Spirit Airlines will start charging $10 for the 2nd checked bag starting 2/11/07

[chrismom2005]

thats why i like southwest it gives you three checked bags even through when we go we only check one each so i guess it wouldnt matter

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

thats why i like southwest it gives you three checked bags even through when we go we only check one each so i guess it wouldnt matter

I wouldn't count on this for much longer. Southwest's fuel hedges are decreasing and you can bet they will dump the 3rd bag allowance before making other changes. It's a nice luxury at the moment as a portion of their fuel costs are capped. That portion relative to their total fuel bill is shrinking every year and they will soon be on the same fuel footing as the other carriers.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

As far as other airlines following suit... may not necessarily happen. NWA began to charge for the better seats (i.e., aisle) a while back and the rest have not followed suit....

 

[MickeyEars]

Wow, now I feel better paying $2 per checked bag per segment on Allegiant Air!!! I paid Allegiant $20 for five checked bags for our May 29-June 6 trip. I got quite a bargain huh?

Carla

 

[jamounger]

In the Detroit Free Press today
"Starting Saturday, Spirit Airlines will penalize travelers checking a second suitcase by charging a $10 fee for the second bag.
Once known for its liberal baggage policies, the second largest carrier at Detroit Metro Airport will now have the strictest among U.S. airlines.
The new rules allow just one free checked bag of 50 pounds. The second bag will be $10 and a third will be $100"

 

[sarbah77]

In the Detroit Free Press today
"Starting Saturday, Spirit Airlines will penalize travelers checking a second suitcase by charging a $10 fee for the second bag.
Once known for its liberal baggage policies, the second largest carrier at Detroit Metro Airport will now have the strictest among U.S. airlines.
The new rules allow just one free checked bag of 50 pounds. The second bag will be $10 and a third will be $100"

So frustrated to hear this! I'm flying Spirit, out of Detroit Metro on Thursday... and now I need to be sure to pack 1 bag and 1 bag only.

Of course, that's the second thing they've done that makes me reconsider ever using them again. The first was moving my 8:30 flight to a 10:45 flight (with a noon arrival instead of a 10-something arrival) and my 4:30 return flight to a 3:30 return flight.

It's customer service nearly as bad as Northwest!

-Sarah

 

[jamounger]

We will certainly take that charge into consideration when buying tickets for our Sept trip. I wonder if other airlines will follow with this? Wonder if the would have notified you or just charged the 10 dollars when you got there?

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

I've merged all of these threads on the same topic together.

 

[MemoryMakers2669]

Not sure if this was posted or not recently, but I just got this information and though I would post it here.

Spirit Airlines will begin limiting passengers to a single checked piece of luggage. Effective Saturday (Feb. 10), passengers must pay $10 to check a second suitcase on Spirit flights (and $100 for a third bag). The first freely checked bag cannot weigh more than 50 pounds. Spirit says it’s making the chance in an attempt to continue offering low fares. For details, check www.SpiritAirlines.com.

 

[boomhauer]

If that's per customer, that's not a HUGE deal. As long as you can still have at least 1 carry-on. How many passengers actually check in more than one piece of luggage?

Well, golf bags I guess.

 

[MemoryMakers2669]

We checked 5 this last time and usually do. And that was without golf clubs which we will have next time. Not that I would fly them, so not even an issue!

 

[jodifla]

If that's per customer, that's not a HUGE deal. As long as you can still have at least 1 carry-on. How many passengers actually check in more than one piece of luggage?

Well, golf bags I guess.

Spoken by a man who hasn't flown with small children yet! And their car seats/booster seats, strollers, bags full of diapers, bottles, baby formula, etc...

You'd be surprised.

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

Merging... once again...

 

[katerkat]

Spoken by a man who hasn't flown with small children yet! And their car seats/booster seats, strollers, bags full of diapers, bottles, baby formula, etc...

You'd be surprised.

Hey, I just flew with a small child, including all his cloth diapers, clothing for both of us for two months, ten pairs of shoes for me, lots of extra sippy cups, his carseat, stroller, diaper bag... And two cats... And did it all in three suitcases. If I was going on vacation, I would have ditched at least half the shoes, all the cloth diapers, 75% of the clothes, and could easily have done it in two suitcases. (Since we purchase his seat, that's one checked bag for me, one checked bag for him.)

