Booking a Spirit Flight for the First Time

It just happened – I booked a Spirit flight for the first time in my life. To be honest, I never had an intention of booking a Spirit Airlines flight. They have always had somewhat of a bad reputation among those who fly a lot. The bad reputation isn’t because they are unsafe. Spirit is well known for its low fare price. So with all this, why are they avoided so much?

The answer to this question requires multiple responses.

1. While the base fare is low, the ticket price is unbundled to the extreme – Checked and carry-on bags are an additional charge. Any seat selection is an additional charge. Checking in at the airport is even an additional charge.
2. The airline provides almost no service on a base ticket – For anyone who has flown other US airlines where most of the following are included in basic service, this can be frustrating. On Spirit Airlines there is no inflight beverage or snack service (not even water). If your checked bags weights more than 40 lbs, you incur an additional fee (50 lbs is the typical limit). If you don’t read the terms carefully, these differences can catch you.
3. Upset customers abound – Due to the items above and Spirit’s tendency to attract less frequent or first time flyers because of their low prices, upset customers are normal. There are numerous news stories and antidotal reports from people I know who have flown Spirit related to this.

Why Did I Choose to Fly Spirit?

With all of the reasons to avoid Spirit airlines, why am I flying them? Well, it ultimately comes down to a couple of reasons:

1. They had the nonstop flight that I wanted to schedule
2. Their price

First, I generally fly out of Washington, D.C. area airports. Spirit serves a fair number of nonstop locations from Baltimore’s BWI airport. In this situation, I was also trying to get to my destination as early in the morning as possible to maximize time there. Spirit’s flight aligned with this goal.

Second, the vast majority of Spirit’s extra fees can be avoided the way that I fly (and if you are aware of them). The only additional fee that I expect to pay is a checked bag fee of about $38. With a base fare of $87, the total cost for the flight will be $125. Considering that the only other nonstop options were $306 minimum, Spirit was a good option. If I was willing to take a one-stop itinerary, there were some options in the $120 range. However, these didn’t include a checked bag so add another $25 – $30 depending on the airline.

Booking the Flight

Once you have decided that a Spirit flight is the best for you, the next step is to book the flight. This process is easy to do, but Spirit walks through so many options because they have so many add-ons they are trying to sell.

Step 1 – Select Flight

The first step is selecting your flight. This should be self-explanatory and similar to most other flight booking experiences out there.

Step 2 – Bundles

The second step is to book “Bundles”. If you are going to purchase a lot of add-ons, then bundles can sometimes be worth looking at. However, sometimes they don’t make sense over buying each add-on separately. The “Book It” option on the left is what to select if you want to skip purchasing a bundle.

The cheapest “Boost It” bundle on the flight I booked was $77/person. This bundle provides seat selection, a 50 lb checked bag, and early boarding. A 40 lb checked bag is $38, and early boarding is $6. Seat selection is harder to value as it ranges between $15 and $48. The maximum value of the “Boost It” bundle is $92 plus the value of the extra 10 lb check bag weight allowance. However, if $15 seats in the back of the plane are fine, the maximum value of the bundle is $59. Obviously, at a value of $59 it doesn’t make sense to buy this bundle (unless you really need that extra 10 lbs in your luggage). Do the math, but if you’re a frugal traveler who is okay without all the add-ons, it’s often better to skip the bundles.

Step 3 – Passenger Information

Third, enter all your passenger information. At this point, it’s generally advantageous to sign up for a Free Spirit rewards account. This account will save all your passenger information and make it easier to book flights in the future. A Free Spirit rewards account will also collect rewards points after taking flights with Spirit or doing business with many of Spirit’s partners. However, if you rarely fly Spirit this won’t be valuable to you. You are unlikely to accumulate enough points for a free flight as points expire every 12 months without earning or spending activity.

Step 4 – Baggage

Next, add bags to your reservation. Spirit does not have a standard charge for bags as they vary widely by the route. During booking, the website will tell you what each type and number of bag costs. If you are interested in what bags will cost before booking the flight, Spirit provides a calculator to display the cost.

