Nobody loves flying on a discount airline. Even if you’re savvy enough to use Skyscanner and snag a $20 fare, excessive baggage fees add insult to injury. But from time to time for various reasons you might find yourself eyeing up that impossibly low fare and wondering if you can justify it. Maybe it’s a direct flight, or at the most convenient time. If you waited too long to book or are going on a whim the major carriers might be charging four to five times more for the same route.
This was the case recently when I spent a couple days in Atlantic City taking advantage of status matching. The weather was nice and the vibe was casual so it was easy to fit all the clothes I needed in a small personal bag. Baggage fees on both Spirit and Frontier are typically right around $60 each way. If I had taken a bag this would have added $120 to the $100 I paid for airfare. If you’re creeping above the $200 mark you might as well just go with Southwest.
The only way to keep your cheap flight cheap is to pay zero in fees and pray they are even close to being on time. So what do you do if you need more than you can carry?
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Just Buy What You Need When You Get There
It occurred to me on the boardwalk that you could buy the whole rack of t-shirts pictured here and still have $95 leftover from the $120 you would have paid in baggage fees. There’s also socks here, and underwear; beach towels, toiletries and just about everything else you could think of. It’s all dirt cheap.
Most beach towns are pretty similar. Why pay $60 each way to transport your beach towel and flip flops when you can pick them up at the shore for ten or twelve bucks?
The Baggage Fee Math
Let’s say you want to go to Las Vegas.You can find Target, TJ Maxx and Burlington right on the South Strip. Further up there is the Ross Dress For Less (Viva Ross Vegas) and any number of souvenir shops in between. These retailers are everywhere, and with thrift and Amazon there is no shortage of cheap clothes in the US. Most hotels will be happy to receive Amazon packages for you to be picked up when you arrive. Usually your order can arrive in 1 box the next day.
Looking at Amazon today I’m seeing these prices listed:
- Fruit of the Loom 5-Pack Boxers $11.99
- Gildan T-Shirts 5-Pack $19.99
- Puma 8-Pack No-Show Socks $10.42
- Generic Men’s Flip Flops $5.99
- Generic Men’s Shorts: $9.29
Assuming you wore pants and shoes and maybe a light jacket onto the plane and brought nothing else at all this is a basic wardrobe for a 5 day trip for less than $60. You could add a beach towel, sleeping clothes, toiletries… and still come in well below $120 in baggage fees. This is an extreme example but the numbers don’t lie. Whatever it is you can’t fit into a personal sized bag, it can be had for less than the cost of baggage fees.
If you have to book the least expensive flight, take what you can and buy the rest. It’s the only way to beat Frontier and Spirit at their own game.
