Spirit Airlines Free Spirit Loyalty Program Review [In-Depth]

Q: Where can I sign up for Free Spirit?

Sign up for the Free Spirit program by visiting the Free Spirit page and clicking Start Earning Today.

Q: When do Free Spirit points expire?

Free Spirit points expire after 12 months of account inactivity. Simply making a qualifying purchase with your Free Spirit credit card, flying on a Spirit Airlines flight, or earning points with a Spirit Airlines partner will prevent mileage expiration.

Q: When does Free Spirit status expire?

Elite status with Spirit expires every 6 months so you’ll want to make sure you meet the qualifications within that time period to retain your status.

Michael McHugh

- Updated: May 19, 2023|

18Comments

Travel /
Airlines

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Spirit Airlines Free Spirit Summary Table

Home Country U.S.
Airline Website Spirit.com
Loyalty Program Free Spirit and the Spirit Saver$ Club (formerly known as the $9 Fare Club)
Major Hubs Atlantic City (ACY), Chicago (ORD), Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), Detroit (DTW), Fort Lauderdale (FLL), Las Vegas (LAS), Orlando (MCO)
Earn Points/Miles
- Best Ways to Earn Lots of Free Spirit Points
Redeem Points/Miles
- Best Ways to Redeem Spirit Free Spirit Points for Max Value
Airline Review
Airline Fees
- Spirit Airlines Baggage Fees & How to Avoid Paying Them
Award Chart Link Redemptions start at 2,500 points and are dynamically priced. When searching for your flight on spirit.com, select Points as your payment type to see the total points required.

Branded and Partnered Credit Cards

Spirit Airlines offers 2 credit card for the U.S. market and does not partner with any of the flexible point programs (American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, or Marriott Bonvoy).

However, the revenue and award flight costs for Spirit flights are typically low, so it shouldn’t take much cash or points to get you to your destination.

Spirit Airlines Credit Cards

Spirit Airlines partners with Bank of America, which is the issuer of its co-branded credit cards. You will earn Spirit Airlines points directly with the Free Spirit® Travel More World Elite Mastercard® and Free Spirit® Travel Mastercard®.

Spirit Airlines Overview

Spirit Airlines falls squarely into the budget airline category, joining the ranks of airlines like Frontier and Allegiant. What makes Spirit unique is just how many Latin American and Caribbean destinations the airline serves.

The Spirit Airlines loyalty program, Free Spirit, is free to join, and the points that you earn can be redeemed for an award flight or with select partner products and services.

Elite status is earned by:

Earning a certain number of Free Spirit points over a designated time period
Spending a certain amount of money on base fares over a designated time period

The best way to earn Free Spirit points is to fly on Spirit, spending on its Bank of America co-branded credit cards, or participate with its partner programs.

When Spirit Airline points are earned, those points can then be used to book an award flight on Spirit’s website.

Joining Free Spirit

The loyalty program is free to join by filling out this application.

After you join the Free Spirit program, you’ll have the ability to earn and redeem points for an award flight, in addition to working your way toward elite status.

How To Sign in to Your Free Spirit Account

Head to the Spirit Airlines login page where you’ll enter your email address or Free Spirit number and password to access your account. You’ll also need to be logged in to search for and book an award flight.

Free Spirit Log In — Spirit Airlines login page. Image Credit: Spirit Airlines

Viewing Your Account Activity

Free Spirit mileage activity can be accessed by logging into your account, clicking your name at the top of the page, and clicking My Account, then Activity.

On the statements page, you’ll see a detailed ledger of your posted transactions.

This process to review your activity is simple and only requires a few clicks after logging into your account.

Points Expiration

Free Spirit points expire every 12 months, but there are ways to extend the mileage expiration timeline.

As long as you earn any amount of points within the previous 12 months, your points won’t expire. If you don’t earn points in that time frame, any points older than 12 months will expire.

In addition to flying, another way to keep points from expiring is to make at least 1 transaction per month on your Free Spirit World Elite card or Free Spirit card.

The last 2 ways to keep your points are using one of the Spirit Airline partners or buying points to restart the clock on your points balance.

Bottom Line: Spirit offers several ways to make sure that your points don’t expire in that 12-month window!

