make the flight and has not agreed to the refund right then on the phone she will be charged a change fee and an airfare change fee and ... by the way... the next available seat out of STT was for several days in the future. She then asks them why she had not been told of the change sooner. They told her that they couldn't get in touch with her. Well that's odd she tell them 'cause I've been receiving email "offers" all week from you.

Luckily we had left Maho at first light. Instead of refueling and getting the boat into the slip at CYOA we picked up a mooring and got her off to the airport. Once we got into CA, Spirit had once again changed the departure time - this time to 11:00. In telling this story to natives that morning we were told that Spirit pulls the switharoo schedule scheme all the time leaving passengers behind and screwing them on the change fees - part of their business model perhaps.

The daughter did make the flight. And it was cheap. But I would gladly have given her some money to cover the difference to fly a "real" airline to avoid the stress.