There is absolutely nothing which suggests Spirit's policy is motivated by delays in pushing back. We're not talking about enforcing size restrictions. We're talking about charging a huge penalty to those passengers who don't realize Spirit charges for bin bags and wind up having to pay at the gate.
Excuse me, but how could someone not realize that Spirit charges bag fees for both carry ons and checked bags, as well as charges to select your seat? I am leaving in just a little while to catch a Spirit flight from DFW to MCO today. When I purchased the ticket way back in January, their site very plainly had a box on their home page about optional fees. If you checked it, it explained in great detail about carry on and checked bag fees. Even if you didn't click on that box, as you were checking out (well before you paid) they took you to a screen that asked if you wanted to prepay for a carry on and/or a checked bag and again clearly explained the fees. There was no way to go any further in the booking process until you either said yes, or no. Then the very next screen talked about prechoosing your seat and showed a diagram of the plane's seating chart and clearly showed the fees for each seat. At the top of that page, it said if you wanted to sit next to your traveling party or in a preferred location on the plane, you could, by prepaying your seat. Again you could not go any further in the booking process until you either chose your seat or declined to choose your seat. How much plainer could they be?
If you want to bring a carry on or checked bag and if you want to sit in a certain seat with your traveling party, then simply click yes when they take you through that screen. There is no way to bypass those screens without checking something (either 'purchase' or 'continue without purchasing'). You don't pay for your ticket until the very end, so can refuse to buy a ticket with them up until that point (well after they show you their bag and seat fees).
For that matter, I went in several days ago to pay for my carry on. As soon as I logged onto my reservation it showed I had not paid for a carry on or a checked bag or a seat. I clicked on pay for bags now and entered the info. It then immediately took me to the next screen asking if I wanted to choose and pay for my seat. I was hoping those 'Big Front Seats' would go down from $50.00 each way. They hadn't, so I waited until I checked in yesterday afternoon to go in and buy one. Yesterday when I logged into my flight, it immediately showed that I had already paid for 1 carry on and 0 checked bags and asked if I wanted to pay for another bag. I clicked pass that and clicked on 'select seat'. The price had still not gone down any for those 'Big Front Seats', but I knew I wanted one, so paid the price and printed off the boarding pass. The site was very clear every time I've clicked on it. They do not hide their fees and do everything to make it very plain that it's your choice if you want to pay for a carry on and/or a checked bag and if you want to pay to sit with your family or in a certain section of the plane. In a few hours I'll be taking the carry on I paid for on board with the rest of Boarding Zone 1 and will be seating in my 2D Big Front Seat, again that I paid for. Do not expect me to feel sorry for or to move for some family that was too cheap to pay for seats together or that were too ignorant to read the screens they had to read in order to get to the purchase page when they bought their tickets or again when they went online to print their boarding passes. If you check 'No' that you don't want to pay for a carry on bag or a seat to sit with your family then don't try to claim ignorance at the gate.
