Spirit Airlines Has Shut Down: Here’s What to Do

This can be a creating story.

As of Might 2, 2026, Spirit Airways has shut down and canceled all flights. Passengers with Spirit flights shouldn’t go to the airport.

Vacationers who had future flights on the finances airline and Free Spirit factors could also be questioning what their subsequent steps ought to be. Spirit has struggled in recent times, submitting twice for Chapter 11 chapter throughout the final two years. The warfare in Iran, which has pushed up the price of gasoline, has made issues much more untenable.

“To our Friends: all flights have been canceled, and customer support is now not out there,” the now-defunct airline stated in a be aware on its web site. “We’re happy with the affect of our ultra-low-cost mannequin on the business over the past 34 years and had hoped to serve our Friends for a few years to come back.”

Right here’s what it’s good to learn about Spirit’s wind-down course of after it is ceased all operations.

In the event you had deliberate on flying with Spirit, the very first thing you need to concentrate on is making alternate preparations since Spirit is now not working and won’t assist rebook you on one other airline. Your choices will range relying on how quickly your initially scheduled flight was.

Spirit passengers even have entry to particular “rescue fares,” the place competitor airways supply discounted tickets to stranded passengers. American Airways, Frontier Airways, JetBlue Airways, United Airways and Southwest Airways have all stated they are going to supply particular fares, however you will must act rapidly if you wish to guide considered one of these fares.

American stated it’s providing discounted fares on Spirit routes the place it additionally gives nonstop service; these might be bought immediately via American’s reserving channels.

Frontier is providing the promo code “SAVENOW,” which supplies a reduction of 10% or 50% on base fares once you guide by Might 10, 2026, and journey by November 19, 2026. To get the upper low cost, it’s good to journey on Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday and buy your ticket 21 days upfront of journey. Different restrictions, together with blackout dates, might apply.

In the meantime, JetBlue, United and Southwest are providing help to Spirit passengers, so long as vacationers are capable of present proof of an current reservation.

JetBlue stated it would supply $99 one-way fares for passengers touring on the identical route (or from an eligible close by airport) as their canceled Spirit flight via Might 6, 2026. To guide, prospects might want to name 1-800-538-2583. The airline stated it would additionally cap Blue Fundamental fares at $299 for all nonstop routes from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Worldwide Airport (FLL) and Luis Muñoz Marín Worldwide Airport (SJU) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, that have been additionally operated by Spirit. This cover will apply to flights departing by Might 8, 2026.

Southwest stated Spirit passengers can buy particular fares for home and worldwide journey at a Southwest ticket counter at their departure airport via Might 6, 2026. Home fares will likely be priced primarily based on flight distance. Flights 500 miles and fewer will value $200; flights 501 to 1,000 miles will value $300 and flights exceeding 1,000 miles will value $400.

Spirit has stated that it’s going to mechanically course of refunds for all canceled flights bought immediately via Spirit by way of credit score and debit playing cards. That is nice information for eligible vacationers, who will not must undergo additional hoops to get their a refund.

Nevertheless, if you happen to booked your flights by way of a journey agent, you will want to achieve out to your journey agent for a refund. In the meantime, passengers who booked via different strategies, corresponding to a journey voucher or Free Spirit factors, is not going to obtain any fast compensation; they will discover out extra info via the chapter courtroom course of.

Here is some useful info if you happen to didn’t guide via Spirit and you’re working into difficulties getting a refund via your journey agent (which incorporates on-line reserving platforms like Expedia and Orbitz):

You’ll need to file a chargeback inside a sure interval from the unique transaction date, sometimes as much as 120 days — but when items and companies aren’t acquired, that window can get prolonged. The period of time you’ve gotten will range relying in your card community (corresponding to American Specific, Visa and Mastercard).

Typically, issuers enable you extra time to file a chargeback when it includes items and companies delivered at a future date; on this case, that’s your canceled Spirit flight. Nevertheless, you need to nonetheless act promptly, for the reason that clock might begin from the date you’re notified concerning the cancellation.

In the event you paid with a debit card, you aren’t lined by the identical protections. Nevertheless, it’s nonetheless value reaching out to your issuer to see whether or not they’ll supply any protections voluntarily.

It’s not clear what’s going to occur to Free Spirit factors, and it’s possible you’ll very effectively lose them fully. In contrast to different airline loyalty applications, Free Spirit doesn’t supply members significant methods to redeem their factors exterior of award flights with the airline.

“Given Spirit Airways’ fast wind-down of operations, Free Spirit factors are now not redeemable, and there aren’t any flights out there for buy,” the airline stated on its web site. “Plans for the loyalty program will likely be decided at a later date via the chapter course of.”

One situation may contain one other airline buying the Free Spirit loyalty program, for the reason that buyer information might be worthwhile. Prior to now, buying loyalty applications have provided to transform current factors from the acquired program to the brand new one. Nevertheless, this stays a giant if, so don’t rely on this taking place.

Prime photograph courtesy of Spirit Airways.