Spirit Airlines: Cheap flights, but can you avoid fees?

The match: one passenger vs. Spirit Airlines.

The arena: a round-trip flight from Reagan National to Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

(dreyvitseraa/The Washington Post) - Spirit Airline Fees

The challenge: to dodge those pesky airline fees and claim the prize, the lowest of the low airfares.

The results: Well, read on.

Tips for Spirit Airlines customers on getting the lowest fare and avoiding fees

Among travel-related grievances, extra airline charges sit pretty high on the throne. The surfeit of fees is like a swarm of mosquitoes sneaking up and biting you. And unfortunately, they’re multiplying. According to the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, airlines pocketed a whopping $1.5 billion in major ancillary fees (baggage and reservation changes) in the second quarter of 2011. That amount isn’t all-inclusive. The carriers squirreled away even more for such wallet-pinching expenses as food, drinks, pillows and blankets.

One of the biggest culprits is Spirit, the self-crowned “ultra” low-cost carrier that’s also the airline we both love and love to hate. We swoon over its cheap tickets, such as its oft-touted $9 fares, yet we choke on the fees that it piles on like toppings on a pizza. The company, which was established in 1964 as Clippert Trucking, reconstituted as a charter tour operator in 1983 and renamed and reimagined as a budget airline in 1992, copies the Dublin-based Ryanair model: Offer customers subterranean rates, then pump those rates up with fees for incidentals.

“They have a lot of fees that other airlines don’t,” confirms George Hobica, founder of Airfarewatchdog.com, which focuses on airline issues and flight prices.

At the heart of the matter is the definition of “incidental.” Fortunately, Spirit considers the aircraft it flies you in a necessity — and thankfully we don’t have to chip in for cleaning and maintenance — but not much of anything else. It charges fees for reservations booked by phone and online, for checked and carry-on bags, for boarding passes issued by ticket agents and, come June, airport kiosks. There’s even a new $2 charge, the “unintended consequences” fee, which covers costs related to the Department of Transportation’s requirement that passengers be allowed to hold reservations for up to 24 hours and cancel them without penalty.

“The more you do at home, the more you save us,” said Spirit spokeswoman Misty Pinson, explaining the rationale behind the charges, “and then we can pass along the savings to the customer.”

Spirit’s fares are admittedly among the lowest, as I learned during a practice test. When I searched Kayak for a midweek flight from Washington to Fort Lauderdale, the Florida-based airline offered the least expensive ticket, at $122, including government taxes. US Airways followed with $148. But wait, the price hadn’t finished falling. If you go to Spirit’s Web site, you avoid the charge for booking with a third party; there, I found a fare of $104.58. Additionally, score a coupon (they’ve typically offered $24 or $50 off) or a sale (the recent Get Out of Town Deals!), and watch the numbers nosedive.