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Denver woman charged for Spirit flight, wants refund but set to receive credit

Spirit Airlines issues credit after cancellation confusion
Woman died of COVID-19 on a Spirit Airlines flight while returning home from Las Vegas, reports say
Posted at 5:28 PM, Apr 27, 2021
and last updated 2021-04-27 20:55:44-04

DENVER — Spirit Airlines may get a bad rap at times, but Aida Baez said their newly flexible pandemic cancellation policies gave her some assurance when her mother became ill.

"I made a reservation with Spirit to take a flight down to Florida for my sick mother," said Baez, who said just hours after she booked the flight last September, her mother passed away. "I decided to wait to fly out until the memorial service."

She canceled her first flight and booked a flight for the memorial service two weeks later. But instead of getting a refund for her original flight as she expected, she discovered she had been charged for both tickets.

She contested the charge with her credit card company and lost.

"Nothing was going to happen, and I reached out to you guys, Denver7, because it just seemed like I needed some muscle behind me to get some attention," said Baez.

Contact Denver7 Reached out to Spirit Airlines, which released this statement:

"Spirit Airlines issued Ms. Baez a credit automatically when she canceled her flight online. Our records indicate no additional contact regarding that reservation until Ms. Baez initiated a dispute with her credit card issuer, which deactivated the credit already issued to her. Though the credit was deactivated due to Ms. Baez initiating the dispute, we will reinstate it as a courtesy upon confirming the dispute’s outcome with her card issuer."

Baez maintains that she called Spirit Airlines customer service numerous times.

When she receives the credit, though, Baez said she is looking forward to flying Spirit Airlines once again, and will be booking a flight to see her grandchildren as soon as possible.

"I really appreciate everything that you guys did this for me," said Baez. "I just didn't want to pay for a flight I never took."

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