After Reading These Horror Stories We May Never Fly With Budget Airlines Again

Would you trust a budget airline for your vacation travel?

We know that flying can be a stressful experience even when everything goes right. From finding a flight that fits your itinerary (and budget) to navigating through security, there’s already a lot to think about. But when something goes wrong on top of the base level of stress we’re already feeling, well… talk about starting a vacation on the wrong foot! And after reading the horror stories our readers shared about flying on budget airlines, we may never use them again!

We’ve experienced our fair share of air travel horror stories, from lost luggage to last-minute cancellations, and we wanted to hear how your flying experiences stacked up! We asked our readers on Facebook, “What are your WILDEST budget airline stories?” — and you did NOT hold back!

We know that sometimes lost luggage happens, but the way it’s handled can take the experience from inconvenient to downright maddening! Our reader Suzie shared a lost luggage story that made us shudder, “My sister and her family took Spirit out of St. Louis for a joint trip to WDW a few years back. Their luggage was checked in and never made it onto the flight. Each bag had an Apple tag. They landed in Orlando with only the clothes on their back. After three days of being on and off the phone with Spirit refusing to acknowledge where their bags were, even though they could pinpoint the location in the STL airport, they finally reached one employee at the airport that tracked the bag down for them. They took several trips to Disney Springs for new clothes each day, as they didn’t find it necessary to buy an entire wardrobe after Spirit kept telling them bags were on their next flight. We door dashed toiletries to the resort. Needless to say it was a stressful first few days of vacation for them and us!”

 

Along with lost luggage, another common theme in the comments was unexpected cancellations. And people mentioned some seriously major disruptions they experienced, like Terry, who said, “We took Southwest to Orlando in March. The return trip on 3/16 was canceled. It was spring break, no hotels available, no flights with anyone available. We had to rent a car to Atlanta to get part of our party home, the rest of us had to get a train to Mississippi, then get a car [the] rest of the way. Southwest gave us a voucher only. Which is no good because I won’t be flying Southwest ever.”

Some people shared stories of their tickets being canceled, even though the flight was still on, like what our reader Sarah experienced, “We arrived at the airport once, went to the counter & found out the airline canceled our tickets for no reason. Flight was still departing as scheduled with available seats, but we didn’t have any. We tried to buy tickets immediately but they had to be purchased 24 hours in advance. They only flew on certain days so we had to find a different airline.”

Others shared stories of bumps they encountered, despite being extra careful to do things right! Phyllis said, “Always like to get to the airport very early to avoid issues…TWA Express to Virginia a very long time ago with my daughter. Check in agent: “Oh wow, you’re the first people to check in for this flight.” Us: “Great, thanks.” Overhead flight announcement: “The following passengers are bumped from this flight, it’s overbooked… Our Names.” Fortunately, Phyllis was able to give some polite pushback to make it on the original flight as scheduled, but we know there’s definitely not always quite as happy of an ending for bumped passengers!

We got dozens more comments from people sharing their budget airline horror stories, from luggage mishaps to major delays. Do you have a budget airline horror story of your own? Share it in the comments, and be sure to follow AllEars on social media for your chance to chime in on future polls and storytelling posts!

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Do you have a budget airline horror story? Share it in the comments!

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