Recently, there has been a budget airline that has been making its rounds through the news due to a potential merger with one of its competitors, JetBlue (which you can read about here). This carrier is the notoriously successful Spirit Airlines. 

When purchasing an airline ticket on Spirit, it can be a strenuous ordeal to find out what the baggage policy of the airline is due to its different booking system and selling economy-class-only tickets. 

This is not like other airlines such as United, which have clearly outlined their policies related to cancellations and baggage on their booking platform.

So if you're confused about Spirit Airline's baggage policies, or going to fly on the carrier in the near future, you've come to the right place, because this article will give you all the information you need to know on Spirit Airlines' baggage policies and rules.

Different Website Layout = Smaller Fine Text = Obscure Baggage Rules

Spirit Airlines' primary website booking system doesn't have different fare types as the legacy carriers do. If you want to fly on Spirit, you book an economy ticket. No basic ticket, no refundable ticket, just a plain economy ticket. 

When potentially booking a ticket with the carrier, there is an area of text in the upper right corner of the booking page that has the airline's baggage policy linked to it.

Since Spirit Airlines is a low-cost carrier, the ticket you purchase is only for the bare-bones ticket and flight. After putting in passenger information (Name, DOB, etc...), one has to go through numerous different pages (bundles, seat selection, etc.) to get to the payment information screen. 

Among these various screens offering paid add-ons, is the baggage page. Spirit Airlines is a no-fringes, strictly low-cost airline, meaning that one has to pay for everything at the airline - including carry-ons and checked baggage.

Finally... Baggage Allowances

Passengers in all seats (economy, or Spirit Airlines' "BIG FRONT SEAT") are allowed one free carry-on bag to fit underneath the seat. This "personal item" can be anything from a computer to a duffel bag. 

The dimensions of your under-seat item should be (in order of length, width, and height) 14 inches by 8 inches by 18 inches.

In my experience, I've been able to fit far larger (around 20 by 10 by 8 by 20 inch) bags underneath Spirit's economy seats, but I wouldn't recommend doing it due to the high penalty if you're caught. As for a carry-on bag (which you put in the overhead bins), Spirit specifies a maximum (in order of length, width, and height) of 18 inches by 10 inches by 22 inches. 

Finally, for checked bags (going into the cargo hold), Spirit doesn't specify any specific numbers, but only that passengers checked bags should have a maximum size (combined length, width, and height) of 62 inches.

What Baggage Restrictions Are There? 

As of May 2023, there are no baggage restrictions for domestic flights inside of the United States. There are restrictions on most flights between Colombia, some Peruvian and Ecuadorian cities. The baggage restrictions (regions/countries) are as follows: 

*Airport code 

**Changes to all international destinations, holiday season (December 1 - January 10) restrictions 

***Spirit Airlines allots a certain amount of space inside their aircraft's cargo holds to extra checked baggage

How Much Does Baggage (Carry On or Checked) Cost? 

For carry-on baggage (in overhead bins), the fees are as follows: 

As for checked baggage within weight and size limits, the fees are: 

As one may notice, Spirit offers cheaper prices for checked baggage as opposed to carry-on. This is most likely due to scheduling between flights. 

Passengers who all have carry-on baggage will deplane for a longer period of time than those who mostly have checked baggage. This allows Spirit Airlines aircraft to have shorter turnaround times and higher on-time performance.

Spirit offers slightly increased fees for more than one checked bag. They are as follows:

*More than five checked pieces of luggage are not allowed 

Baggage that exceeds the airlines' specifications on size and weight is as follows: 

Like any other airline, budget or not, Spirit allows passengers to bring special "items" onboard their aircraft, although these items need to be checked in and placed in the hold.

If you're planning on flying on Spirit Airlines in the next few months, we hope you found this article helpful in regard to your trip. We wish you safe flights from the entire team at AeroXplorer!