iahphx

Here's a chart of their new bag fees:

http://www.spirit.com/OptionalFees.aspx

As you can tell, the new fees are modest, except what I call the "idiot fee" -- when a clueless pax brings a bag to the gate and doesn't realize he has to pay for it. Surprise!

Of course, this fee might also impact the savvy pax who is pushing the limits of the "free" personal item you're allowed to bring on board. I guess make sure that personal item is soft-sided, and throw away anything that doesn't fit in it if you're mercilessly hassled.

In general, I don't understand the value of travelling Spirit -- unless you can live with their free personal item bag limit. Once you start paying for luggage, the value equation seems to slip away. That said, there are circumstances where the fares offered by competitors are SO much more than Spirit's that Spirit is still a good deal. That hasn't happened to me yet, however -- and I hope it never does. If I'm not paying "next to nothing" for a Spirit flight, I don't really want to be flying Spirit.

CenterWaters

I really do not understand why people fly Spirit Airlines. I have no problem with all the extra fees. Heck, I wouldn't even care if they charge $5 to use the loo while the plane is at 30,000 feet, or want to reduce seat pitch to 25 inches. That's their right as a business.

The problem is that I just don't see any of their fares being lower than other airline on the same routes. At least I don't see it for flights on the East Coast, especially on flights to Florida. (i.e. AA, JetBlue, US Airways) In fact, on many routes that I was looking at, it's actually more expensive to fly Spirit, after all the extra fees are added in.

nd2010

I saw a flight from New York to Chicago on Spirit for $45! I would have booked it and paid the bag fee, but I found a flight on American Airlines for $64.

Black Adder

+100

Dunbar

The stakes will be much higher now. I wonder if all of the gate agents will be given training in hand-to-hand combat. It's going to get ugly out there

Spirit sure is making it harder for their fans to defend them.

Ocn Vw 1K

Several threads re Spirit on the front page of the N. & S. American Frequent Flyer Program forum and I'll move this there. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

Flubber2012

I will probably be flamed on FT for this but I favor this policy.

I believe that the uncivility and downright obnoxious behavior of passengers competing for overhead bin space has gone too far.

The logical reason for this is that airlines have provided incentive to carry on everything (decreased chance of lost luggage and time saved both in the check in phase and baggage claim phase). If this were a rational system, there would be an offsetting incentive to check bags. Instead of giving a monetary credit for checking bags which would offset the benefits of carrying on, airlines have disincentivized checking a bag further by charging for checked bags.

The predictable outcome: obnoxious behavior trying to claim overhead space.

The rational thing to do is to start selling overhead bin space...what Spirit is doing.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

Spirit Airline is what it is and its not trying to be something else. It is easy to avoid paying most of the fees, or at least the more expensive ones, albeit the 28 inch legroom is something else (unless you spend additional money for the Big Seat).

But Spirit is still filling planes. They do well on the stupid factor. People that book that are cluless to the fees. Sure they come home and tweet their butts off about the "horrible experience" but there will be no shortage of more paying flyers.

jamesteroh

Another way NK screws customers over is that if you have no activity in your account in 90 days you lose EVERYTHING in your free spirit account. Seeing the only way to earn miles is flying or their credit card (they used to have wyndham as a partner but no more and don't think there are any other partners) that is easy to do.

I used to fly NK quite a bit for DTW/LGA until they got to be really cheap and eliminated business class. I used to be able to fly them in business class confirmed for about $40 more than NW on the DTW/LGA route and I knew I was guaranteed to be sitting up front. Only thing I would have gotten with NW that I wouldn't have on NK was priority security line at DTW which wasn't a big deal and for the PDB for some reason NK could only serve non-alcohol but I always had a PDB unlike NW where it didn't always happen.

They were very generous with the alcohol. On a short DTW/LGA they gave you the mixer and two minis and if you asked for more alcohol they would bring you two minis. There were times on that under 2 hour flight where I saw people consumer 6 minis. The snack choices were also a lot better on that short of a flight than NW gave.

But then they eliminated business class for "big front seat" and started charging up front so I quit flying them. Kept the credit card to keep the account active in case if I had an IROPS in a spirit city and wanted to buy a last minute ticket with them.

Wasn't happy to have lost all those miles I kept accumulating with their credit card just because only 90 days went by with no activity.

