JUST HOURS LEFT: Take Advantage Of Spirit Airlines Status For A Year, While Still Available

by Gary Leff

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Spirit Airlines is offering a unique status match oppportunity with top tier elite status for $99 (or lower status for $49) and they will even provide this status match for someone who just has hotel status from a credit card. That’s something many of you will want to jump on, because it makes Spirit Airlines – which has great fares, and lots of fees – an incredible deal because it can get rid of most of the fees and can even give you a free drink and snack on board.

That could even be Hilton Silver status from a credit card, it doesn’t matter. There’s a fee for the match, but if you’re going to travel on Spirit only once it could be worthwhile. But you’ll want to consider taking advantage of this right now:

  • In the past several similar offers have gotten more restrictive after they’ve launched, for instance restricting how many programs they will match against or reducing the status they’ll give you for some current elite status levels.

  • This has also been shared as a limited-time offer, but we don’t know when it’ll end.

So if you have a thought of using Spirit Airlines elite status in the next year, it could be a good idea to jump on the match quickly. (Since status lasts for a year, rather than through the calendar year, there’s a bit of a desire to wait until closer to needing to actually use the status, but you may not have that option.)

Spirit Airlines has a new elite status program to go along with being a more dependable airline that even has fast inflight wifi (for purchase) on most flights and the ‘Big Front Seat’ you can pay extra for.


Spirit Airlines Big Front Seat

Here are the basics of their benefits:

  • Silver status: normally takes 2,000 qualifying points; earns 8 redeemable points per dollar spent on fares and 16 points spent on ancillaries; adds points pooling, dedicated customer service, no award redemption fees; access to exit row seats, same-day standby, overweight bag fee waiver, and shortcut security and boarding.

  • Gold status: normally takes 5,000 qualify points; earns 10 redeemable points per dollar spent on fares and 20 points on ancillaries; adds free checked bags and carry-ons, free drink and snack on board, zone 1 boarding, one free change up to 24 hours prior to departure, pet fee waiver, and free group 2-5 seat selection at booking.

Generally if you have the lowest tier of status in an airline or hotel program, you can match to Spirit Silver (e.g. Marriott or IHG silver, United or Delta silver). If you have anything about the first status tier, you can match to Spirit Gold.

  • Airlines they will match against: Aerolineas Argentinas; Air Canada; Aeromexico; Alaska Airlines; American Airlines; Avianca; Caribbean Airlines; Copa; Delta; Frontier; Hawaiian; JetBlue; Southwest; United; WestJet

  • Hotels they will match against: Accor; Best Western; Choice; GHA; Hilton; Hyatt; IHG; Marriott; Omni; Radisson; Shangti-La; Sonesta; Taj; Leading Hotels of the World; World Hotels; Wyndham

Most people will be matching to Gold and that’s where the greatest value is. It should pay for itself on a single trip, and if you live in a reasonably-sized Spirit market this should deliver outstanding value. They won’t offer this if you have done a match in the previous two years, and taking advantage of it may mean being unable to do it again in the next two years if it’s offered.

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

  4. Friends don’t let friends fly Spirit
    Isn’t that like having elite status at Econlodge or Days Inn?

  5. Agree with everyone’s comments above.

    Yet Gary keeps pushing the hellish notion that Spirit is an airline worth considering. Absurd.

  7. Over the past few decades, I’ve flown most every domestic carrier, including Spirit, any number of times and fail to see that any of them are “head and shoulders” better than the others. Admittedly, I don’t fly the front of the cabin very often and therefore, my views are in regards to the “back of the bus”.

    I’ll grant you that on the margin, the legacy carriers provide slightly better service, if you value “free” cookies, snacks, and drinks, along with a more padded seat. But, when it comes to leaving and arriving at your destination on time and in one piece, there exists little difference between all the carriers. I tend to believe that those who complain about Spirit, either haven’t flown them or had a few bad experiences and extrapolated that out over the entire product. Bottom line, if you’re flying domestically and need to simply get from Point A to Point B, then Spirit will do it as well as the “better” airlines.

  8. I happen to love Spirit. The employees are so nice. I flew Frontier and disliked it very much. Spirit is my go to airline.

Comments are closed.