Buying Airline Tickets At The Airport

In days gone by, it was common to wait until you arrived at the airport to purchase tickets. You can probably think of several movie scenes where the harried hero squares off against an unhelpful airline worker at the departure gate. Yet outside of the movies, most airport service desks exist to provide services other than selling flight tickets. The focus of their job is mainly checking in passengers, assisting passengers with checking bags, arranging upgrades, helping passengers find new flights and other services.

buying airline tickets at the airport

There is one notable exception: you can often find Spirit Airlines deals by buying tickets at the airport. When you book Spirit Airlines flights in person, you can often avoid additional service charges. Most other tickets purchased at the airport will come with added fees.

Surprisingly enough, one of the best ways passengers can save money with Frontier is by buying their tickets at the Frontier Airlines ticket counter. Other options, like third-party sites or purchasing through the Reservation center, could subject you to an additional $5-$35 fee. So, to make your cheap flight even cheaper, consider traveling to the airport and booking with an agent at the counter.

However, not all tickets will be cheaper just because you can avoid the online booking fees. Some airlines, like Spirit, will have carrier-imposed fees or government-imposed taxes that apply to in-person tickets, potentially negating any savings you might make by skipping the online fees.

However, some budget airlines are the exceptions. In particular, Allegiant, Spirit, and Frontier are known to charge certain fees online and over the phone that you don't have to pay if you buy your plane ticket at the airport.

To sum it up, it may only be cheaper to buy a plane ticket at the airport if you're purchasing a ticket from a budget airline, like Spirit, depending on how far you live from the airport and how many people are traveling with you, among other things.

If purchasing a ticket at the airport doesn't seem logical or isn't feasible, you can always find good deals online. Besides using Google Flights and sites like Expedia, we recommend checking airlines' social media pages. Many airlines announce their sales and flash fares via their social media.

The way that we find and book airline tickets has changed significantly. Rather than walking into a travel agent, the majority of travellers now book flights online. Another way of booking tickets, which has become almost obsolete, is to book your flights at the airport kiosk. Although many might not even consider this as an option, rumours can still circulate that this is a good way to get a bargain. So, truth or myth? Keep reading to find out whether you can save money by booking your tickets at the airport.

Our conclusion is short: yes, you can book your flight tickets at the airport for some airlines; but, it will be significantly cheaper, easier and more convenient to book your flights online instead. Again, in some instances you may arrive at the airport kiosk to be redirected to go online to book your flights yourself anyway.

Nowadays a vast majority of passengers buy their tickets online, given the practice of electronic ticketing. However, some ultra low cost carriers give you an incentive to book tickets at the airport.

There is one major catch if you choose to ticket at the airport. Since Spirit Airlines is an ultra low cost carrier, the airline charges for almost everything, ranging from seat assignments, to carry-on bags, to checked bags. Generally speaking, the airline charges the least when you purchase extras during the initial booking process.

I've flown Spirit multiple times and have only booked in the airport. For my family of 5 I've often saved $100-200 in fare by doing it at the airport. The baggage fee is $10 less online after booking (before the day of your flight) when purchased online. I paid $175 in tickets + $90 for 1 suitcase on our last trip to Houston from NY. Not bad!

While there prices were a while ago. Spirit now charges $79 for a checked bag at the airport and upon trying to get our plane tickets, they allowed bidding on seats. So when I got my ticket and seat number, my group of 7 were all reassigned to complete different seats separating all of us. I do not recommend spirit as there were a lot more complications that arose and spirit would not do anything...

While there prices were a while ago. Spirit now charges $79 for a checked bag at the airport and upon trying to get our plane tickets, they allowed bidding on seats. So when I got my ticket and seat number, my group of 7 were all reassigned to complete different seats separating all of us. I do not recommend spirit as there were a lot more complications that arose and spirit would not do anything about it. While it IS CHEAPER to book online beware of the "extra" charges and changes when you get there

This article is not accurate. The tickets are cheaper at the airport, BUT we tell the guests to purchase their bags online before you check in for your flight and you get a lower price on your bags. Also bags at the airport are around $79 at the ticket counter, so save money purchase on line.!