This was an airline I used to love and now I refuse to fly them. I see Southwest going the same route very slowly.

vickh

will be flying with them next week on FLL-AZA for $20. Other than baggage fees what other fees should I look out for?

I got their BOA card as well which makes me "elite". Also I got a free? 30 day 9$ fare membership

Not really sure what the other benefits are?

aubreyfromwheaton

This is true now.

It wasn't always true.

When Delta was $400+ per ticket to Florida during Prez Week few years ago (OMG! that's nothing now...), I got 5 tickets on Spirit for $380 all in (i.e. <$100 per ticket) for all 5 including seat fees, baggage, taxes etc and got 2 two nonstop flights with zero delay, new barking Scarebus planes, and pseudoupgrade to Big Front Seat.

aubreyfromwheaton

Seat fees, kiosk fees, extra bag fees for I think over 40lb bags (!)

Our optional fees
We empower customers to save money on air travel by offering ultra low base fares with a range of optional services for a fee (shown below), allowing customers the freedom to choose only the extras they value.

■ Baggage Fees■ Booking Related Fees■ $9 Fare Club Membership■ Modification Fees■ Seat Fees■ Special Service Fees■ FREE SPIRIT Award Booking■ Onboard Snacks and Drinks
Baggage Fees (All charges are per bag, one way)
Please note that effective November 6th, 2012, identical bag fees will apply for domestic and international travel as displayed below.

