Spirit Incentives Breaks My Spirit

Be Prepared-this is long. But it is not a rant.

DH and I went on a time share tour last spring. We didn’t buy a time share, but “won” two certificates for free travel. I was really excited-one certificate was for travel to a choice of hotels in exotic places. The certificates are good for one year. The one that caught my eye was “Royal Lahaina Hotel, Kaanapali, Maui, Hawaii.” I read the directions, even the fine print. I sent in the certificate with chosen dates for possible travel.

About 2 months later I got a letter that said “Your first chosen travel date is unavailable, should we continue with your 2nd chosen date?” I returned the card “Yes”. About 2 months later I get the same card. I chose 2 more dates. Second letter comes back the same-“should we proceed with your next date?” I return the “yes” reply.

Then in November I get a letter that says I need to pay $140 in taxes. I’m excited. I call up the Customer Service line (NOT a toll-free number). “Are you processing my Jan. 9 travel date?” I ask. They reply, “Yes, your next date is Jan. 9 and when we have your taxes we will have a reservation agent call you to finalize reservations.” I’m starting to research airfares to Maui; I look on my calendar and think about what I’ll have to rearrange to make this trip.

Then I call the customer service no. back a week later to see if they received my $$. They had, and they gave me the toll-free “reservations” number. I call and they have my info and they “start looking at availability” and I’m on hold for many minutes. Finally they come back and say they have “No availability for that date.” What?? I got the taxes letter! I called and they said they were preparing to confirm that date. “Well, if you had sent in the $$ for the taxes earlier, you would have gotten your date.” HUH? How could I have sent the $$ in earlier if I just got the letter 2 weeks ago? “Do you want me to check availability for your next date?” Yes, please. I’m on hold for many more minutes. “No availability for that date either.” What??? How can that be?

After several calls to the reservations number and the customer service number and much arguing, it turns out that there is NO availability for Maui for ANY possible travel date from January to April. “We only get limited no. of rooms.” None. And none of the other places listed for travel had any availability either, except for perhaps Jamaica.

There is NOTHING in the information packet that says taxes must be paid BEFORE a reservation can be processed, although it does say that taxes are the responsibility of the traveler. But taxes apparently have to be paid before a reservation is processed. When I point that out about the lack of info in the packet, they have no answer, but no apology and no way to give me what I want. They won’t extend the length of my certificate, even though I didn’t get a letter about taxes until 7 months after I sent in the first reservation request.

I cancelled my certificate and requested a refund. Haven’t seen it yet.
If you Google “Spirit Incentives” you will be directed to websites where people have a lot of bad things to say about this company. Their company website doesn’t have any content, except info as to how companies can buy their travel packages as incentives.

When the time share company called us, we told them that their incentive plan was a rip-off and reflected badly on the time share company for having it.

DH told me this was a rip-off and I thought I could follow the rules and get the benefit. But it didn’t work like that.

Oh well, older and wiser. Be warned.