Low-Cost Carrier Thinks Third Time's The Charm For Unpopular Fee

It's not quite the same basement-level practice as charging to use the lav... but we daresay it's close. On Tuesday, Spirit Airlines quietly began to charge customers who book tickets for travel on the ultra-low-cost carrier.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports the $4.90 per leg "passenger usage fee" applies for passengers who buy tickets from anywhere other than a Spirit ticket counter.

Spirit spokeswoman Misty Pinson said the fee is meant to absorb costs from running that Web site, and call center. Several other airlines charge passengers who book tickets by phone -- ostensibly for the privilege of speaking to an actual person -- but Spirit is in rarefied air when it comes to airlines that also charge passengers for using their Web site.

The idea isn't a new one. Low-cost airline Allegiant Air has charged $13.50 "convenience fees" for booking through its Web site or via phone since May 2006; in fact, the airline even charges an additional $10 per segment for phone reservations.

For that matter, this isn't even the first time Spirit has tried to charge passengers "usage fees." The airline tried a $7.90 per leg charge in May 2008, which was dropped a month later. Spirit followed that stillborn attempt with a $5 "Web convenience fee" in July; that lasted all of a week.

At the time, Pinson wrote the Sun-Sentinel the fees were "hurting demand and not well received by customers." Presumably, the airline hopes the third time is the charm.

"You're going to spend more than $4.90 driving to the airport," Pinson said this week in an effort to justify the fee.

It's also worth noting the Department of Transportation took Spirit to task last summer, fining the carrier $40,000 for failing to disclose the added booking fees as part of the base air fares on its Web site. Pinson says the airline has since found a more "transparent" method of including all fees, by explaining them in the fine print.

Good thing, too -- as in addition to the ticket charge, Spirit passengers will also be charged a $2.50 "natural occurrence interruption fee" to offset "storm-related costs." International passengers will pay an additional $8.50, the Wall Street Journal adds, for an "international service recovery fee."

Despite the negative implications of such blatant charges, Spirit notes that even with the added fees, tickets purchased online are usually much cheaper than those bought at the ticket counter.

As for Allegiant Air -- the carrier that started this trend -- spokesman Tyri Squyres says relatively few people complain about the added charges. In fact... Allegiant is so far the only US airline to report traffic numbers that actually increased in February, over the same period in 2008.

FMI: www.spiritair.com, www.allegiantair.com