ATLANTA — It’s been four months since Spirit Airlines lost a Cobb County family’s luggage, and tell Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray that they still have not gotten any restitution from Spirit Airlines.
William Bruce said his family dropped off their bag loaded with Christmas gifts for their family back in Brazil at the counter at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Jan. 25.
Bruce said he was so amazed by the self-service drop-off that he recorded a video. That was the last time he saw his bag.
“They want you to go away. They’d rather you just get tired and just go away,” Bruce said.
But Bruce is refusing to give up in his customer service mess with Spirit Airlines.
“All you can do is text or talk to a bot, never a real person. And it just gets so frustrating,” Bruce told Gray.
It was a January flight from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale to Rio, where Spirit lost his wife’s bag that was loaded down with gifts for her Brazilian family - about $1,000 in purchases.
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“All the Christmas presents, all the stuff that she had been saving,, were gone,” Bruce said.
It’s what happened since that has really upset Bruce – months of getting nowhere, trying to get compensation for the lost bag.
Each spring, the consumer advocacy group PIRG analyzes U.S Department of Transportation airline complaint data.
“Overall, Spirit had the second worst complaint ratio behind only Frontier,” said Teresea Murry from PIRG.
Murry said if you don’t get satisfaction from the airline, you can file a complaint directly with the Department of Transportation.
“Then that airline has 30 days to at least acknowledge your complaint. And then they have 60 days to respond in writing with details,” Murry said.
Finally, after months of waiting, Spirit told the Bruces they would pay restitution for the lost bag – just $270.
“Our team has been in contact with the Guest. We issued a reimbursement to the Guest on May 5, 2025, in accordance with our policy," Spirit said in a statement on Friday.
But it cost more than $200 in bag fees just to pay for a service they never got – flying the bag to Brazil.
“They’re Spirit. They are ghosts. I’m like, ‘Well, they’re treating us like ghosts. They’re really ghosting us,’” Bruce said.
Gray showed Bruce where to file a complaint with the DOT. He said he was filing that on Friday.
It’s important to note that you need to complain to the airline first. PIRG said it’s a good idea to jot down notes on what’s in your bag, or even take pictures when you’re traveling.
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