Spirit customers slam the company's $50 voucher after mass cancellations leave them stranded

• Spirit customers reportedly received $50 travel vouchers after the airline canceled over 1,700 flights.
• "The cancellations cost me about $700 plus I lost about 14 hours of my time," one customer told Insider.
• "We're working to provide refunds for cancellations," a Spirit spokesperson said on Tuesday.

From purchasing new flights and rental cars to extended parking fees, one Spirit customer told Insider that the airline's mass cancellations this week cost him over $700 in travel accommodations.

Several social media users whose travel plans were disrupted by Spirit during the six-day cancelation chaos said they were sent a $50 travel voucher from the airline but have yet to receive refunds.

"Overall the cancellations cost me about $700 plus I lost about 14 hours of my time. But hey, I got a $50 travel voucher, so there's that," said Tony Harris, who was supposed to fly from Detroit to Las Angeles with Spirit on Wednesday.

"I hope Spirit does the right thing and offers up more than a $50 voucher pittance to those customers," Harris said, referencing travelers who may not have been able to afford to purchase new travel arrangements. "This may be the one vacation they take every 2-3 years and they're the people who probably need it the most."

On Wednesday, a spokesperson from Spirit Airlines said the cancellations were due to "overlapping operational challenges including weather, system outages, and staffing shortages that caused widespread irregularities in our operation and impacted crew scheduling,"

Spirit's Director of Communications Erik Hofmeyer said in a statement that customers would receive refunds for canceled flights.

Vincent Sodano, a Spirit customer who has used the airline to travel internationally, told Insider that Spirit caused him and his wife travel disruptions on three separate occasions over the past 2.5 years. He specifically pointed to the customs and immigration system at the Fort Lauderdale airport, which he described as a "complete zoo."

"They managed to break one of the wheels off of one of the brand-new pieces of checked luggage, even though it never actually made it onto a plane," Sodano said.

Spirit did not respond to Insider's request to comment on the travel voucher claims reported by customers.

Do you have a Spirit-related story you'd like to share? Contact the reporter of this piece from a non-work email at @htowey@insider.com