How to Get a Spirit Airlines Refund - NerdWallet (2023)

Spirit Airlines has been known to add extra fees to your ticket. Even the Diet Coke on board is $4, and you still owe $25 if you ask the airport staff to print your boarding pass.

if aspirit airlinesIf you seek a refund, you will have to pay an additional fee to get it (in many cases).

Spirit beats just one other airline, FrontierRate categoryYearbook from NerdWalletBest of 2023 Awards, which means Spirit has the second-worst fee rating of the nine airlines considered. Spirit leaves those honors with a dismal 1.2 out of 5 stars in the fee category.

The good news is that not all Spirit Airlines flight cancellations incur refund fees. If you cancel your flight early enough, you may be able to get a full refund to the original form of payment at no additional cost.

Will Spirit issue refunds?

Whether you can get a refund from Spirit depends on a number of factors: 1) how soon after you choose to cancel your flight after purchase, and 2) whether you or Spirit choose to cancel your flight.

If you decide to cancel your Spirit flight within 24 hours of booking

In accordance with Spirit Airlines' refund policy, all Spirit tickets may be canceled for a full refund to the original form of payment if your ticket was purchased within 24 hours of the cancellation request and you have 7 days or more before your flight departure payment.

For other Spirit flights

If you decide to cancel after 24 hours, you will generally no longer be eligible for a refund on the original form of payment.

However, you can earn booking credits to use on future flights. question? You may have to pay a fee to get this credit - which may exceed the value of the credit itself.

Change and cancellation fees depend on how far in advance you book your flight. This is usually the amount you owe:

In all cases, all cancellations or changes must be made at least 45 minutes before the scheduled departure time for all domestic flights and 60 minutes before the scheduled departure time for all international flights.

If you want a refund because Spirit has chosen to cancel your flight

If Spirit cancels your flight, it doesn't matter which ticket you purchased; you are entitled to a full refund.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, travelers are entitled to a full refund if the airline cancels your flight for any reason and you choose not to travel. The airline must refund within 7 working days for purchases made by credit card, or within 20 days if payment was made by cash or check.

How to change or cancel your Spirit booking

The easiest way to contact Spirit to change or cancel a flight is usually to drop byMy travel page on the Spirit websiteand follow the steps on the screen. Have your name and confirmation number ready.

Other contact details are:

Spiritual Reserve Credits

Once you've paid the change or cancellation fee, you'll receive Spirit Booking Credits. These can be used to pay for future air tickets or other expenses such as baggage fees, seat selection fees and taxes. You must make your purchase on Spirit.com or by calling Spirit Reservations at 855-728-3555; you cannot use points toward reservations made through the Spirit app.

There are some annoying aspects to Spirit booking credits. They are not transferable, which means you cannot use them to book a flight for someone else. They have an expiration date, but Spirit's website doesn't say exactly how the expiration date is calculated -- not even in the fine print of the terms and conditions.

A Spirit web article on using booking credits notes that at least some of them are in the 90-day credit category, "applicable to travel booked within 90 days of the release of all available flight dates in the system." 90 days isn't a long time—especially Considering other airlines are sufferingsouthwestsupplytravel fundNever expires.

If you cancel your Spirit reservation and earn points, please check the cancellation email you received from Spirit for the expiration date and terms of your Spirit reservation credit.

To make a new booking using Spirit Reservation Points, you must have your Reservation Credit number ready. This is a 6-character alphanumeric code that you can find in your trip cancellation email.

Book your new flight as usual, but select "Redeem for vouchers or points" on the payment page. You'll see some payment options, such as credit card or coupon. Scroll down to the "Booking Credit" line and enter your 6-digit verification code in the box.

If the price of your new flight is higher than the value of the voucher, you can pay the difference using another payment method, such as PayPal or credit card.

Steps to get a refund from Spirit

While your Spirit flight is refundable, Spirit doesn't make it easy for you to get your money back.

Unlike other airlines that offer an easy-to-find refund request form on their website, Spirit's process can be less intuitive. Spirit recommends requesting a refund by doing one of the following:

Other ways to get your money back

If your ticket isn't eligible for a refund, or you just don't want to pay $119 for future flight credit, you may have another option to get your refund back:travel insurance.

Travel insurance is usually purchased by travel insurance companies or travel agencies. According to comparison site Squaremouth (an affiliate of NerdWallet), fees and coverage vary by carrier, but typically range from 5%-10% of the total travel cost.

However, unless you buy aPlease cancel the policy for any reason, which are usually more expensive than the base policy, and you're only entitled to a refund if you cancel for a covered reason -- which can vary by insurer. On the other hand, it might not even be necessarypay for travel insurance.Many credit cards offer travel insurance as a built-in benefit for customers who use the card to pay for travel.