You’ve probably seen at least one of the dozens of stories reporting on how Spirit is going to charge $100 for a carry on bag. Those stories are incredibly misleading at best. If you’re an honest customer, there’s no way you’re going to pay $100 to carry a bag on the plane. And that’s exactly why it’s there, to punish those who aren’t honest.

I wasn’t going to write about this, but after seeing all the misinformation out there, I figured I should chime in with what’s actually happening. Here’s the story.

I actually hate the phrase “carry on fee,” because that’s not really what it is. It’s an overhead bin space fee. You can still bring on a bag without charge on any Spirit flight as long as it fits under the seat in front of you. But if you need to put a bag in the overhead bin, then Spirit will charge you and has done so for the last 2 years. It recently announced fee changes that begin on November 6 of this year, and one of those fees is $100. Will you have to pay the $100? Only if you’re dishonest.

Spirit has created a structure that gives you incentive to sign up for bin space in advance, because it will cost you less. The cheapest way to do this is to be a member of the $9 Fare Club. That’s a club that costs $59.95 a year and gets you access to fare specials, discounts on fees, etc. If you fly Spirit more than a couple times a year or if you have a lot of bags, it probably makes a lot of sense. Members of that club pay $25 per bag for bin space in advance, and it goes up from there. Here’s the rundown on a per bag basis:

Does Spirit have way too much complexity in here? Yeah, probably. It’s hard to wrap your head around all these different prices, but the concept is easy. Do it early and do it yourself and it’ll be cheaper.

If you book online at spirit.com, then you can sign up right there during the booking process for $35. Piece of cake. If you book through an online travel agent, then you have no clue what’s happening because they don’t do a good job of incorporating fees in any way. But you can still come to spirit.com and make that purchase if you know about it.

But let’s say you don’t know about the carry on fee because the online travel agent didn’t tell you. Or let’s say you just didn’t know in advance whether you were going to have a carry on or not. Well, you can still get it during the online check-in process for $40. What if you aren’t tech savvy at all? Then you can pay $50 when you check in at the airport ticket counter. I’ll agree that it is pretty awful when you show up to check in after having booked on an online travel agent site only to find that you have to pay for bin space. The online travel agents need to do a better job with that if they’re going to sell airline tickets. But the fee still won’t be more than $50.

So who is it that’s paying that $100 fee the media has been jumping on? Crooks. That is a fee for those people who blatantly disregard the requirement to pay for a carry on with the hope that they’ll be able to sneak it on the airplane at the gate. That’s a real pain for everyone when they try to do that, because the gate agent will see it, stop that person, and have to take them out of line to process the fee. It slows down the boarding process.

In other words, this fee is completely punitive. Spirit would like nothing more than for there not to be a single person to pay this fee. That means everyone is doing it before security, and that makes boarding much quicker. I think that particular $100 fee is a pretty smart way of creating a disincentive. If you don’t like it, then don’t try to game the system.

Live Chat: Children on planes – Canada.com
I was one of the panelists for a live chat about kids on airplanes. You can see the transcript at the link above.

The Midwest Cookie Is Dead and Other Important Airline News – Conde Nast Daily Traveler
This week, I did a round up of the death of the Frontier cookie, Spirit’s growth in DFW, and Southwest’s expansion into AirTran markets.

Allegiant Air begins charging passengers for carry-on bags – The Madeleine Brand Show
I was on the show to talk about Allegiant’s new carry on bag fee and had a good discussion.

Dallas Tornadoes and DFW Airport: What Travelers Should Do When Flights Are Cancelled – Conde Nast Daily Traveler
When storms hit DFW this week, scores of flights were canceled and people were stranded. We were able to help our clients get home quickly. Here are suggestions for handling these types of events.

In the Trenches: Hired – Intuit Small Business Blog
It’s finally happened. I’ve hired my first employee. While it was a long road to get here, I’m glad that it’s done.

Continental’s Airline Quality Rating dropped out of Top 10 in 2011 (take our poll) – Cleveland Plain Dealer
I was asked about the Airline Quality Rating, which I don’t put much stock in.

The next stop for Spirit’s growth train here in the US is in an unlikely place . . . Denver. Why would Spirit go into a market where there’s certainly no shortage of capacity? Something tells me that the airline wants to send Frontier a message.

Spirit will begin daily service from Denver to Ft Lauderdale and Chicago/O’Hare with twice daily service to Dallas/Ft Worth and Las Vegas. First flights are on May 3. Of all the places in the US that Spirit could tackle with its model, why go to Denver now, where three airlines continue to slug it out? It has to be at least somewhat about Frontier.

As we all know by now, Frontier wants to become an ultra low cost carrier and it has started making some big moves in its network to begin that process. While some airlines, like Allegiant, tend to stay away from competition when there are so many other opportunities out there, Spirit likes to get up in your face and let you know that it’s there to make life miserable.

Of course, this move won’t exactly make life miserable but more just be a pain in the butt. Spirit is only coming in with 1 or 2 flights a day and that’s barely going to make a ripple, but the airline is warning Frontier that it’s up for a fight. Need more proof? How about this gem in the press release from Spirit’s Chief Marketing Officer Barry Biffle (who I interviewed hear last year):

We understand that Denver has been looking for an ultra low cost carrier and we are here to satisfy that need. . . .

In other words, “Hey Frontier, this is our game. You try it, we’ll be there to fight you every inch of the way.”

So far, the two airlines seem to be taking different paths in their approach to ULCC-ness. Frontier’s new service looks more like Allegiant’s with sub-daily flights to smaller cities. But it still has its substantial existing service patterns which are more likely to overlap with Spirit.

Let’s take a look at the frequencies for this Friday in the markets that Spirit is entering:

Fares are already inexpensive thanks to the major competition, at least in some of these markets, but Spirit will still try to squeeze in below. Can it do it? Maybe, but you would think there would be better opportunity elsewhere. That’s why my guess is that Spirit wouldn’t have picked Denver next had it not been for Frontier making too much noise for Spirit to ignore.

[Original Frontier photo via Flickr user redlegsfan21/CC 2.0]

Jetwhine Tries to Out-Cranky the Cranky Flier – JetWhine
Rob over at JetWhine had a painful experience dealing with American/Iberia on a codeshare so he gave me a ring to vent. You can listen to the 11:27 podcast over on his website.

New DOT Regulations Could Kill This Annoying Airline Fee – Conde Nast Daily Traveler
A follow up inspired by the comments in this space last Saturday to my Spirit post. There is one fee I hate, and I’m hoping DOT regulations might kill it off.

“Cranky Flier” Explores Decline in Small City Airline Service – Part 1 of 2 – Expert Flyer Hot Topics
Expert Flyer invited me to participate in their Hot Topics series – we’re talking about small city airline service and why it’s been going away.

In the Trenches: Back in the Saddle – Intuit Small Business Blog
After a break for the baby, I’m back on my Intuit column again. This time, I talk about how things went while I was away.

Why Spirit Airlines Is Right – Conde Nast Daily Traveler
Admittedly, this post was meant to stir the pot up a little. I do see merit in what Spirit is doing in fighting the feds on one hand, but that doesn’t mean I think the rule should necessarily disappear. Still, fun to look at it from Spirit’s side.

The Pros and Cons of American Airlines’s New First Class and Business Class – Conde Nast Daily Traveler
Just a little piece on American’s new 777 interiors. Not much more than what I wrote about here.

Waiting to board with Brett Snyder – Cheapflights.com Waiting to Board
I did an interview with Cheapflights talking about the blog and some travel tips.