Spirit Airlines Mileage Program

Free Spirit Elite Status

Free Spirit Get Rewarded — The refreshed Free Spirit program launched in January 2021. Image Credit: Spirit Airlines

As a Free Spirit member, you have access to 2 elite tiers: Silver and Gold.

Separately, Spirit has a program called the Spirit Saver$ Club (formerly known as the $9 Fare Club). This club offers benefits like discounted fares, baggage fees, seats, Flight Flex, Shortcut Security, and Shortcut Boarding for a fee of $69.95 for 12 months, $99.90 for 18 months, or $129.90 for 24 months.

Member

The base membership tier offers the following benefits:

Earn points at a rate of 6x for fares and 12x for À La Smarte Options (like bags and seats)
Access to exclusive members-only offers and promotions

Silver

Spirit’s lowest tier status comes with these perks:

Earn points at a rate of 8x for fares and 16x for À La Smarte Options
Free Shortcut Security and Boarding
Same-day standby
Seat selection at check-in
Dedicated Guest Care line
Ability to create a Points Pool
Never paying redemption fees

Gold

The highest elite tier in the program has the following benefits:

Earn points at a rate of 10x for fares and 20x for À La Smarte Options
All Silver benefits
Free Flight Flex
First checked and carry-on bag
Seat selection at booking (including exit rows)
Free inflight beverage and snacks

If you’re interested in learning more, check out Spirit’s website for the full list of benefits.

Value of Free Spirit Elite Status

Spirit revamped its Free Spirit program in 2021, replacing the lack of benefits that you’d find with a non-budget airline with tangible perks like accelerated points earning, seat and baggage benefits, the ability to pool points with family and friends, and a longer expiration date for points. The airline also plans to introduce Free Spirit Points + Cash redemption options in March 2021.

Bottom Line: We once said there wasn’t much in value in holding Spirit elite status, but that isn’t the case anymore!

Earning Free Spirit Elite Status

Free Spirit Elite Level	Status Qualifying Points (SQPs) Requirement	Points per Dollar Earned for Fares	Points per Dollar Earned for À La Smarte Options
Free Spirit member		6x	12x
Free Spirit Silver	2,000 SQPs	8x	16x
Free Spirit Gold	5,000 SQPs	10x	20x

Free Spirit Elite status can be obtained through Free Spirit Status Qualifying Points (SQPs) earned by dollars spent with Spirit, as well as eligible purchases made with your Free Spirit World Elite card or Free Spirit card.

Spirit’s Silver status is earned with at least 2,000 SQPs or spending at least $2,000 on base fare tickets (not including taxes, fees, or optional services). Gold requires 5,000 SQPs or an incremental $3,000 spend from Silver ($5,000 total).

Another way to earn Elite status is by signing up for a Free Spirit credit card. Primary cardholders can attain Silver status when purchases on the card reach $20,000 and Gold status when purchases reach $50,000 in a calendar year.

Free Spirit World Elite cardholders also earn 1 SQP for each $10 in net purchases.

Your Silver or Gold status will be effective for the remainder of the year in which you earn it and the entire following year. For example, if you become Silver in October 2021, you will hold that status through December 31, 2022.

How To Earn Spirit Airline Points

Spirit doesn’t provide a ton of ways to earn Free Spirit points, but it’s still important to know your options.

Earning Points Through Flying

The main way to earn Free Spirit points is to hold elite status. Spirit Airlines has 2 tiers of elite status. Here’s a breakdown of what each tier level earns from flying:

Member — 6x points for fares and 12x for À La Smarte Options (like bags and seats)
Silver – 8x points for fares and 16x for À La Smarte Options
Gold – 10x points for fares and 20x for À La Smarte Options

Earn Points With Credit Cards

Spirit Airlines partners with Bank of America, which offers 2 co-branded airline credit cards.

In addition to flying Spirit Airlines, spending on the Free Spirit World Elite card or Free Spirit card is the best way to earn Free Spirit points.

Bottom Line: Combining revenue flights and credit card spending will ensure you are earning points that can be redeemed for an award flight.

Earning Bonus Points in Other Ways

The Free Spirit program has other ways for its member to earn points as well.

Spirit Airlines has car rental partners like Hertz and hotel partners like Choice Hotels that allow you to earn points when you spend with them.

You can also earn points through purchases at the Free Spirit online mall, via Free Spirit Dining, with Spirit Cruises, and partners like Vinesse Wine Club.

