rashodw

Same. Ours costs $5 for the first hour. I have a family of 4. Can save $160 by purchasing at the airport if youre buying round trip ticket.

Rob562

I drive right past BOS Logan on my way to/from my boyfriend's apartment. As long as I'm going at a time when the counter won't be crazy and I can get right in and out, I can park for 30 minutes at the terminal for $7. Worth it, even if I'm only buying for myself. *Definitely* worth it if I'm buying for more than just me.

Others that posted earlier in this thread will buy their tickets when they happen to be passing through an airport with a Spirit counter, even if that airport isn't involved in the ticket they're booking.

-Rob

Bruegelpie

So the fee that won't be charged is "Passenger Usage Charge (Non-Refundable Carrier Fee)" if you purchase at the airport?

If so, for the flights I just purchased, I would have saved $180 for 2 tickets if i bought it at the airport. Do I have that right?

jjbiv

Correct. However, now there may be some additional surcharges when purchasing at the ticket counter which errode some of your savings. Previously you could reliably purchase a ticket at the airport for the web price less the PUC.

danhouston

most times, noted that fares at the counter are higher than sales web fares; so the difference may not be substantial

Bruegelpie

Is there a way to find out the fare at the counter before driving to the airport?

jjbiv

Nope. I either wait for the cheap fare sales online (where the PUC is very low) or just ask at the airport when I am there anyway to travel or for something else.

dragond

Usually a good gauge of the price at the airport is to subtract the Passenger Usage Charge fee that they have quoted online at the very last step.

rhwbullhead

Yes but sometimes the prices doesn't match. At frontier, the price is always the listed price minus the carrier interface charge. At Spirit, sometimes it not and it seems no one has figured out how to know this will be the case before going to the airport.

frugal_flyer

A case in point, regarding not knowing exactly how much cheaper the ticket will be at the airport...

I went to Akron-Canton airport to buy 2 CLE-ATL roundtrip tickets.. Outbound online was $22.50each. Inbound was $30.69 each. So about $53/$106 for both total for the roundtrip if I just buy it sitting on my duff at home.

I knew the airline wasn't going to take off the $23 PFC charge on the outbound and pay me 49 cents a ticket to fly. I have not in recent years ever flew for less than $40 roundtrip on Spirit, even when I've bought at the airport. So that's what I was expecting this time.

Sure enough, it cost just under $40 a ticket; $78.62 for both, to be exact. The breakdown on the receipt...

Fares... $18.80
Taxes and fees...$59.82
Ancillary fees/Other... 0

So I did save about $14 a ticket per person by buying at the airport; I'm not complaining about that, as I was already there anyway. I just wish Spirit would provide a breakdown of the exact fare and fees while searching fares like Frontier does so one could have a pretty good idea of what to expect if buying at the airport. I would almost think that there would be a requirement for this, but someone correct me if I'm wrong.

jjbiv

You should be able to look up your reservation on Spirit's site and click the link to print your reciept to see a detailed breakdown of the total cost. You will probably see a fuel surcharge added which does not apply to tickets purchased online. I think the details of this are vaugely buried in their CoC and the page on their site which covers the fees they charge. Online sales also don't apply at the airport so that's another possible explanation for the difference. If you try to purchase the same ticket online you can see a detailed breakdown if you expand the cost section on the last page before you purchase the ticket. As long as the same fare class is still available, you can usually figure out what they did by comparing your reciept to this online purchase cost breakdown.

hur88

Made a purchase at the airport for a cheap $39 internet fare (the ones that include the Passenger Usage Charge but omit the Regulatory Compliance Charge and Fuel Charges).

I was completely expecting the purchase at the airport to take off the PUC, but add in the other two charges.

To my surprise, the airport agent quoted me $16 for the fare, removing the $23 PUC.

Either the airport agent knew how to do something that other agents couldn't, or it's just completely random whether the system wants to add the Regulatory Compliance Charge and Fuel Charge back into the fare at the airport.

danhouston

wow, $16; if i can achieve status to get a free checked bag, will be good enough 👌

any current status match offer to get a free checked bag?

Long Train Runnin

You can find more here:
Spirt Airlines Status Challenge Info

rashodw

I just bought a ticket from cleveland to san juan puerto rico. Showing $101 online and the PUC being $45. Should be down to about $55 but the flight is actually $80 so they added the other charges on to make up for some of the $ off. Still a good flight price to Puerto rico but like others have said shady how they're shifting the fees around.