Furious Spirit Airlines customers rant at beleaguered carrier after hundreds of cancelations for the SIXTH day in a row: CEO admits problems will continue into next week

Spirit Airlines was expected to cancel more than 400 flights for a sixth day in a row Friday following a 'perfect storm' of operational issues that will lead to more cancellations over the weekend. 

After axing 43 percent of scheduled flights for Friday and more than 1,700 since Sunday, Spirit Airlines CEO Ted Christie acknowledged, 'It's been a terrible week for us.' 

Frustrated customers who have been left stranded took to social media to bash the beleaguered budget airline - some vowing to never fly Spirit ever again. 

'I just hope everyone who has flown with them now sees what Spirit Airlines really is and how little they care for you since they've stranded you without explanation or refund or support (I heard they gave a meal ticket lol),' one person tweeted. 

Spirit Airlines' woes continued into their fifth straight day Friday, as the airline was forced to cut more than half of its flights on Thursday, with more cancellations incoming. Customers were seen Thursday waiting on line at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston 

Customers of a canceled Spirit flight Tuesday morning were force to sleep at LAX Airport. The mass cancellations have been occurring since Sunday

Stranded customers at  Fort Lauderdale Airport get upset and ask where there luggage is 

Another person tweeted: 'Thanks for canceling my flight. I did not receive a full refund and I lost my hotel reservation...I don't think your company needs a negative reputation because you're too busy to pick up the phone. After all, since y'all aren't flying, what else are you doing???'

'It's so clear they don't care about their customers, these cancellations are wack on top of of being the least comfortable airline to ride on…SMH' a frustrated customer tweeted. 

'Y'all cancelled my friends flight as they were sitting in the terminal….I hate you guys, I hadn't seen her since COVID-19. Trash airline,' the same person added. 

As the complaints continue to roll in, the airline is looking ahead and pointed out that cancellations are slowing, with Friday seeing the fewest since Sunday. 

Spirit CEO Ted Christie said Thursday evening that the mass cancellations had been brewing throughout July

'We're continuing with our way forward to fly as much as we can while also make progress on repairing our operation and repositioning our crews,' Spirit head of communications Erik Hofmeyer told CNN. 'We still have work to do, but we are now in the position to see reductions in cancellations in the days to come.'

The airline expects cancellations to continue into the weekend, but said it is optimistic that operations will return to normal by the middle of next week.   

'It's been a terrible week for us, for our guests.' Spirit CEO Christie told Good Morning America on Friday. 'All the team members are working super hard to try to get us back where we want to be. There will still be cancelations over the next few days, but we can start to build back to a full operation and then build from the takeaways that we get from this last week.' 

In a call with reporters Thursday night, Spirit CEO Ted Christie said that a combination of factors, including staffing shortages and bad weather led to chronic delays in July. That led to crews timing out, or reaching the maximum amount of time they could legally work per day.

'We couldn't get in front of it,' he said, according to CNBC, and he estimated the cancellations likely affected tens of thousands of Spirit customers.  

To ease staff shortages, the company is offering double pay to flight attendants who pick up extra shifts and is offering accommodations, flight credits, refunds, hotel vouchers and meal vouchers to impacted guests, as 'warranted by each Guest's individual circumstance,' ABC News reported. 

The Deleon family says their Puerto Rican vacation got extended from eight days to ten. While they were able to get rebooked on another flight home, the family had to spend over $800 in additional expenses and accommodations

But those vouchers may not be enough.

Brenda Deleon told DailyMail.com that her family's eight-day vacation to Puerto Rico had to be extended by two days - at a cost of $1,000 - because of Spirit. 

After receiving notification of the cancellation late Tuesday night, Deleon tried to contact Spirit customer service but wasn't able to speak with someone.

'I called last night and was on hold for 42 minutes, but figured they were closed. This morning I went to the airport to talk to someone, but the Spirit kiosk was empty,' she said. 

Deleon called the airlines 1-800 line again on Wednesday and was able to rebook the family's flights for Friday at 2.50am. But, the family still faced issues with accommodations.

'Our AirBnb was booked tonight so we looked for another home for $478.41 and two days of car rental for $342.34,' she said. 

'Spirit they will refund only half of what trip costs which is not an option since prices with other airlines skyrocketed. We have to wait it out.'