$9 FARE CLUB Member Fees - Online purchase
Domestic
Current
International
Current
Effective Nov 6 2012
Domestic and International
Carry-On Bag (At booking / before check-in) $20 $20 $25
First Checked Bag (At booking / before check-in) $18 $23 $20
Second Checked Bag (At booking / before check-in) $25 $30 $30
Third, Fourth, Fifth Checked Bag (At booking/before check-in) $75 $80 $75
Carry-On Bag (During online check-in) $25 $25 $30
First Checked Bag (During online check-in) $23 $28 $25
Second Checked Bag (During online check-in) $30 $35 $35
Third, Fourth, Fifth Checked Bag (During online check-in) $80 $85 $80
Standard Fees - Online purchase
Domestic
Current
International
Current
Effective Nov 6 2012
Domestic and International
Carry-On Bag (At booking / before check-in) $30 $30 $35
First Checked Bag (At booking / before check-in) $28 $33 $30
Second Checked Bag (At booking / before check-in) $35 $40 $40
Third, Fourth, Fifth Checked Bag (At booking / before check-in) $85 $90 $85
Carry-On Bag (During online check-in) $35 $35 $40
First Checked Bag (During online check-in) $33 $38 $35
Second Checked Bag (During online check-in) $40 $45 $45
Third, Fourth, Fifth Checked Bag (During online check-in) $90 $95 $90
All Customers - Reservation Center purchase
Domestic
Current
International
Current
Effective Nov 6 2012
Domestic and International
Carry-On Bag $35 $35 $40
First Checked Bag $33 $38 $35
Second Checked Bag $40 $45 $45
Third, Fourth, Fifth Checked Bag $90 $95 $90
Group Booking - Group Desk purchase
Domestic
Current
International
Current
Effective Nov 6 2012
Domestic and International
Carry-On Bag (More than 24 hours before flight departs) $30 $30 $35
First Checked Bag (More than 24 hours before flight departs) $28 $33 $30
Second Checked Bag (More than 24 hours before flight departs) $35 $40 $40
Third, Fourth, Fifth Checked Bag (More than 24 hours before flight departs) $85 $90 $85
Carry-On Bag (Within 24 hours of flight departure) $35 $35 $40
First Checked Bag (Within 24 hours of flight departure) $33 $38 $35
Second Checked Bag (Within 24 hours of flight departure) $40 $45 $45
Third, Fourth, Fifth Checked Bag (Within 24 hours of flight departure) $90 $95 $90
All Customers - Airport Counter/Kiosk purchase
Domestic
Current
International
Current
Effective Nov 6 2012
Domestic and International
Carry-On Bag $40 $40 $50
First Checked Bag $38 $43 $45
Second Checked Bag $45 $50 $55
Third, Fourth, Fifth Checked Bag $95 $100 $100
All Customers - Airport Gate purchase
Domestic
Current
International
Current
Effective Nov 6 2012
Domestic and International
Carry-on bags purchased at Gate $45 $45 $100
Overweight Baggage Domestic and International before and after November 6, 2012
41 – 50 lbs. (18 – 23 kg) $25.00 per bag
51 – 70 lbs. (23 - 32 kg) $50.00 per bag
71 – 99 lbs. (32 - 45 kg) $100.00 per bag
Oversize Baggage Domestic and International before and after November 6, 2012
More than 62 linear inches (158 cm) $100.00 per bag
More than 80 linear inches (203 cm) $150.00 per bag
Sporting Equipment Domestic and International before and after November 6, 2012
Bicycles $75.00
Scuba Tank $75.00
Surf Board (Maximum of 2 surfboards in one bag) $100.00
Golf Clubs Same as checked bag fees above
Seat Fees
Spirit Assigned Seating at Check-In Free
Customer-Requested Seat Assignments / Deluxe Leather $1.00 to $50.00 per seat
Big Front Seats (In advance) $12.00 to $199.00 per seat
Big Front Seats (Onboard upgrades—depending on flight length) $25.00 to $75.00 per seat
Booking Related Fees
Reservations Booking Fee – except Colombia $10.00 per customer, per booking
Package Booking Fee – for package bookings purchased via Reservations $10.00 per customer, per booking
Group Booking Fee $5.00 per customer, per booking
Colombia Administrative Fee – sold via Reservations and Airports - fee applied depends on amount of per-customer base fare $15.00 to $95.00 per customer, per booking
Revenue Standby Fee $25.00 per customer, each way
Passenger Usage Fee – Domestic Flights $8.99 to $16.99 per customer, each way
Passenger Usage Fee – International Flights (Includes PR and USVI) $8.99 to $16.99 per customer, each way
Unintended Consequences of DOT Regulations Fee $2.00 per customer, each way
Charge for Airport Agents printing Boarding Passes (Fee starts 24 January 2012) $5.00 per boarding pass printed
Charge for printing Boarding Passes at Kiosk (Fee starts 30 June 2012) $2.00 per boarding pass printed
Special Service Fees
Unaccompanied Minors (Price includes snack and beverage) $100.00 per customer, each way
Infant (Lap Child) Free (taxes may apply for certain countries)
Pet Transport Fee (Limitation of 4 pets total in the cabin) $100.00 per pet container, each way
Travel Guard Insurance / Domestic Itinerary $14.00 per customer, per booking
Travel Guard Insurance / International Itinerary $21.00 per customer, per booking
Travel Guard Insurance / Vacation Package Itinerary 6.5% of total package price ($25 minimum)
$9 Fare Club Membership
$9 Fare Club Trial Membership (60 days trial) $19.95 per member
$9 Fare Club Annual Membership $59.95 per member
$9 Fare Club Annual Renewal $59.95 per member
FREE SPIRIT™ Award Booking
Award Booking Fees Free to $100.00 per customer, per booking
Award Modification Fee $110.00 per customer, per booking
Mileage Redeposit Fee $110.00 per customer, per booking
Modification or Cancellation Fees
Web Modification or Cancellation $115.00 per customer, per booking
Reservations / Airport Modification or Cancellation $125.00 per customer, per booking
Group Booking Itinerary Modification or Cancellation $50.00 per customer, per booking
Group Booking Name Change Fee $50.00 per customer, per booking
Onboard Snacks and Drinks
Snacks $1.00 to $10.00
Drinks $1.00 to $15.00

vickh

Thanks aubreyfromwheaton.


Do you have a link? trying to decipher what fees I can control avoid/reduce .

Already have a free 9$ club, so I'll take 1 big bag ( under 40 lbs! )

and let them assign seats @ the gate.. It's a 8:30 flight out of FLL on a Wed, so hopefully we'll end up with a free big seat

what other gotchas do I need to watch out for??

Also on their end, does Spirit have interline protection if we have scheduling problems etc. or is it SOL and wait??

aubreyfromwheaton

jamesteroh

Unless things have changed since the strike a couple years ago you are SOL. A friend of mine was ticketed on a DTW/LGA flight. Turns out his flight out was during the strike (ticket was bought a few months before that) and even though DL and AA flew that route (may have been another carrier that did that route non-stop) and CO flew DTW/EWR non-stop they wouldn't interline him. He ended up having to pay a pretty expensive last minute fare on Delta and had trouble getting his ticket refunded from NK.