Purchasing airfare-online vs at the airport-Spirit airlines?

[Meandnevaeh]

I have never purchased airfare while at the airport, but I vaguely remember reading somewhere that it is cheaper to purchase airfare for spirit airlines at the airport vs online? Does this sound like accurate information? I have no idea where I heard this from or even if I have the right airline. But I only live about 10 min from my airport and I've been watching for deals, I think it's getting close to the cheapest it's going to get, just trying to decide if it's worth it to head over to the airport and purchase there?

 

[amcnj]

I also recall that there was some fee you could avoid by buying at the airport. I also live 10 minutes from a Spirit serviced airport but haven't used them since reading that a while back. I thought at the time it was like $17 a ticket.

 

[rwdavis2]

Good question. Considering that with Spirit, any interaction with a human usually costs you, I would be skeptical of the airport being cheaper. Have you googled it to see what comes up? Ever flown Spirit before? I would do some research on the subject too. If nothing goes wrong they are acceptable. If something does such as mechanical, late connecting flight, no crew, then look out.

 

[amcnj]

I do recall reading that, as they apparently charge a fee for booking online. But am not sure it is still the case or how much the difference is these days. It does seem odd since you'd' expect online sales are cheaper and easier for them, but other places charge a "convenience fee" for buying online too. Or like entertainment venues charge fees for buying online/over the phone versus buying at the ticket office at the venue.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

They have very limited hours at the airport so don't just assume you can wander up and someone will be there.

 

[amcnj]

I just looked at the price for booking a round trip to FL on the Spirit site and there is a passenger usage fee of 35.98. I think that might be the amount you could save by buying at the airport, if they still do that. And yes, that is true that a rep is not always there at the counter. I guess aim for when a flight is due to take off or land and hope they are on time!

 

[Meandnevaeh]

I did some research and googling if it last night, and it does seem that the passenger fee of $35.98 RT would be the fee that I would save, and they are there 3 hours before up to an hour after each departing flight working the counters here in Cle airport. My dilemma now is the more research I do and flight price checking, looking at Frontier non stop, Spirit non stop, or SW with a layover flight, not sure what I'm going to do. I know what I'd be getting with southwest, and love them, hate that they discontinued non stop service here, Frontier has the itinerary I want, with all added fees will be about the same cost as SW, then there's Sprit-best price of all three(after adding all extras and saving by buying at the airport)great departing flight time, not so much on the return flight-reviews on Spririt are terrible-everything I hear about them sucks, Frontier has some bad reviews but mostly from people not really reading the fine print and understanding the baggage fees, they also have had some positive feedback on some of the boards and FB groups, SW I just love them but I don't want the layover and I am not happy with the depart and return time options either. WWYD?

 

[RedAngie]

Yes, you can still save that $17.99 each way passenger usage fee by purchasing Spirit tickets at the airport. DH did this just a few weeks ago at PHL. But like other have already warned, Spirit ticket counters are not always staffed, depending on how many flights Spirit has at a particular airport every day. Try to go about 2-3 hours ahead of when a flight is due to depart. Don't go within an hour of departure. They'll probably still issue the ticket, but they might grumble about it. Or maybe even ask you to wait until after that flight closes.

 

[katriscari]

I did some research and googling if it last night, and it does seem that the passenger fee of $35.98 RT would be the fee that I would save, and they are there 3 hours before up to an hour after each departing flight working the counters here in Cle airport. My dilemma now is the more research I do and flight price checking, looking at Frontier non stop, Spirit non stop, or SW with a layover flight, not sure what I'm going to do. I know what I'd be getting with southwest, and love them, hate that they discontinued non stop service here, Frontier has the itinerary I want, with all added fees will be about the same cost as SW, then there's Sprit-best price of all three(after adding all extras and saving by buying at the airport)great departing flight time, not so much on the return flight-reviews on Spririt are terrible-everything I hear about them sucks, Frontier has some bad reviews but mostly from people not really reading the fine print and understanding the baggage fees, they also have had some positive feedback on some of the boards and FB groups, SW I just love them but I don't want the layover and I am not happy with the depart and return time options either. WWYD?

