Allegiant, Spirit, and Frontier airlines in the USA all operate under the same business model of offering a VERY low priced ticket if you buy it under specific circumstances. If you deviate AT ALL from those very specific ways, you pay many fees for a level of service you would expect to come by default with the price of the base ticket. As long as you go in knowing this, you can get a really cheap ticket. If you’re willing to play the game its possible to fly very inexpensively.

If, when you fly, you like the basic amenities (such as a regular sized carry on and being able to pick your seat) then you’re better off flying a traditional air carrier.

I’ll be the first to say that the rules of the game are crazy. For a Frontier ticket I bought recently the price for a single checked bag when you buy your airfare is $40 each way. If you wait even 5 seconds after you buy your ticket to buy the checked bag as a separate transaction that same bag now costs you $50 each way. Also, a checked bag with most airlines is 50 lbs limit (22.6kg), but a Frontier checked bag is limited to only 40 lbs (18.1kg). Buckle up now, it gets worse. If your checked back is 41 lbs instead of the allowed 40 lbs, the extra fee for 41 lbs to 50 lbs weight is an extra $65. So your checked bag could cost you $104 for the leg of the flight its the 40 lbs weight limit.

“I’ll just skip a checked bag and use a carry on” you think. A carry on costs more than a checked bag! If you pay for your carry on while purchasing your ticket its $50, 5 seconds after you buy your airfare $75, if you wait until the day you fly an buy it at the check in counter $80, if you wait until the gate $99!

Other fun fees:

• ability to talk to a human on the phone instead of their chat/email support
• a printable boarding pass
• selecting a seat (of course), but …any seat you select costs you (so you don’t choose and let them put you in one for free, but they don’t make that obvious)

Ways to get non-obvious savings while within the rules:

• if you’re traveling with two people, use a larger duffel and put both passengers items in there. Now you’re just cut your checked bag costs in half!
• We all have clothing that is getting to the end of its life but we still wear for a bit longer before throwing it away. Save up those clothes. When you take a trip, pack mostly THOSE clothes, and after you wear them for the last time on the trip you don’t bring them home. You now have lots of free space/weight in your checked bag for the things you’re buying and bringing home from your trip saving you from having to buy more checked bags.
• buy your ticket AT THE COUNTER AT THE AIRPORT. You can save $18 to $25 per ticket each way. You can see how much you’d save when you look at the website for Frontier and see a “CIC charge”. You pay that booking online or through a phone call. You don’t pay that if you buy from the human standing at the counter at the airport. Its not quite a simple as it sounds because there isn’t always staff at the check in counter. However you can check the Departures board online, arrive 1 hour before a departing flight (when the staff is checking bags) and buy your ticket from them at that time.

In the screenshot above the price of this ticket from Chicago to Orlando drops from $77.96 for the non-stop round trip flights to $31.96! So you’d pay only $15.98 to fly one way from Chicago to Orlando! That’s likely going to be cheaper than a single meal you’ll have in Orlando.

In short. Keep it simple and buy as little as possible and its a cheap flight, just be ready to play the game or pay more than you planned with these discount carriers.