As several of us posters suspected, one cannot get the supercheap fares at the airport in an effort to avoid the passenger facility charge. This comes as no surprise...

What does surprise me is that, according to the gate agent I spoke with, you can't even get the $9 fare club discount ($9) even if you pay with the Free Spirit Mastercard at the gate. I find this a bit perplexing? Maybe I need to ask another gate agent and see if I get the same answer...

iahphx... That bag I bought worked perfectly, though I agree with you that it would be nice to have something with the *exact* Spirit dimensions. But for around 10 bucks, it is hard to beat.

Putting it under the seat in-flight, I was able to put each foot around the bag fairly comfortably. It was much more comfortable on the flight home since I was in row 9, which had more legroom. The originating flight was not so comfortable since I was in row 25, which of course has virtually no legroom whatsoever. I couldn't really move my feet around at all; would hate to think what a tall person would have to go through, as I am only 5'6.

FreeSpriritGuru stated on here awhile back that if there was space available that one could put the personal item in the overhead bin, but the flight attendants on both flights that I asked said that is not the case. Maybe some internal changes regarding this issue since FreeSpiritGuru posted?