I am in the EXACT same boat as you. We flew direct out of Akron/canton our last 3 trips down on southwest and had a wonderful experience each time. I was just thinking about taking a trip to the airport to possibly buy airfare through spirit too. Southwest option for us is driving to Pittsburgh or Columbus to fly nonstop....not that fun. Getting a ride to one of those airports to head down on southwest and home on spirit or frontier...because id be less mad about an issue or delay coming back. I can get $640 round trip for 3 people and a lap infant. This includes their $59.95 membership and an estimate of me buying 3 bags each way ahead of time. I'm torn! We are traveling may 6-16, 2017

 

[keishashadow]

I'm not a big fan of spirit but have used them 4 X this year after buying into the $9 fare club to book shockingly low rates a few months prior to departure, even factoring in luggage fees. Most recent two weeks ago for 3 pp & 1 bag each way LBE - MCO under $280 all in. I couldn't book 1 pp RT on SWA for that price same dates. Allegiant doesn't fly every day out of PIT. Have yet to give Frontier a whirl.

For 'bonus' trips I'll take the chance Spirit won't cancel the flight. Wouldn't dream of booking if I had to be on a cruise the next day type of trip.

They seem to have more than their share of issues out of LBE (Pittsburgh area) from my experience and news stories I've seen. We've been lucky but have seen flights same day/prior get axed and recent one with mechanical AC issue out of MCO to LBE the day before we traveled.

You cannot go to the airport and buy the $9. Fare club rates though & 'double dip' Usage fee savings - Darn it lol! I still came out far ahead price wise thus far. Just need to remember to cancel the self-renewing membership.

 

[Meandnevaeh]

I am in the EXACT same boat as you. We flew direct out of Akron/canton our last 3 trips down on southwest and had a wonderful experience each time. I was just thinking about taking a trip to the airport to possibly buy airfare through spirit too. Southwest option for us is driving to Pittsburgh or Columbus to fly nonstop....not that fun. Getting a ride to one of those airports to head down on southwest and home on spirit or frontier...because id be less mad about an issue or delay coming back. I can get $640 round trip for 3 people and a lap infant. This includes their $59.95 membership and an estimate of me buying 3 bags each way ahead of time. I'm torn! We are traveling may 6-16, 2017

If I was going to drive 2 1/2 hours to either Columbus or Pitt(what it would be for me) I may as well just stick with the layover onSWA- I'd seriously get to MCO in about the same amount of time. Not to mention I would then have to pay parking fee for my vehicle, Cle I can have someone drop us off for nothing. I'm still waiting a bit longer, likely purchasing in Oct or Nov as that's when I expect the cheapest price, who know what'll even be left for me to choose then.

 

[katriscari]

If I was going to drive 2 1/2 hours to either Columbus or Pitt(what it would be for me) I may as well just stick with the layover onSWA- I'd seriously get to MCO in about the same amount of time. Not to mention I would then have to pay parking fee for my vehicle, Cle I can have someone drop us off for nothing. I'm still waiting a bit longer, likely purchasing in Oct or Nov as that's when I expect the cheapest price, who know what'll even be left for me to choose then.

I hear ya. The layover is Atlanta though which is the nation's worst airport for delays, I believe We have such crummy options here anymore. Since we are doing a 10 night trip and plan on upgrading to APs this year a small delay wouldn't totally piss me off as it would have in the past. I'll also have a 9 month old baby on board, so we aren't going to have very strict plans this trip either. I think I am going to head to the airport this week to investigate buying fares there and see what feeling I get! When I do, I'll report back. One of our fares is only $59 if i do that $9 club...so I don't think I want to miss out on that one by waiting to decide about driving to pit or Columbus. For what it's worth on my personal Facebook page I asked about spirit. Out of all the people that flew them they said no travel issues out of Cleveland except 1. Flights were canceled in December and couldn't be rescheduled for days for a cancun, I think it was. That was weather related though. All others just said to understand the bag rules and buy bags ahead of time and you will be fine on a short flight many of them did the CLE to mco flight.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Atlanta is far from the worst US airport for delays.