 

[MemoryMakers2669]

You took two months worth of diapers and clothing...meaning you didn't have to buy more or wash clothing the whole time you were gone? I would guess you took the same amount of stuff anyone else would for a 10-14 night stay somewhere. If DH and another child went along, that would have made 6 bags for 4 people. That is only a $20 charge though.

When we went on a cruise and Disney two years ago, we were gone for 2 weeks. Since we couldn't do laundry on the ship at all, we had to take a LOT of stuff with us. I think we had 12 items/bags (two car seats, stroller and golf clubs being part of that). I do not overpack at all. But we had to have 10 solid days of clothing, times 4, until we made it to Disney where I could do some wash. I also had to have 10 days of diapers and wipes and baby food.

I can see how people could easily go over the one bag per person. Over 2 each would probably not happen very often, where they start charging $100 a bag!?

 

[Lewisc]

Spirit has decided price is the major (maybe only) reason passengers fly them. Some passengers won't read the fine print, or decide they need an extra bag, and pay the extra money. Some guests will reduce the number of bags they check which will allow Spirit to transport more cargo, including mail.

Either way Spirit gets an extra revenue stream that can be used to keep the posted fares lower.

Some passengers book a legacy carrier like Contintental for frequent flyer miles. Some passengers book SW, they like the fixed schedule and lack of change fees. Some passengers fly Jet Blue because they like the TV screens. Passengers pick Spirit based on price. I wonder how long before they start weighing carry on bags?

 

[katerkat]

You took two months worth of diapers and clothing...meaning you didn't have to buy more or wash clothing the whole time you were gone? I would guess you took the same amount of stuff anyone else would for a 10-14 night stay somewhere. If DH and another child went along, that would have made 6 bags for 4 people. That is only a $20 charge though.

When we went on a cruise and Disney two years ago, we were gone for 2 weeks. Since we couldn't do laundry on the ship at all, we had to take a LOT of stuff with us. I think we had 12 items/bags (two car seats, stroller and golf clubs being part of that).

No - if I was going somewhere for 10-14 days, I wouldn't have brought as many pants and shoes and books, none of the clothes I brought to my sister, and I would have packed about half as much of the baby's clothes. Plus in the space of the cloth diapers, I could put two or more weeks worth of regular diapers. Plus since our toddler is younger, we gate-check the stroller and carry on the carseat, so they don't count toward checked bags. (The cats also didn't count as checked bags.) When we went to Disney in December for 10 days, we had three suitcases for DH, Russ and I.

I guess it's just what you're used to doing - DH fit everything he needed for 5 weeks in the back of our SUV, including golf clubs and a suitcase for Russ and I. We can fit everything we need for 3.5 months in the backseat/trunk of a car and half of the back of the SUV (since the cats were in the other half.)

Now granted - this trip to NJ, my big suitcase weighed in at 49.3 pounds - but I fit everything we needed.

 

[jodifla]

Glad to see The Freep finally ran an article. The Detroit News ran a story a couple of weeks ago. I also predict there's going to be a lot of unhappiness about this once people start actually flying.

I still maintain this is going to be a problem for families, particularly in the area of car/booster seats. When I complained about Spirit's new policy, the flak told me that INFANT car seats wouldn't count. But, of course, since many states want kids in car seats until they are 8 years old, a family of four could easily be traveling with four car or booster seats to check. Then throw in maybe one bag overweight, so with all the booster seats, all of a sudden you can't add an extra bag, and all of a sudden you have a nightmare scenario of having $100 extra charge to fly, making SPirit seem like a racket instead of a bargain airline.

 

[Lewisc]

Glad to see The Freep finally ran an article. The Detroit News ran a story a couple of weeks ago. I also predict there's going to be a lot of unhappiness about this once people start actually flying.

I still maintain this is going to be a problem for families, particularly in the area of car/booster seats.

Some passengers will pay the extra $10. Spirit will have to make sure they're the cheapest airline. Ryanair now charges for every checked bag and limits the weight of carryon bags.

It's not a problem, it just means famlies will have to offset the low fare against paying extra for checked bags. Some passengers may be surprised to learn they have to pay extra for a second checked bag but you get what you pay for.

Looks like Spirit wants to be the cheapest airline, even if it means nickle and dimming passengers.