Spirit Airlines stopped flying on May 2, 2026 and is being liquidated, so no Spirit ticket will ever fly. Passengers who paid Spirit directly by card got automatic refunds; Free Spirit points and Spirit vouchers became claims in the bankruptcy, and they are unlikely to be worth anything. Cancún, Punta Cana and Santo Domingo are still well served by other airlines, so book with them directly, on a credit card.
What happened and when
Spirit had been in trouble for years. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2024, emerged in early 2025, and filed again on August 29, 2025. In spring 2026 a jet fuel price spike added an estimated $10 to $15 million a week to its costs, and rescue talks with creditors and the federal government collapsed.
The last flight, from Detroit, landed at Dallas/Fort Worth shortly after midnight on Saturday, May 2. Operations stopped around 3 a.m. Eastern, every flight was canceled and customer service shut down, with no rebooking. About 17,000 direct and indirect jobs were lost after 34 years of flying, and the airline began an orderly wind-down under the bankruptcy court in New York. Its Florida headquarters was auctioned in August 2026.
Watch out
Old Spirit flights still turn up in some search results, price alerts and cached travel-site pages. Spirit sells nothing. If a site offers you a Spirit fare, close it.
Refunds: what passengers got back
Better than in most airline collapses. Spirit said it would refund every canceled flight to the card used to buy it, and by May 4 it said it had processed the vast majority of card refunds automatically. Fees for bags, seats and in-flight Wi-Fi paid before May 2 were included. Some refunds took weeks to appear on statements.
| How you paid | What happened |
|---|---|
| Credit or debit card, booked with Spirit | Automatic refund to the same card, including bag and seat fees |
| Travel agent or online travel site | Refund through the agency, which you had to contact yourself |
| Free Spirit points | Points no longer redeemable; any value depends on the bankruptcy |
| Spirit vouchers or travel credits | Treated as unsecured claims; reimbursement described as highly unlikely |
| Taxes and fees on award tickets | The cash part should have been refunded to the card, or recovered by a chargeback |
Still missing a card refund? Check the lookup on Spirit's restructuring website, then go to your card issuer. For agency or package bookings, call the agency first.
Free Spirit points, vouchers and the credit card
This is where people lost real value. Spirit said decisions on points and voucher bookings would come later through the bankruptcy court, and people close to the case told The Points Guy that reimbursement was highly unlikely. Customers holding points or credits rank low among creditors. Assume a Free Spirit balance is gone, and treat anything that does come back as a bonus.
Bank of America stopped taking applications for the Spirit credit card. Existing cards kept working for purchases, and balances are still owed. If you still carry one, call the number on the back to ask what the card now earns and whether part of your annual fee can be refunded. Spirit's debit card, issued by Cross River Bank, stopped earning points; its funds were reported safe.
Chargebacks and travel insurance
A credit card is the strongest protection you have when an airline fails. Under the federal Fair Credit Billing Act you can dispute a charge for a service that was never delivered, generally within 60 days of the statement that showed the charge. For flights booked months ahead, card networks often allow disputes counted from the date you were meant to fly, so ask your issuer even if the purchase is old. Have the confirmation, the receipt and proof the flight was canceled.
Debit cards carry weaker protections, and points and vouchers carry none.
Travel insurance is hit and miss: an airline going out of business is often not covered by basic policies or card trip insurance. Look for "supplier default" or "financial default" cover in the policy wording. Many policies only cover a failure that happens after you buy, and exclude an airline that was already in bankruptcy, so this protection has to be bought early.
Who flies Spirit's old routes now
Spirit's largest base was Fort Lauderdale. In the first days, United, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest and American agreed with the Department of Transportation to offer capped fares to stranded Spirit customers, and Frontier, Avelo and Allegiant ran discounts of their own. United said it booked 14,000 tickets for Spirit passengers in the first 12 hours. Those rescue offers have all ended.
The permanent replacements mostly came from airlines growing where they were already strong, above all JetBlue at Fort Lauderdale, which planned about 130 daily departures there, up 75% from 2025. By late May, no airline had opened a new base to replace Spirit.