Hot Tip: If you add your airline loyalty program to other services, you won’t also earn status points with these brands (unless it’s a preferred car rental agency that has specifically partnered with the airline; this partnership acts as a sort of alliance between airline and rental agency).

How To Redeem Spirit Airlines Free Spirit Points

Redemptions start at 2,500 points and are dynamically priced. When searching for your flight on spirit.com, select Points as your payment type to see the total points required.

Spirit homepage points toggle — Image Credit: Spirit Airlines

Spirit also has a Points Deal Finder where you can search for one-way routes from 15,000 to 45,000 points in 10,000-point increments.

Free Spirit Points + Cash

Starting in March 2021, Free Spirit members will be able to combine as few as 1,000 points with cash.

Points Pooling

You can earn reward flights faster by Points Pooling with up to 8 friends and family members.

Points Pooling accounts are managed by “Pool Pilots” — a Free Spirit member with Silver or Gold status or a Free Spirit credit cardholder.

Booking Online

Spirit is not in an alliance, so the only flights you’ll see on its search engine will be Spirit Airlines. This is similar to what you’ll find with Southwest Airlines and JetBlue.

If you book an award flight more than 28 days prior to departure, there is no redemption fee. For those looking to travel with less than 28 days’ notice, the redemption fee is $50 per guest. Primary cardholders of the Free Spirit World Elite card do not pay redemption fees.

We recommend redeeming your points online instead of calling in to book, where you’ll be required to pay an additional $25 booking fee.

Hot Tip: Even though you’re likely to see cheap flights offered by Spirit Airlines, sometimes it can make sense to redeem Free Spirit points when the revenue cost of a Spirit Airlines flight is higher.

Featured Image Credit: Spirit

Frequently asked questions

What is the Spirit Airlines Free Spirit program? Is it worth it? What are the benefits?

The free frequent flyer program of Spirit Airlines is called Free Spirit and by signing up, you'll have the ability to earn points from flying and redeem points for an award flight.

After you earn enough Spirit Airlines points, those points can be used to book an award flight within the U.S., or to Mexico, the Caribbean, or South America.

In Free Spirit, who are the partners? Can I transfer points to them?

Spirit Airlines isn't part of an airline alliance, and also doesn't have any airline partners.

In short, you will be unable to use Free Spirit points on any flight other than ones flown by Spirit Airlines.

What is the Spirit Airlines Free Spirit login?

You can sign in to Free Spirit here.

Where can I sign up for Free Spirit?

What is my Free Spirit number?

You can find your Free Spirit number by signing in to your account, looking at your membership card, or through a variety of marketing emails that you are sent.

Alternatively, try contacting customer service to find your number.

When do points post in Free Spirit?

It can take up to several days after your flight for points to post, but it's possible it may take longer.

If you forget to provide your membership number at the time of booking, you may request mileage credit be added to your account for previous flights flown up to 30 calendar days after your reservation.

When do Free Spirit points expire?

Free Spirit points expire after 12 months of account inactivity. Simply making a qualifying purchase with your Free Spirit credit card, flying on a Spirit Airlines flight, or earning points with a Spirit Airlines partner will prevent mileage expiration.

When does Free Spirit status expire?

Elite status with Spirit expires every 6 months so you'll want to make sure you meet the qualifications within that time period to retain your status.

Is there a Spirit Airlines credit card?

Yes! Bank of America offers 2 co-branded Spirit Airlines cards: the Free Spirit World Elite card and the Free Spirit card.

What is the Spirit Saver$ Club?

Separate from the Free Spirit program, Spirit has a program called the Spirit Saver$ Club (formerly known as the $9 Fare Club). This club offers benefits like discounted fares, baggage fees, seats, Flight Flex, Shortcut Security, and Shortcut Boarding for a fee of $69.95 for 12 months, $99.90 for 18 months, or $129.90 for 24 months.

About Michael McHugh

Born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, Michael took his first international trip in 2013 with friends to the Bahamas. Although he didn't travel much in his younger years, on that trip, he caught the travel bug and has been hooked ever since. Michael first caught wind of the points and miles game in 2014 while at a bar in Washington, DC where the conversation amongst friends was quickly derailed because of an alert on a friend's phone about a mistake fare. That's where the love affair with points and miles began.

Disclaimer: Any comments listed below are not from the bank advertiser, nor have they been reviewed or approved by them. No responsibility will be taken by the bank advertiser for these comments.