 

[katriscari]

Booked our May flights online for $564.97 round trip on Spirit, and that includes our 3 checked bags each way, the spirit $9 club (because it saves me $) and trip insurance for the way down. Plus I booked one ways, so my credit card will cover at least one way. We will see how it goes. It's a 10 night trip. We have nowhere to be. Nonstop flights, departing CLE at 810am. Coming back we leave Orlando at 1145 ish. Close Airport to our home too means no parking fees.

 

[BLLB]

I am in the EXACT same boat as you. We flew direct out of Akron/canton our last 3 trips down on southwest and had a wonderful experience each time. I was just thinking about taking a trip to the airport to possibly buy airfare through spirit too. Southwest option for us is driving to Pittsburgh or Columbus to fly nonstop....not that fun. Getting a ride to one of those airports to head down on southwest and home on spirit or frontier...because id be less mad about an issue or delay coming back. I can get $640 round trip for 3 people and a lap infant. This includes their $59.95 membership and an estimate of me buying 3 bags each way ahead of time. I'm torn! We are traveling may 6-16, 2017

I just booked our April flights from CAK to MCO through Southwest non-stop! I was so surprised because I kept hearing that Southwest was not offering direct flights from CAK to MCO. We flew for "free" with Rapdi Rewards points with our Southwest Visa.

 

[Meandnevaeh]

I just booked our April flights from CAK to MCO through Southwest non-stop! I was so surprised because I kept hearing that Southwest was not offering direct flights from CAK to MCO. We flew for "free" with Rapdi Rewards points with our Southwest Visa.

Did they add new flight times? They had discontinued them in Jan of this year.

 

[Meandnevaeh]

I just checked southwest, it looks like they are only running those non stops out if Akron on Sat afternoons in April for only one time of the day(mid afternoon), they used to run all flights to Orlando non stop, and still nothing in Jan, but they did have my return day at $89, and departure day at $120, both layovers. Out of Cle they running at $149+ for all layover flights in Jan.

 

[katriscari]

I just booked our April flights from CAK to MCO through Southwest non-stop! I was so surprised because I kept hearing that Southwest was not offering direct flights from CAK to MCO. We flew for "free" with Rapdi Rewards points with our Southwest Visa.

I know they have Saturday non stop flights into April. May will not be out until November 1, 2016 give or take a few days....and we fly back on a Tuesday. I usually pay about $750 roundtrip out of akron plus the parking for $60 for the week, so that puts me over $800. Since we are going to be doing an 11 day trip that would probably add another $60 for parking putting be at $850+ if I wait to try & fly Southwest. I wish I thought it might work for us because I absolutely love flying with them

 

[katriscari]

Did they add new flight times? They had discontinued them in Jan of this year.

I thought were doing Saturday non stops "during peak travel time" aka the summer months, and when they released their flights during the last round (maybe a month ago) they kept the Saturday nonstop at least for some of the time. Wouldnt hurt to check... They said beyond the current travel dates will open November 1, 2016 (subject to change)....and they wouldnt say if the Saturday nonstop would be available...I hope they realize that demand is great either CAK or CLE so we have more options for years to come!!

 

[Meandnevaeh]

I thought were doing Saturday non stops "during peak travel time" aka the summer months, and when they released their flights during the last round (maybe a month ago) they kept the Saturday nonstop at least for some of the time. Wouldnt hurt to check... They said beyond the current travel dates will open November 1, 2016 (subject to change)....and they wouldnt say if the Saturday nonstop would be available...I hope they realize that demand is great either CAK or CLE so we have more options for years to come!!

My work weeks run Wednesday through Tuesday-so that's how we get our vacation weeks, I can take off a day before my vacation week and a day after, but Sat to Sat isn't really an option for me, so this makes me sad, but I have always had the luxury of being able to fly on the cheapest days, so I can't complain.