Bilt Adds Spirit Airlines As A Transfer Partner
I really wanted to like this new addition. I mean, I am a Spirit Airlines apologist after all. You won't find many people that appreciate what they offer more. I also really like the Bilt ecosystem. That should make this a match made in heaven, no? No! Unfortunately, it looks like the pieces just don't fit. I say that even after digging around and trying to find a silver lining. Even if it was in an effort to try to help prop up an airline that gets a ton more hate than it should. I will still fly Spirit (semi often too), but it likely won't be with my Bilt Rewards points.
There Are Some Positives Here
There are some positives with the announcement that Spirit Airlines is the newest Bilt transfer partner. First off, no one else has been able to crack this nut. Outside of earning miles from paid flights, or from the Spirit Airlines credit card, there is no real way to rack up their miles. By Bilt adding them into the fold we have an opportunity that we didn't have before. That is always a good thing.
As far as I can tell, booking with Spirit Airlines miles gives you more flexibility on your flights. While you can cancel Spirit First and Premium Economy bookings without a fee, there is a $99 fee on Value bookings. It appears that the fee is waived on Value flights booked with miles, at least if you cancel an hour or more before the flight. It sounds like some people don't get their taxes and fees back, but I don't have any personal experience. In typical Spirit Airlines fashion, they are pretty cagey on all of this info. I had to locate it across multiple pages, and even then they didn't fully spell out award flight cancellations.
There Are Negatives With The Spirit Airlines Program Overall
While there are a few positives with this new partnership, there are some issues with the Spirit Airlines program overall we should note. Even though booking with miles gives you more flexibility, their expiration policy is not great compared to other carriers. You will lose any miles you have after just 12 months of inactivity, unless you are a Spirit Airlines credit card holder. If Bilt transfers reset that ticking clock then it may be less of an issue. Stranded miles from a cancellation will need to be used fairly quickly if not though. That is unless you are a frequent Spirit Airlines flyer and are earning miles often within the program.
The biggest elephant in the room on the negativity front is Spirit's financial troubles. After a few bankruptcies do we even feel safe having miles sitting in our Spirit frequent flyer accounts? We just saw what happened to people's Mesa points after all. That is a big negative of this new partnership, especially if you need to cancel a flight and have stranded miles.
Spirit's award flights also do not come with baggage or seat assignments, at least not in the value category. While there used to be a lot of value in paying up to the Big Front Seat (Spirit first class), that is no longer the case. To get those items baked into your award flight you will need to book into the higher class of service. These costs seem to have ballooned to 3x – 6x more than the value price in my searches. The deal you used to be able to get on the top end just is not there any longer.
What Are Spirit Airlines Miles Worth?
I decided to do some searches just to see what these Spirit Airlines miles would be worth if I decided to transfer my Bilt points over. I know that award flights on Spirit can be dirt cheap at times, like a few thousand miles cheap, but so can their cash fares. What does that look like in actual cents per point then?
I put together this spreadsheet of some searches I performed. The top half is one way domestic flights, the blue flights are international one ways and the final two are round trip domestic flights. In the cents per point column I did subtract out the taxes and fees to calculate that number.
At First Glance It Doesn't Look Bad
When you look at just the cents per point row it doesn't look terrible. There are 1.4 cents per point in there quite a bit, and a mistake pricing or something that jumps up to almost 2.4 cents per point in one instance. That doesn't tell the full story though. Because when you buy Spirit Airlines tickets at the airport you save $20 per person, per flight.
If we toss that in there as well (last column) it paints a very different picture. Especially when you consider the super cheap flights / award flights. That is because the online booking fee makes up so much of the cost. Look at flight #9 as an example. The award rate isn't bad for the front facing cost of $72 for that round trip flight. But, when you take the $40 in fees for booking online that same 5,000 points for the flight looks a lot less enticing.
There Are Other Considerations
That isn't to say that the convenience of booking online shouldn't be considered. With some prior planning, a lot of the aggravation and time suck of buying at the airport can be avoided though. The reality of it is, that outside of some really good deals here and there, Spirit will not be a viable transfer partner for your Bilt Rewards. At least not in terms of the value that other partners provide on a regular basis.
Bilt Adds Spirit Airlines As A Transfer Partner: ToP Thoughts
I really wanted to find some niche use for Spirit Airlines to share with you all. I don't doubt that it is out there, or that specific routes on specific days will offer value, but it appears that may be more rare than I would have hoped. Throw in the issues with seat fees, bag fees, the limited shelf life of Spirit miles and the overall health of the airline, and I don't see myself transferring here often. I will instead head down to the airport to buy my ticket, like I always have, and will save my Bilt Rewards for other partners.
