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Most people know that under ideal situations, you don’t want to be flying with Spirit Airlines. Spirit is a well-known crappy airline with sometimes ridiculously low fares. They entice you with their low base fares, but charge extra for every add-on item. People still fall for their trap without reading the fine print and end up paying so much extra in fees. You need to be able to buy a cheap ticket with minimal add-ons to truly have a cheap fare. I pride myself with being pretty knowledgeable about their system and make sure I spend the minimum possible while flying with them. I’m going to explain how to hack spirit airlines.
Baggage Fees
From the table, you can see that their baggage fee structure is pretty confusing. This is probably the expense that will hike up the base fare the most. The only bag item that is free is a personal item. On the spirit website it says, “One personal item is included with a Bare Fare. This is something like a laptop bag or purse smaller than 18″x14″x8″. You need to pay for any additional/larger bags”. This means any bag that can fit under the seat is free. You have to pay for any other bags – and this includes a carry-on suitcase.
The key is to pay for all bags while you’re booking the ticket. Once the ticket is booked, it becomes more expensive to add bags to your reservation. The average price of their carry-on is $37, 1st checked bag is $32 and 2nd checked bag is $42. The price increases about $10 for each item if you pay for it after booking the flight. That extra cost can easily be avoided by paying for bags while booking a flight. If you plan on travelling with a lot of luggage, you’re probably better off travelling with another airline. Spirit will charge you an extra $111 to the base fare to have a carry-on and two suitcases. Ideally, you want to keep your costs low but if you want to travel with a suitcase, make sure you pay for it as soon as you can.
Seat Selection
This is the personally my most annoying extra cost. You have the option of either paying $$ for a seat or getting randomly assigned a seat at check-in. I never pay for a seat because I have figured out their method to random seat selection. When check-in opens, spirit randomly assigns seats from the back of the plane. If you check-in early without paying for a seat, you will get assigned a seat at the back of the plane. The trick is to check-in as close to the flights as possible. For most airlines, it’s better to check in earlier to get a better boarding group, but this isn’t the case with spirit. I check in about 3 hours before my flight and at that point, all the seats left are usually in the first 15 rows. This trick always works but there’s a risk of getting a middle seat. To avoid this, only click check-in if the last row of seats available are aisle and window seats. If you don’t follow these rules and get stuck with a seat you don’t like, pay for a seat at the airport.
$9 Fare Club
It’s free to join the frequent flier club which offers rewards on miles flown. There’s also a $9 fare club that will come up all over your screen when you’re trying to book a flight. To join the fare club doesn’t actually cost $9 as you might initially think. It costs $59.95 with an automatic annual renewal of $69.95. For someone who never flies spirit but just wants to check it out because it’s a good deal, I will discourage signing up for this. I think it’s only beneficial if you use Spirit multiple times a year.
Baggage Drop Off Lines
If you plan to check in a suitcase, your top priority is to get to the airport early. Because it’s cheaper to check in a suitcase, most people choose that option even if their luggage is just a backpack or carry-on size suitcase. If you want to make your flight, arrive 2 hours before departure time. I like getting to the airport as close to my flight as possible, but with spirit, it’s better to arrive really early and wait in the lines stress free.
Oversized Baggage
Another thing to note in regards to luggage is that checked in bags are 40lbs max. You don’t want to get to the airport with a bag weighing 50lbs, because you will be charged a $30 fee. Check out the prices listed on the website for oversized baggage;
BYOR
Bring your own refreshments. Don’t expect refreshments (including water) on your flight except you’re willing to cough up some $$. If you’re someone who checks in at the airport (which I don’t understand why anyone would), make sure to check in at home because it’s an extra cost to check in at the counter in the airport.
Travel Insurance
It costs only $15. I have never gotten one, but it looks like a good deal. It claims to cover costs in case of trip delays, cancellations, etc. If you have purchased one before with spirit and reaped the benefits, let me know or comment below!
Inflight Entertainment
Bring a book. If you print out the boarding pass you will see on the one pager, inflight entertainment is provided. I’m not going to spoil what Spirit considers entertainment, so book a flight, print out the boarding pass and see.
Bottom Line: Spirit is an extremely budget airline, but as long as you know everything above before buying your ticket, you’ll be fine. In terms of reliability, I have had a 6 hour delay and a flight leave right on time, so it’s really a gamble but the tickets can be so cheap that I think it’s worth the gamble. If you can know how to hack spirit airlines successfully without all the extra fees, you can make your trips more affordable and travel more!
Disclaimer: Pictures are screenshots from spirit airline website.
August 26, 2018
These are great tips! I’ve never flown Spirit for fear of getting caught in all their traps, but now I feel better about giving it a try. It’ll never be my airline of choice, but maybe when a flight is too expensive I’ll go for it. Thanks for sharing!
August 27, 2018
I only choose spirit when fares on other airlines are too expensive. If you ever need to take them, try it out and make sure to not get caught up with extra fees. Thanks for reading.