Mother's Day weekend this year my group of five traveled fron DTW to MCO round trip for $39.50 EACH!!! We fly Spirit regularly, and never pay for seat assignments. Our group has never been split up on the plane. We bought the tickets at the airport and carried backpacks. Spirit can be a pain in the butt, but for prices like that I'll put up with a little inconvenience.

There's another big exception to this, though. Some cheap fares, like your example, don't have a $12 fuel surcharge. All tickets purchased at the airport do. This is explained in the T&Cs. I've had a few ultra cheap tickets that only charge a $9.99 PUC and end up being more at the airport.

Is it still cheaper to book your flight at the airport/counter if you have a carry-on or checked bag? Or do they charge more for a checked bag/ carry-on when buying the ticket in person than they would have charged you to buy it online ahead of time?

I am also curious if you can buy tickets for departures from other airports. I live 30 minutes from the Bishop airport in Flint MI that serves Allegiant, but I'm looking to buy tickets from Cincinnati to Orlando. I would make the drive to save $176 on round trip tickets for my family of 4.

It wasn't that long ago airlines charged extra to ticket at the airport, sometimes even at the kiosk, and directed us to e-tickets and other online options. Just keep moving the goal posts to make sure to maximize revenue.

This is not true. There are about a dozen stations where Allegiant does not sell tickets. The law, roughly, says there must be a way to opt out of the fee but doesn't require it to be convenient or even at every airport.

I've tried to buy Allegiant tickets at some airports and have been turned away. The decision was reaffirmed by Allegiant corporate when I complained. They explained tickets are only sold at the airports listed on its website with ticket hours. You'll notice several cities served by G4 are missing...meaning they don't sell tickets.

This is not true. There are about a dozen stations where Allegiant does not sell tickets. The law, roughly, says there must be a way to opt out of the fee but doesn't require it to be convenient or even at every airport.I've tried to buy Allegiant tickets at some airports and have been turned away. The decision was reaffirmed by Allegiant corporate when I complained. They explained tickets are only sold at the airports listed on its website with ticket hours. You'll notice several cities served by G4 are missing...meaning they don't sell tickets.

A long time ago you wrote about a similar thing on Spirit where you could avoid a "passenger use fee" by buying tickets at the airport. -spirit-airlines-ticket-at-airport/ Is that still an option? If I remember correctly with this you weren't limited to certain times to not have to pay the fee, as long as you bought the ticket at the airport you didn't have to pay it.

Allegiant has something similar. I worked at the airport, I was there every (week)day. I wanted to buy the tickets at the counter and save the fee. Allegiant flew to this airport maybe 3 days a week. I went to the counter when it was staffed on one of these days, they told me that they wouldn't do ticket sales while they were busy with check in - wait until after the flight departs. After...

Allegiant has something similar. I worked at the airport, I was there every (week)day. I wanted to buy the tickets at the counter and save the fee. Allegiant flew to this airport maybe 3 days a week. I went to the counter when it was staffed on one of these days, they told me that they wouldn't do ticket sales while they were busy with check in - wait until after the flight departs. After check in closes, the staff goes to the gate for boarding duties...and they never come back to the counter afterward. So essentially there was no way to buy a ticket at this airport. If I had to wait until the next time an Allegiant flight was operating from the airport, there's a good chance the fare would have increased by then. So buying the ticket online and paying the fee was what I was left with as the most practical option.

(To an extent, this is a sorites paradox. I think everyone would agree the fee is largely avoidable if you could book tickets sans fee at almost any time any served airport is open, as is almost the case with Spirit. I think everyone would also agree that the fee was unavoidable if you could only book tickets sans fee in person at one airport for one minute each week and also they raised the base fares during that one minute window by the amount of the fee. The question is where does one draw the line between the two?) 041b061a72