By Carly Coombs | Posted: July 25, 2025

If you are planning on flying a budget airline soon, there’s a possibility you can get your tickets for less by purchasing them in person at the airport.

The Idaho Falls Airport currently has one budget airline operating flights, Allegiant Air, which allows customers to avoid carrier fees by buying tickets at the airport.

The practice is common among budget airlines. (Breeze and Allegiant do the same at the Provo Airport, as well as Frontier and Spirit at the Salt Lake City Airport.) These airlines often apply “optional” fees to tickets when customers purchase online or over the phone.

Because these fees are considered optional (since you can avoid them at the airport), airlines don’t have to pay the 7.5% federal excise tax that is added to base fares in the U.S., saving the airline a bit of cash.

For Allegiant, the airline adds an electronic “carrier usage charge” of $22 per segment on all of its trips, which passengers can see listed in the taxes and fees breakdown when purchasing online.

But when buying your ticket at the airport, that $22 fee is waived, taking a little extra off your travel costs.

Let’s look at an example:

Here’s a round-trip, nonstop flight from Idaho Falls to Denver for $88, without add-ons such as seat selection or baggage.

As you can see, the carrier usage charge makes up $44 of the total ticket price ($22 per segment), so purchasing at the airport would get you this flight for about 50% off.

Here’s another example for a flight from Idaho Falls to Santa Ana, California:

Again, the carrier fee here adds up to $44, and buying at the airport would take it from $226 down to $182.

The savings also add up if you are buying multiple tickets for your family. In the same example above, waiving the carrier fee would lead to $220 in savings (5 x $44).

How to purchase at the airport

While this travel hack can save you money, it also takes some time and is less convenient. With Allegiant, you unfortunately can only book tickets in person at the airport on specific days and times set by the airline, which are subject to change.

Allegiant typically lists the hours its counter is open for ticket purchasing on its website for most other airports, like the Provo Airport. However, the airline doesn’t list its hours for IDA online. You can usually find these hours posted at Allegiant’s ticket counter within the airport, and the hours can often change.

If you decide to purchase at the airport, avoid paying for add-ons, such as baggage or seat selection, at the counter, as any upgrades will cost more at the airport than when purchased online. For example, purchasing a carry-on bag at the airport will be $75, but purchasing online will range from $15 to $70. Once your ticket is booked, you can go and add extras online.