text: I flew Spirit from Fort Lauderdale to Las Vegas and primarily chose them because of their fare. First off let me say I am not someone who is unfamiliar with the airline industry. I spent 20 years working in the travel industry and nearly half of that working for one of the largest airlines in the world. \n\nI cannot speak for their other station operations but I will tell you that their Fort Lauderdale operation is one of the most backwards (insert expletive here) operations I have ever seen. You walk in and they have a huge blue sign for self check in which states \"carry on bags only\". Another line with a large red sign stated \"full service check in\". After spending a half an hour in that line we were told we needed to be in the self service line because this line was for \"international only\". I explained that I could plainly see the signs above the agents said international but all of the others said \"self check in\". Didn't matter, we were rerouted to stand in the self check in line, in spite of the fact that we had checked bags. Because apparently I was supposed to psychically know that even though the sign said \"carry on only\" they would also check our bags. After making our way through what could loosely be referred to as a mob my husband and I finally checked in and paid our $166.00 for baggage (insert several other expletives here) only to to be sent to another line to hand off our bags. Well the other line turned out to be another check in line. I am not unaccustomed to lines, even confusing ones that evolve due to large groups of people but these were not lines. They were swirling confused masses of people with little or no direction.\n\nI didn't find my plane in particular to be unclean or the flight staff to be rude but after looking over the charges for everything (water, soda...) I began to wonder if the sick bag I had taken and used for my used kleenex (sue me I have a cold) wouldn't end up being an extra charge as well.