While the bag costs aren’t constant across flight itineraries, they do follow a consistent pattern. The cheapest bag fees are available when initially booking the flight. Bag fees escalate from that time to prior to online check-in time. The bag fees escalate again if you need to check a bag upon arrival at the airport or gate. See below for a sample of the bag pricing. This is a place where a Spirit flight can get much more expensive than the initial price advertised. Be aware of the costs and add a bag to your ticket purchase if required since this will be the cheapest time to do it.

Step 5 – Seat Selection

The next step is seat selection. You can skip seat selection and let the airline assign you a random seat at check-in. If you want to guarantee that your party gets to sit together or if you want to sit in a specific seat of the plane, Spirit will charge you for this privilege. Similar to bag fees, there is no set cost for seat selection. These fees both vary by the flight and seat location on the plane. For example, on my flight from BWI to CUN, a regular seat at the front of the plane was $30. A regular seat in the rear of the flight was $15.

In addition to these regular seats, premium seats are available. These include exit row seats ($48 on my flight) and “Big Front Seat” ($98 on my flight). Spirit’s Big Front Seats are similar to US airlines’ domestic first-class seats. Most US domestic first-class flights come with bags included, seat selection, snacks and drinks during the journey, and other perks. However, the Spirit Big Front Seat is just a seat and doesn’t come with any other perks. Consider it if it is priced low and you want/need the extra room on your flight. Most often, I will pass on this since in my recent booking the price to upgrade to Big Front Seat was more than the cost of the original ticket.

Step 6 – Other Add-Ons

After seat selection, the final screen of add-ons is all the miscellaneous options. This includes things like flight flexibility, early boarding, and airport security shortcut. Generally, none of these are worth purchasing. If you have TSA PreCheck, Global Entry, or Clear, the Shortcut Security screening won’t give you much. Shortcut Boarding provides boarding during the Zone 2 getting you onto the plane a little earlier than others. The final option on the page is check-in options. Ensure you select to check-in online for free so you don’t have to pay $2 to $10 to print your boarding pass at the airport.

Step 7 – Checkout

The final screen brings you to the checkout screen to pay for the flight and all add-ons.

Tips to Keep in Mind for Traveling on Spirit

Having gone through the steps of booking a Spirit flight, some of you may be thinking it doesn’t sound so bad. Despite my preconceived notions, I doubt the Spirit flight and service will be bad. However, I know what to expect with this flight so I have set my expectations accordingly. I have listed some tips below for anyone with upcoming travel on Spirit:

1. Add up all the costs – Spirit advertises their low cost base fare. However, this isn’t an apples to apples comparison to Southwest or full-service carriers like American or Delta. Add up the total cost of all items including bags, tickets, seats, etc… and compare those numbers. Similarly check the cost of the add-ons you would pay for against the bundle cost before purchasing.
2. Understand if a seat assignment is important to you – Spirit can and will break up families/groups when seats are not purchased ahead of time. If you are in a group, determine if this is necessary for you. If it isn’t, this can save a lot of money.
3. Know your baggage situation at time of booking – Spirit’s baggage fees increase in cost from booking to check-in and then again upon arrival at the airport. If you will need to check baggage, add this to your reservation at the earliest possible point to save money.
4. Is the Saver$ Club worth it? – Spirit’s Saver$ Club is a $70 membership club that provides discounts on Spirit purchases. If you only have a couple people in your group and rarely fly Spirit it probably isn’t worth it. However, if you have a large group or fly Spirit with any regularity, you should check out what it could save you.

5. Most checked bags are limited to 40 lbs – All checked bags (with the exception of bags purchased with bundles) are limited to 40 lbs. Most airlines allow 50 lbs so be sure to check your bags before you head to the airport.
6. Print your boarding pass at home or use mobile boarding – Spirit charges $10/person to print boarding passes at the airport. Avoid this by printing them at home or use the Spirit app.
7. No food or drinks are offered – If you want food or drink while on board, be prepared to buy it or bring your own.
8. Spirit attracts infrequent flyers – The low prices are attractive to infrequent fliers and families. Expect to have people around you who are unfamiliar with the flying process.

Bottom Line

The experience on ultra low-cost carriers, like Spirit, is uniquely different than full-service carriers. This doesn’t mean that these flights don’t have a place in some travel plans. As mentioned above, Spirit was the best choice for my upcoming travel plans. Stay tuned; I will write about the experience and how it lived up to my expectations.