lowfareair

https://www.spirit.com/s/free-spirit

Spirit is relaunching their program in January, and does a big refresh on their elite statuses in addition to finally putting in a semi-decent mileage expiration policy (now 12 months instead of 3 months). Biggest highlights:

• 6 points per dollar spent for base members, most ancillary fees earn double points
• Points pooling allowed when the 'host' of the pool is an elite member
• Can earn elite status through a combo of spend on the credit card ($10 spend = 1 point) or on flights ($1 spend = 1 point). 2000 points for silver, 5000 for gold
• Gold elite status looks very nice for being a ULCC: Free carry on and checked bag, free exit row seat at booking, free drink and snack on each flight, free flight change for each flight, etc.

A bunch of coverage in the usual blogs today about it, especially over allowing points on ancillary items (I've wished for a while that every carrier would do that!), but one thing that I didn't see was that this may make AA reconsider awarding 0 EQM/Q/Ss on Basic Economy, or they may risk some elites moving over to Spirit who book mostly BE.

ISTFlyer

Thanks for sharing.
I'm not sure who would spend $2000 or $5000 a year on NK for Spirit Silver or Spirit Gold status.

lowfareair

I think that's why they also include the co-brand CC as an option for earning some (or all) of the points needed for status.

My guess is the target market are those who pay for their own tickets (or own the company they are flying for and essentially buying their own tickets). It removes the tough pill to swallow of paying for Main Cabin to get elite credits (AA) or to get the option of extra-legroom seats (UA/DL).

This isn't the program for me as I use miles for TATL/TPAC flights and my company pays for my biz travel, but I can certainly see a decent sized market for it.

willy702

That's a pretty lame attempt, even with the credit card how many people are really going to get to Gold? Frontier's program is so much better, this Gold is only slightly better than Frontier's basic Elite, except with Frontier you can spend a lot less than $5k to get it. I'm just hoping and praying Frontier doesn't look at this and realign with it because that would suck and end my days of being Elite. And seriously, how many people are spending this much on Spirit? For awhile I flew 20 round trips a year on Spirit but was buying tickets at the counter and paying $25-50 round trip. So I wouldn't even get close to status with them and doing the same with Frontier it gets me to Elite.

Really all of Spirit's issues could come down to the stupid 3 month expiration rules and the insane amounts of miles required for most redemptions. This overhaul basically addresses one, but does little for the other.

Spence1097

The Points Guy wrote up a piece. While the elite earning thresholds seem a bit ridiculous as already noted, the real deal for many I think will be the revamped $9 fare club which will be rebranded as a Super Saver club and provide much bigger discounts for purchasing seats, bags and other ancillary fees. Time will tell but this a good step in the right direction for Spirit. There old FF program was beyond a joke.
https://thepointsguy.com/guide/new-s...pirit-program/

Super Mario

I agree on the $5000. Seems like some good benefits, but is more of a dangling carrot.

$2000 may be possible. I wouldn't mind having those perks. I wonder if the seat selection would give a discount to the big front seat. That could be a game-changer.

ISTFlyer

It would be definitely more friendly if they had limits like

20 flights & $500 for Silver status or;
40 flights & $1500 for Gold status

or something similar to this;

Especially when they are offering $15-25 tickets one/way and if we consider that an average Spirit traveler would spend $80 on each flight, this means 25 one-way flights for Silver and 63 one-way flights for Gold in a calendar year.

rsteinmetz70112

The program seems pretty similar to Southwests Rapid Rewards, except for the lack of a segment option.
If someone had the credit card they could easily make status without flying.. At 6 points per $ (not counting taxes) it would only take $833.33 in fares to make Gold and only $333.33 to make silver, it would take a little less if you used their credit card.

ISTFlyer

Unfortunately, 6 points per $ are for redeemable miles and do not apply for status miles.
For status points, you would need to spend $2000 for Silver and $5000 for Gold.