Points Panda has partnered with a variety of financial companies including CreditCards.com for our coverage of credit card products. Points Panda and CreditCards.com may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
The content on this page is accurate as of the posting date; however, some of the offers mentioned may have expired. For more information please read our full Advertiser Disclosure.
Save an extra $40 with cheap Spirit & Frontier tickets at the Airport
There’s no end to the potential for a well-budgeted itinerary. We all know it’s annoying to buy cheap concert tickets online only to be hit with hidden “service fees.” Well, airlines have the same kind of fees when you book online.
If you fly low-cost airlines like Spirit and Frontier and want even cheaper tickets, you can avoid the charge of “passenger usage fee” (another name for booking tickets online) by going directly to the airport to purchase your cheap tickets. And to make the deal even sweeter, you can use your airline credit cards to get points or miles for your purchase!
These online booking fees for Spirit and Frontier can be as high as $17.99 each way for your flight!
Avoid fees, buy tickets cheaper from Spirit and Frontier at the airport.
Actually, you don’t even have to be the one that buys them. Some of my friends are constantly flying and always on the road so I’ll ask them to buy the tickets for me next time they’re catching a flight if they have the time. I’ll say “Hey, I see you’re at the airport tomorrow. If you have time, would you mind grabbing me a ticket?”
I’ll spell out exactly which Frontier or Spirit tickets I want and what the dates are based on available deals. I’ll usually send them a picture of my driver’s license which they’ll need to supply at the checkout. Venmo or PayPal them for the tickets later, and if you’re a good person, give them a little extra to quench their thirst with a drink after their trouble. After all, you’re saving quite a bit by cutting the passenger usage fee and getting the lower tickets for an incredibly cheap price.
You can actually buy your cheap tickets at the airport months in advance.
If you don’t live near an airport…
When I’m flying, I like to look ahead and see where the cheap Spirit or Frontier tickets are, usually based on their deals page. On the days that I’m flying, I’ll scope out where the cheap flights are. When I’m at the airport, I’ll buy a lot of tickets at one time. That will usually save me a lot of money on future flights, especially with Spirit or Frontier having these benefits being offered for in airport purchases.
As an example, I was living in Tampa while doing an internship. I wanted to take a flight with my friends to Nicaragua. The flight was going to cost $170 roundtrip per ticket.
I knew if I went to the airport, I could save $40 per ticket. I ended up buying the tickets in Tampa, even though the flight was departing out of Ft. Lauderdale in a month.
Long story short, go to the airport, buy your tickets, you’ll save about $40 round trip.
Check the “deals” pages for one way flights on Spirit or Frontier. There are always cheap deals – $20 or $30 dollars online, or if you buy them at the airport, you can reasonably pay $12 or $13 dollars for a ticket.
If you want to learn more about credit cards and points, you can sign up for our travel concierge and get unlimited consultation for one full year!
Advertiser Disclosure
PointsPanda Deal of the Week!
Looking for the best flight deals? Each week we'll send you updates with the best deals on flights and hotels both using points and cash.
Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.