Spirit Air Introduces Its Anti-Revenue Based Frequent Flyer Program

by Gary Leff

Delta recently announced that in 2015 they will award points based on the price of your ticket instead of time (distance flown) in their seats.

There are many things wrong with the changes, and the new program will actually place limits on how much expensive tickets can get rewarded.

Spirit Air, on the other hand, is offering more miles to customers who spend less.

Tickets purchased through April 15 will earn bonus miles — but the more your tickets cost the fewer miles you’ll earn.

  • Flights under $36 earn 1000 bonus miles
  • Flights which cost $36 – $65 earn 500 bonus miles
  • Flights which cost $66 – $99 earn 250 bonus miles

None of which would be enough to actually get me to fly Spirit.

And while Delta’s miles may not be the most lucrative, Spirit’s are far, far worse. They have no international airline partners to redeem with. Spirit’s miles expire after 90 days of inactivity. Spirit charges fees for award redemption within 180 days of travel, giving new meaning to a ‘close-in redemption fee’.

Spirit could give out a million miles and they’d probably still make money on fees . . .

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Well, I hope never to find myself on their metal, but it is nice to have them around . . . . .

  2. When spirit moved into philly, us airways matched their prices to Vegas and enabled me to get 2 LAS mileage runs in @10,800 miles (Flying US with AA Plat. and the 50% promotion bonus).

    That’s why I love spirit.

  3. Hoping Spirit doesn’t get axed from here – too many cancellations due to lack of crew

  4. I live near Ft. Lauderdale, Spirit’s home base, so I actually use them occasionally. They have nonstop flights to many interesting places, and their prices can’t be beat. But you need to be awfully clever to avoid all of their fees. And I got a Spirit Mastercard to keep my miles from expiring. I make sure to use it at least once a month.

  5. My first flight with Spirit recently was really good. I found the booking process easy, with clear notes about all possible extra charges (I booked on their site). While I did find the legroom lacking, the flight attendants seemed very professional.

    The pilot was great, too. We had a delay getting to the gate upon landing, due to a lot of snow, and the pilot updated us every 5 minutes.

    I guess I was not expecting professionalism, so I was extra impressed.

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