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While waiting for a flight to board from Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) to Tampa International Airport (TPA) I watched as a woman frantically took all of her belongings out of her carry-on bag in order to avoid paying a $99 fee at the gate.
She had an inordinate amount of clothing, makeup, and other items in the bag, but she managed to stuff them into a Home Goods bag and shove the entire bag into the sizer. The gate agent kindly allowed her to board with the bag that was bulging at the seams.
Spirit charges $99 to bring a carry-on bag on board the plane if purchased at the gate. In this case, it seems the passenger found it cheaper to abandon her suitcase instead of paying the $99.
Anthony’s Take: I value my Free Spirit Gold status for the benefit of being able to bring a carry-on bag without paying a fee. That coupled with priority boarding and purchasing a BIG FRONT SEAT™ has made me a fan of the budget airline. I wonder how many bags are abandoned each day and what happens to them after the boarding door closes.
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5 comments
As a former Spirit Airlines station manager, I can answer your question… We averaged about 1 abandoned bag per day at one of my stations (which was about 40 flights a day). We advised the guest to leave it completely empty, unzipped and propped open, and put it next to the trash can in the concourse. After the flight, left, we took it downstairs and put it in the trash compactor. We originally tried to collect them to donate to charity but honestly the bags were usually so cheap and in such bad condition or dirty that it wasn’t worthwhile.
Thanks for the insight!
Spirit is a solid on time budget airline. Bring a small carry on. I fly them at least once a month they are very reliable.
Haha, this brings back memories of 2014 At DFW we used to go to Terminal E Satellite and grab a bunch of Spirit luggage. They would charge $100 and people would just put their belongings in the trashbag and leave the luggage there. We’d grab it and take it home. But then as the years went by, The luggage became cheaper and cheaper so we stopped collecting them.
Spirit airlines is for emergencies only….they think no one notices they have made the seats half the size to sit on… they want $1.00 if you want a sheet of tissue and make sure to say you can’t bring your own tissue. Their staff is the most unprofessional people you will ever encounter because they know if you traveling on spirit you must not be able to afford a good airline. I said it, because it’s true