spirit air "personal item" question

[Belle1962]

I am scheduled to fly spiritair this Saturday. My personal item-- a laptop bag is 17 x 12 x 5. Their website indicates that they consider a personal item to be 16 x 14 x 12.

Do you think they will make me check the bag over the 1" difference or will it be considered "made up" in overall size with the 5 inches vs 12 inches? I don't want to pay $45 to check my bag at the gate or really even $30. Maybe I should go buy a bag--but it needs to be on wheels--whatever I buy.

BTW the laptop bag is soft sided.

Any experience with spiritair and their personal item size requirements?

TIA.

 

[Tinkerbell58]

I'm under the impresson that anything that can fit under the seat is free. I had a small backpack that fit under the seat and was not charged a carryon fee. You should be okay.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Your personal item needs to fit 100% absolutely completely fully under the seat in front of you. Sorry for the redundancy, but it seems to me if any domestic airline is going to be particular about the dimensions, it's going to be Spirit! The posters on Flyertalk dot com are really knowledgeable about all this, even more than we are. You could check the Spirit board over there (look for the frequent flyer boards), or if you're really brave, join and ask. Just be prepared for some really blunt responses.

 

[Daddio]

You say the bag is soft sided. Does that mean you can squish it a bit? As the previous poster said, if it will fit under the seat in front of you, you're good to go. Spirit crew do not stand at the gate with a measuring tape

David