| Market | What Spirit flew | Who covers it now |
|---|---|---|
| Cancún | 36 nonstops a week from eight US cities at the end, about 2.8% of Cancún's international passengers in early 2026 | Already served from more than 40 US metro areas by American, Delta, United, Southwest, Frontier, JetBlue, Alaska and Sun Country. Breeze adds Tampa from December 19, 2026, Pittsburgh from January 7, 2027 and Richmond from January 8, 2027 |
| Punta Cana | Florida flights, plus Philadelphia, Boston, Newark and Baltimore | American, Delta, United, JetBlue, Southwest, Frontier, Arajet and Breeze (Tampa since July 2026) |
| Santo Domingo and Santiago | Mostly Fort Lauderdale, where Spirit led Santiago in 2025 | JetBlue went to three daily Fort Lauderdale–Santo Domingo flights and two daily to Santiago from July 9, 2026; also Arajet, Delta, United, American, Frontier |
| Puerto Rico | Spirit was the second-largest airline serving the island | JetBlue: daily Fort Lauderdale–Ponce, more Aguadilla flights from July 9, and San Juan–Baltimore from November 2, 2026 |
| Colombia | Medellín and other cities | Avianca: Fort Lauderdale–Barranquilla and –Cali from July 15 and an extra Bogotá flight; JetBlue: Barranquilla from October 1 and Cali from October 15 |
| Jamaica | About 2.6% of Montego Bay and 3.5% of Kingston traffic, mostly from Florida | JetBlue, American and Southwest |
Most other expansions were domestic: Frontier at Detroit and Orlando, American, United and Allegiant into Fort Lauderdale, Delta from Boston, Detroit and Orlando, Breeze at Atlantic City, and Southwest at Las Vegas from March 2027. Confirm any route on the airline's own site before you plan around it.
For Mexico, the gap was small. Spirit had already shrunk its Mexico flying, and Cancún has more US nonstops than any other airport in the region. The Dominican Republic felt it more: Spirit carried about 470,000 passengers there in 2025, roughly 4% of the total, but up to about 20% on some Florida, Philadelphia, Boston, Newark and Baltimore routes.
What happened to fares
Fares rose, though Spirit was only part of the reason. An October 2026 analysis of federal ticket data by the travel platform Engine found the average domestic one-way fare in April to June 2026 was $279, up about 16% from $241 a year earlier. It credited Spirit's exit with only about one percentage point of that rise. Domestic fares from both the Miami–Fort Lauderdale area and Orlando rose about 16%.
On Caribbean routes, the early signs were sharper. Within a week, The Gleaner found the cheapest Fort Lauderdale–Montego Bay round trip had gone from $324 on Spirit to $430 on JetBlue, about 33% more. Caribbean Journal reported higher starting fares to San Juan and Punta Cana, and fewer nonstops and more connections to Santo Domingo and Santiago. We have not found a reputable published study of Cancún fares since May, so treat claims about specific Mexico routes with care.
Booking Cancún, Punta Cana and Santo Domingo now
- Cancún: choice is wide, and fall 2026 has been slow for Cancún hotels. Frontier, Southwest and JetBlue are the low-fare options. Routes are on the Mexico flights page, and pre-book your ride with our Cancún airport transportation guide.
- Punta Cana: nonstops from more than 30 US cities in peak season. Frontier, Arajet and Breeze sell bare fares with paid bags and seats, and Southwest now charges for checked bags and assigns seats. See the Dominican flights page and the Punta Cana airport taxi guide.
- Santo Domingo and Santiago: Christmas, Easter and summer fill with Dominican families, so book three to four months ahead for those weeks. For Christmas 2026, that means now. Compare JetBlue from Fort Lauderdale with Arajet, Delta, United and American.
- Colombia and Puerto Rico: start with JetBlue and Avianca from Fort Lauderdale.
- Weighing the two beach trips? See Punta Cana vs Cancún.
Save money
Fly midweek, compare nearby airports (Fort Lauderdale, Miami, West Palm Beach), and price fares with your bags. A bare fare plus two checked bags can cost more than a full-service ticket.
Your refund rights under DOT rules
Since October 2024, Department of Transportation rules require airlines flying to, from or within the US to give an automatic cash refund when they cancel your flight or make a significant change you do not accept. On international flights, that includes a time change of 6 hours or more, a different airport or added connections. Refunds are due within 7 business days to a credit card and 20 calendar days for other payment methods. You do not have to accept a voucher.
These rules assume an airline that is still operating. When an airline is in bankruptcy, getting paid depends on the court and on your card, which is why the card protections above matter. If an airline refuses a refund it owes you, file a complaint with the DOT Office of Aviation Consumer Protection.
Different from home
Mexican law can give you more on flights leaving Mexico: compensation for long delays the airline causes, and at least 25% of the fare on top of a refund for its cancellations. See the Mexico flights page for how to claim through PROFECO.
If another low-cost airline fails
- Pay with a credit card, booked directly with the airline. Avoid debit cards, gift cards and big voucher balances with any airline in financial trouble.
- Use points and credits rather than saving them. A second bankruptcy filing, like Spirit's in 2025, is a warning.
- Buy insurance early with financial default cover, before any bankruptcy news, and read the exclusions.
- Keep the paper trail: confirmation, receipts, screenshots of the fare and any cancellation notice.
- If you are stranded abroad, rebook home at once on another airline; rescue-fare seats go fast.
- Claim your money: check the airline's refund process, then dispute the charge with your card issuer, then file with DOT.
- Book one ticket for connections. On separate tickets, a missed connection is your problem.