Spirit airlines credit cards
From Travel Strategies
Bank of America Credit Cards, Airline Credit Cards
Bank of America Webpage
Send comments or suggestions to editor@travelstrategies.com or leave a comment below.
Annual Fee
$79, waived first year
Typical Signup Offer
40,000 Spirit Points plus a $100 companion flight voucher ($1,000 minimum spend)
($180 net value)
Bonus Categories
2x All Purchases
No Foreign Transaction Fee
If you frequently fly on Spirit Airlines, this is a "must have" credit card. It is the only way to get access to "off-peak" awards, which only require a fraction of the normal number of miles to book. In addition, it enables you to earn twice as many miles on most of your Spirit Airlines flights. Hardcore Spirit fans might even want to use this card as their general-purpose reward card, earning 2x miles on every purchase.
If you only occasionally fly on Spirit, the card isn't very interesting. To take advantage of its benefits, you'd have to pay an annual fee and make a considerable effort to keep your Spirit miles from expiring every three months.
Jump to
Jump to:
Introduction to Spirit Points
Spirit's frequent flyer program is called Free Spirit.
- The required number of miles depends on the number of miles you are flying and the "season". The season calendar is the same for the entire country, with peaks around each of the major travel periods.
- If you have the Spirit credit card, you can sometimes take advantage of much cheaper off-peak awards, which are available some of the time that other members would have to pay for a standard award.
- The following table shows round trip prices, based on the one-way distance you are travelling. One-way awards require half as many points.
- When you book tickets during the six months before departure, there is a $15 fee. Most other programs only charge fees during the final few weeks. Fees go up significantly within the last 21 days.
- It is hard to value Spirit miles. If you have the flexibility to take advantage of their off-peak awards, miles can be very valuable, especially for shorter flights. But if you tend to travel during "standard" seasons, you'll pay more miles for worse flights than you would on the legacy airlines.
- Miles expire if you go three months without any account activity. If you are not using this card on a routine basis, you'll need to make an active effort to keep your points alive.
| Distance | Off-peak | Standard | Peak | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 - 1,249 miles | 5,000 | 20,000 | 30,000 | 50,000 |
| 1,250 - 1,749 miles | 10,000 | 25,000 | 35,000 | 55,000 |
| 1,750 - 2,499 miles | 15,000 | 30,000 | 40,000 | 75,000 |
| over 2,500 miles | 25,000 | 40,000 | 50,000 | 90,000 |
Collecting the Signup Bonus
- This card is primarily interesting for its ongoing Spirit Airline frequent flyer benefits, not for its signup bonus. After subtracting the annual fee and the opportunity cost of using the card for $point of spending, the calculated net value for the initial year is $15000 (Expression error: Unrecognized word "point". cents per dollar spent). It isn't very much, but it is better than nothing..
- You may be able to earn the signup bonuses from both the personal and business version of the card. If you have any kind of side business, you are entitled to apply for business cards. If so, you can earn the signups from either or both versions. Unlock Extra Reward Points with Business Credit Cards.
- It is possible to earn the same signup bonus multiple times. Bank of America doesn't limit your ability to earn multiple signup bonuses. You can even have more than one copy of the same card at the same time. However, you will only be approved for four Bank of America cards every two years (with a maximum of three cards in any twelve month period, and two cards in any two month period), so choose your opportunities wisely.
Notable Benefits
- Access to significantly cheaper "off-peak" award tickets. These award prices are only available to people who have the Spirit credit card (and are flying during the off-peak time windows). Other frequent flyer members are limited to just the "standard" and "peak rates". In addition, you'll have no black-out dates for peak-season award tickets.
- 100% mileage earned on flights. Without the card, you would only earn 50%.
- Preferred boarding. You can board in "Zone 2". Although this isn't as valuable on Spirit as it is on other airlines because fewer people are carrying-on bags due to the high fees.
- Priority check-in, where available. This can be valuable, given the often ridiculous lines for Spirit check-in, but it isn't available at many of their locations.
- 5,000 bonus miles (with a $10,000 spending requirement). You probably don't want to use the card for that much spending. Spending is based on your anniversary year.
- Access to Mastercard luxury hotel program. When you book at one of the participating hotels, you'll get an number of valuable benefits, like free breakfast, a $100 hotel credit, a room upgrade, and late checkout.Take Advantage of Luxury Hotel Programs for Valuable Extra Perks
- Free ShopRunner membership. Like all World Elite Mastercards, your card entitles you to a complimentary ShopRunner membership, which provides free two-day and return shipping from around 150 of the largest online retailers. ShopRunner
- DoorDash and Hello Fresh discounts. Cardmembers who have a DoorDash membership get $5 off their first two orders each month when paid for by their Mastercard. If you don't have a free membership from Chase, you can get your first three months membership for free through Mastercard. You also get a 5% credit back on each HelloFresh purchase.
- Free museum entry. As with all Bank of America credit cards, you'll get free admission to hundreds of museums on the first weekend of every month. Admission is for the cardholder only. Guests are not included, nor are any special exhibitions and other ticketed shows. Museums on Us.
- BankAmeriDeals. Bank of America has a shopping discount program that works like Amex Offers. To get each discount, you'll need to "activate" it through their website. Once activated, discounts are automatically applied when you use your card for the corresponding purchase. Most deals are cash-back based (typically 10%). BankAmeriDeals.
Using the Card for your Everyday Spending
- If you frequently fly Spirit Airlines, you should consider using the Spirit credit card as your general-purpose reward card. It is the only Airline card that earns 2x miles on every purchase. If you are one of the few people who can get good value from Spirit miles, this is more value than you can get from any other card (except perhaps the Amex Blue Business Plus Card).
- However, most people won't want to use this card for their spending. Due to the low cost, high fees, and inconvenience of flying on Spirit, most people are unlikely to want to focus most of their points earning on Spirit Airlines miles. Not when there are options to earn more flexible credit card points or cashback. Get a Great General Purpose Reward Card and Use It for All of Your Spending.
- You are better off making your Spirit purchases with a card that earns a higher reward rate for airfare spending. 2x Spirit points is okay but not as good as what you'd earn from one of the better cards.Best Credit Cards for Travel Spending.
Getting Rid of the Card
- You can cancel without worrying about losing your Spirit miles. Once you earn them, they are treated like any other miles in your Spirit Airlines account.
- If you cancel your card, you may not be able to easily get it back. Bank of America limits your ability to get more than 4 cards every 24 months and 3 cards every 12 months. And you can't get one of their cards if you've gotten more than 3 personal credit cards from any bank in the last 12 months (7 cards for BOA banking customers). If you are signing up for bunch of new credit cards, you won't be able to get new Bank of America cards.
- If you decide to cancel, you may want to change to the Cash Rewards Card instead. The Cash Rewards Card earns a base rate of 3% on your choice of categories, including online shopping. With Platinum Honors status, the reward rate is boosted to 5.25%. Since bonus rewards are capped for each quarter, it can be helpful to have multiple copies of the card. But the only way to currently get multiple copies is to convert from other Bank of America cards.
- If you want to cancel your Spirit Airlines Card, it is best to do so before you are charged your annual fee. Bank of America may refund the fee if you cancel shortly afterwards, but they may not.
- You might be able to receive a retention offer to keep your card. It could be enough to make it worthwhile to keep the card.