RustyC

ATL is such a sprawler that many people living on the topside could drive 70 or so miles RT to get to the airport, and the counter operation is a small one.

The whole "Passenger Usage Fee" is sleight-of-hand on steroids. It's based on the business model of TicketMaster (an even more consumer-hostile company), which charges a variable "convenience fee" for not having to go to the venue and buy the ticket (and if you do go there, who runs the ticket system there? TicketMaster, of course.). Both Spirit and TicketMaster this get to call their fees "optional" when they really are just by the strictest of definitions.

It looks like the PUF is under pressure now, though, from the government's requirements to quote the total fare including both the taxes and the airline-imposed fees made to look like taxes.

Spirit clearly doesn't like this and has been monkeying around with its website of late, trying to re-introduce pricing opacity while staying within the letter of the law. The calendar feature with "$X more" and "$X less" blocks rather than actual prices is a classic dodge that will probably backfire (simply confusing customers), and trying to list prices with "government's cut" also tries to reframe things a bit (though at least those are real taxes).

They're clearly uncomfortable with being forced into greater transparency, but IMO that just shows how dependent the business model was on pulling people in with some very low-sounding number but then having a total that didn't really resemble that number. And that's before playing a full unbundling game with luggage fees and the like. More people are realizing that the price gap isn't what they'd thought, and if they hit some of the bag and other fees as well they may actually pay more than on a legacy.