Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.
Spirit Airlines and American Airlines have angered customers all over the United States in the last week with mounting flight cancellations.
Spirit and American both have canceled or delayed more than 1,000 flights since Sunday, variously attributed to weather conditions, staffing problems, and IT issues. On Wednesday, more than 60% of Spirit’s flights were canceled and another 10% were delayed, while American canceled a much smaller 4% of its flights on Wednesday but delayed about 19%, according to Flight Aware.
A Spirit spokesperson told CBS on Wednesday that the company is working to provide refunds and cancellations affected travelers, and that cancellations are expected to “progressively drop in the days to come.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for American told NPR the company’s team members “are working around the clock for our customers” amid a major storm in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where the airline’s biggest hub is located.
But if stranded travelers ultimately feel legal action is necessary, they could be out of luck.
American added a class action waiver to its contract of carriage — the document outlining legal responsibilities of both an airline and its customers — in April 2020, and Spirit has had one since even before that. The waivers essentially force passengers who want to file class action lawsuits against the company to instead go through arbitration.
The arbitration process essentially gives companies a detour out of court for most disputes, forcing potential plaintiffs to have their complaints heard before an ostensibly-neutral “arbitrator” rather than a judge or jury. In most cases, the decision of the arbitrator is binding and cannot be reversed in court.
“What the airline is saying is: If you ever have a dispute with us, the only way you can pursue this is in private,” said Deborah Hensler, Ph.D., a professor of law at Stanford Law School, told The New York Times back in April. “These types of agreements are usually an effort to prevent people from having an effective way of challenging a company on what might arguably be a legal violation.”
Forced arbitration is usually quite effective at limiting loss for companies — so effective that few people even bother to go through the process. For example, per data submitted by Google and Facebook to Congress two years ago, the two tech companies had just a handful of arbitration cases between 2014 and 2019, with Google reporting 14 and Facebook showing only five.
And it’s already quite difficult for airlines to be sued in the United States, The New York Times noted, as they are exempt from state and local laws. That already leaves class action lawsuits one of the only avenues airline passengers can use to right any perceived wrongs, and arbitration makes that all the more difficult.
That hasn’t stopped class action lawsuits from being filed against airlines with arbitration clauses — anyone can sue, but that doesn’t mean the lawsuit will be successful.
In 2020, Spirit successfully pointed to its class action waiver in its contract of carriage to defend itself from a lawsuit over a $6 security shortcut pass that plaintiffs argued was a sham.
More recently, a Florida couple sued Spirit over a similar “shortcut boarding” upgrade that was allegedly rendered useless by strict loading and unloading protocols mandated during the coronavirus pandemic. That lawsuit is still playing out in court.
Don’t Miss Out!
Check out our list of Class Action Lawsuits and Class Action Settlements you may qualify to join!
Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:
- Court Approves $1.55M Cathay Pacific Airways Class Action Settlement
- American Airlines Website Inaccessible To Blind, Claims ADA Class Action Lawsuit
- Debt Collection Company ‘Recklessly’ Gave Customer Info to Others to Recover Debts, Class Action Alleges
- American Airlines’ Customers Want Voice-Recording Claims Heard in Illinois State Court
36 thoughts onFlight Cancellations Mount, But Customers Looking to Legal Remedy for Airline Woes May Be Disappointed
Please add me if possible. Spirit Airlines automatically canceled the return portion of my flight due to me missing the departing flight. My thoughts are regardless of what happens to the first flight I still paid for the returning flight and it should not have been canceled. It was a complete nightmare, Spirit customer service stated that I could not receive a refund of any kind and I would have to purchase the flight again. The customer service I experienced with Spirit has been the worst of any company in general.
Please add me
My Saturday fly was canceled from honduras to Houston. I flew to Houston on Sunday to find out my Houston fly to Los Angeles was canceled as well. They booked us on a Monday fly that got canceled as well. I had to paid hotel room for Saturday in honduras, Sunday and Monday in Houston Texas. I had to purchased airline tickets with United. Booking a trip with spirit cost me and additional $1300 plus the $1600 I had already paid them to fly with them. I WILL NEVER EVER FLY WITH SPIRIT AGAIN IN MY LIFE!!!!! This airline is stealing money from customers! DONT BOOK WITH THEM EVER!!!! Everytime you have a problem when you Call them and it takes hours to speak with a representative and when they answer they can’t help you. They employees are not willing and able to help you with anything. This airline shouldn’t even exist period. I was supposed to get home on Saturday and now I’m getting home Tuesday with a different airline. My kids are missing school 2 days my husband and I are missing work for 2 days as well.
Add me, my husband and 2 kids… spirit delayed our flight and even we landed on time to catch our connecting flight, they decided to not let us board.. i think they oversold our seats.. so we had to spend on hotels, food and transportation which was over $500 dls and wait 24 hours for the next flight. It was a nightmare
Add my husband and I also. My husbands 94 year old mother passed away, we were flying in for her memorial. We kept being told they would put us on another flight, to reschedule for the next day, book another flight, etc…. All while knowing they weren’t going to be flying. We had to spend over $600.00 on 2 one way flights on Southwest, cancel hotel reservations, rebook longer hotel stays for different dates etc… You don’t re-book a funeral/memorial service, it goes on without you (her son). Then they gave us 6 months to use our credit (no refund) for 4 airline tickets, then sent an email offering $100.00 “apology” credit. A complete nightmare.
Add me. Second leg of flight cancelled, leaving us stranded in Myrtle Beach. Hotel, taxis, booking another flight, because of delays almost ran out of necessary medications, and extra $900.
Add me
add me to me please! I have everything recorded on video of my wife and my three young daughters in our trip of four days to be able to return from Orlando to Houston without compensation other than lies which not even the hotels want to this spirit company, I am willing to go where it is necessary for get them to compensate for this outrage
Add me. Spirit airlines cancelled my flight from Ft Lauderdale to Atlanta. My husband my five year old and I had to rent a car pay for a hotel to sleep for the night and drive all the way back to Atlanta because they wouldn’t give us any options to re schedule or pay for any accommodations. This was on July 31st 2021.
Add me spirit cancelled flight from Orlando to Boston after spending hours at the airport ( several delays). Flight cancelled at 1030 pm. A lot of stuff closed already. Had to find accommodation independently, had 3 yr old grandson. Cost an unexpected amount of 800.
Add me spirit cancelled flight from Orlando to Boston after spending hours at the airport ( several delays). Flight cancelled at 1030 pm. A lot of stuff closed already. Had to find accommodation independently, had 3 yr old grandson. Cost an unexpected amount of 800. 00
add me
had two different flight cancelled within a month