18 comments

DEBBIE AFFLICK June 29, 2019
I will never travel with Spirit Airlines again. Of every airline that I’ve traveled with, this is the worst. I traveled from Fort Lauderdale on 6/28/19, and my flight was 4:20 with my final destination to be Boston. When I booked my flight I prepaid for 1 carry on and one checked bag. However, I was 13 lbs over with my checked bag and had to change my carry on for a checked bag. I was charged $17 to change that and another $60 for the bag being overweight. My flight was delayed from 4:20 to 5:50 then further delayed to 8:50. Making my connecting flight to Baltimore is not possible as I would miss that flight. My flight was then changed to myrtle beach, which had had me arrive in Boston at 1:05 am. On arrival, I waited 45 minutes at baggage claim only to be told my bags weren’t there. The agent wrote up my lost baggage claim and told me they will call me in the morning. Due to this, I didn’t get home until 2:30 am. I then received a call at 9 am and was told my bags were there and should be delivered by late morning to early afternoon. I waited but never received them so I decided to call and was given the number of the company that should be delivering them to me. When I called, they told me they received the baggage at 12:00 pm and that it would be delivered between 3 pm and 6 pm. I called back after 4pm and they changed the delivery time to sometime between 6 pm and 9 pm. So now I’m going back and forth with baggage claim and the transportation company. The staff is rude, ill-mannered, with poor customer service that hangs up the phone on you while you are talking to them.
Reply
Jeanne Mosher November 4, 2019
I have the spirit MasterCard. I have added my husbands name so he can use that card. Can he use the miles accumulated on that card?
Reply
- Jarrod West November 6, 2019
  Hi Jeanne,
  You can use the miles to book a ticket for whoever you would like!
  Thanks for reading!
  Reply
amber May 6, 2020
what is a platinum support package?
Reply
- Jarrod West May 11, 2020
  Hi Amber,
  I don’t see anything on the Spirit Airlines website that references a Platinum support package. Can you give me more information about what you’re referring to?
  Reply
Jay July 17, 2020
You can earn double if you fly with Bundle It combo.
Reply
Christina Rodriguez October 27, 2020
Can I add my 6 year old to my membership number to accumulate her points for flights as well.
Reply
- Jarrod West October 27, 2020
  Hi Christina,
  No, you would have to create a separate account for your child.
  Reply
Monica Darland December 5, 2020
I have searched every possible site for an answer to this SPIRIT frequent flyer program question.
There is not a phone number available anywhere.
I hope you can give me an answer.
Do I need to keep my Spirit credit card active in order to retain my frequent flyer points or can I cancel it without losing them?
I am trying to consolidate credit cards to simplify my life and cut back on credit card fees.
Thank you. Will you respond to my email? I don’t know if I’ll ever find this site again.
Reply
- Jarrod West December 5, 2020
  Hi Monica,
  You will not lose your points if you decide to cancel your Spirit credit card.
  Reply
Inmar January 8, 2021
Spirit could be affordable but in the end it will kill about 20 years of your beautiful life. Spirit does not care for their customers!
Reply
Tim Wilde April 18, 2022
Spirit in Jan extended the eligibility program until June 1st 2022 to reach Silver level. My account does not reflect what I had in 2021 added to what I earned in 2022. I should already be over the 2000 points required. I’ve emailed over 1000 times, sent a letter to the CEO, sent messages on FB, and called customer service. Yet no one is stepping up to fix this issue. Customer service for this is horrible. I can’t even get over that a CEO does not CARE about a customer! I’ve never had issues with flights, but their benefits program is a complete lie!
Reply
PO September 13, 2022
This link to the points deal finder links to a dev site. Please update it to the right one -https://www.spirit.com/en/points-deal-finder
Reply
- Christine Krzyszton September 14, 2022
  The Points Deal Finder link worked fine just now when I clicked on it.
  Reply
Rob Whitcomb November 21, 2022
When do the SQP points reset?
Reply
- Jarrod West November 22, 2022
  Hi Rob,
  At the end of the calendar year.
  Reply
Zack April 22, 2023
Do the gold status perks apply to anyone else on the reservation or is it just for the gold member?
Reply
- Jarrod West April 24, 2023
  Hi Zack,
  It only applies to the gold member.
  Reply