I bought a round-trip ticket for $115 through Cheapoair for travel from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa at 7:12 a.m. on Spirit Airlines.

I arrived in line for boarding pass at 6:20 a.m. and it took till 6:30 a.m. to get to check in at the kiosk, where I was informed it was too late to get a boarding pass for the flight.

I spoke with an agent who said sorry, but you are about two to five minutes too late and that the next plane leaves at 9 p.m. tonight and it will cost $156 to get on it.

I ended up driving. When I returned to my office, I wrote to Spirit and explained the timing problem and asked for refund or credit for another trip to Tampa.

Still no response. I called the refund number and was told by a representative that I should have been on time and should have applied for a refund that day, and that was all there was to it.

Yes, I was two to five minutes late getting to the kiosk. There were probably 2-300 people also in lines trying to get served by very few kiosks.

Surely, being that late was not justification to cut off checking in a passenger for a flight that takes place about 42 minutes later.

-- Robert A. Giacin, via e-mail

A.We contacted Spirit Airlines spokeswoman Misty Pinson, who said the airline will not refund your money.

``Spirit has been in communication with Mr. Giacin and has fully explained the reason he will not be receiving a refund,'' she said, via e-mail. ``Unfortunately, he was not checked in for his flight within the required 45 minutes before his flight so he is not due any compensation.

``We encourage passengers to take advantage of the online check-in option where they can check-in for their flight 24 hours prior to arriving to the airport.''

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