I recently flew the first half of a round trip on Spirit Airlines, which gave me a chance to give a few aspects of the Spirit Airlines Free Spirit and Saver$ Club experience a spin, including the discount for booking at the airport vs the Savers Club and both of those as compared against using Spirit Free Spirit points to book. I don’t often think of Spirit or its programs, but this experience left me thinking that I really ought to consider using Spirit more often….while simultaneously teaching me now to get not just low value, but negative value from their points.
My experience not using my Savers Club discount
At the time of writing, the Spirit “Saver$” club costs $69.95 per year and provides discounts on airfare, “bags, seats, and other options such as shortcut security, and shortcut boarding”. Based on my handful of searches, it looks like the per-passenger discount can be as little as $8, though sometimes it can be $20-$30 per passenger. The nice thing is that only one family member needs to join the Saver$ Club. So long as a Savers Club member is the primary passenger on the itinerary, other passengers on the same itinerary also get the discount.
At the holidays, the kids got sick and we had to change plans last-minute. Spirit ended up being our best option to get to see family when booking at the last minute and buying the $69.95 Savers Club membership saved me a little bit on that specific trip (it wasn’t much better than break-even, but it wasn’t worse). At the time, i figured that if I used the discount one more time over the course of the year, I’d be ahead of the game.
I thought the time had come for me to get ahead when I ended up making sort of last-minute plans to visit family in Myrtle Beach this week and it turned out that buying a round trip Spirit flight from Hartford, CT to Myrle Beach was a better option than award tickets with other airlines out of my primary airport. We don’t live close to Hartford, but the price was right and the flights were nonstop (and there is a tiny Escape lounge in the Hartford airport that made for a free lunch).
However, speaking of the price, you might be surprised to hear that I didn’t make use of the Savers Club discount on this trip.
That’s because I have family in Myrtle Beach and I remembered that several low-cost airlines, including Spirit, charge less for tickets purchased at the airport than those purchased online (One Mile at a Time has more detail about why this is the case). Specifically, there is a “passenger usage fee” of about $23 each way that they charge when booking online, but not when booking at the airport. Since it wasn’t terribly inconvenient for a family member in Myrtle Beach to take a ride to the airport, I sent them to try buying tickets at the airport ticket counter.
At the time when I made that call, I was assuming that my Savers Club discount would stack with the $23 off in each direction for booking at the airport. It was only as my family member was on the way to the airport that I discovered that the only way to get the Savers Club discount is to book online.
In my case, it was a situation like this (these numbers aren’t exact, but were approximately the deal):
- Full price for the flights I wanted was about $60 each way
- Savers Club fares were about $49 each way
- Buying at the airport cost about $37 each way ($23 off of the $60 price tag without the Savers Club)
As you can see, buying at the airport saved me about $12 per passenger each way. For a family of four, that meant that we saved about $92 round trip over what we would have paid with the Savers Club membership. If I didn’t happen to already have the Savers Club membership, then we would have saved $184 round trip by purchasing at the airport over the “full price” cost online.
Obviously the value of booking at the airport varies with how much you’re saving from the Savers Club. If the Savers Club discount were larger, the purchase-at-the-airport-and-avoid-the-passenger-usage-fee trick likely still would have saved us a few bucks, but potentially only about $5 over the Saver$ Club fare. I might not sign up for the hassle of driving to the airport and parking at the airport to save $5 per passenger, but YMMV.
However, keep in mind that sometimes the Savers Club discount will be larger than the discount for booking at the airport. For instance, I looked up New York to St Martin and found that on a randomly-selected day, the Savers Club fare would save $29 over the “standard” price.
In that case, booking the Savers Club fare online for $107 would be cheaper than buying the standard price at the airport (which I’d expect would be $113). In that case, the Savers Club would save $6 per passenger over airport booking (on top of saving you the trip to the airport).
As for the savings on baggage and seat selection, don’t get too excited. You’ll save a whopping $1 on both bags (checked or carry-on) or $1 on seat selection as a Savers Club member. Buying a bundle that included some combination of baggage and seat selection would cost $3 less per passenger as a Savers Club member. Over a family of four, that adds up to something on a round trip, but not a lot.
In my opinion, the moral of the story is that whether or not the Savers Club is a good deal probably depends on how close you live to the airport and what type of tickets you’re likely to book. If it’s really easy for you to go the airport to buy tickets, then you’ll probably come out ahead buying your tickets at the airport as opposed to joining the Savers Club. That’s also more likely to be true if you’re more likely to book very cheap fares where the Savers Club discount is likely to be less than $23. On the other hand, if it isn’t convenient to get to the airport ticket counter, or if you’re mostly flying Spirit on more expensive routes, then you can probably come close enough to replicating or even exceeding the buy-at-the-airport discount with a Savers Club membership. The nice thing is that the cost to buy a Savers Club membership isn’t outrageous, so it could probably pay for itself in one use.
A note regarding the hassle involved with buying tickets at the airport: I landed in Myrtle Beach at 4pm and got to the ticket counter at about 4:30pm looking to buy a ticket for a separate trip. I was surprised to find this sign indicating that they only sell tickets between 8am and 4pm from Monday through Friday. My wife inquired as to whether 4pm was a firm deadline. I wasn’t surprised when they confirmed that it was.
My experience trying to use Free Spirit points
Interestingly, the answer to the question “How much are Spirit points worth?” can vary from “literally nothing” to “almost nothing” to “quite a bit” depending on three things:
- Whether you book more than 28 days in advance or less than 28 days in advance
- Whether or not you have the Free Spirit Mastercard or Spirit Elite status
- Whether you have a Saver$ Club membership
As you’ll see in a second, the first two bullet points matters far more than the third, but depending on your answers you may be surprised about the value of Spirit points — whether that’s an amusement sort of surprise at how laughably ridiculous Spirit points are or a genuinely impressed sort of surprised at just how well you can do with them is a matter of perspective.
I needed to book another Spirit flight for a different upcoming trip and I figured that this might be a perfect opportunity to use the Free Spirit points that I’ve picked up over my couple of Spirit trips within the past year. It initially looked like I would get excellent value for points. The flight I wanted to book would cost either $47 with my Savers Club membership or $66 without.
Using Free Spirit points, the same flight would cost 3,500 points with a Savers Club membership or 5,000 points without.
That initially looked great. As compared to cash rates, those rates looked akin to getting ~1.3c per point. That looked awesome at first glance.
Then, I clicked through to book one of those flights — and I had a good laugh when a fare that would cost me $47 to book outright as a Savers Club member would alternatively cost 3,500 points and $55.60 to book as an award.
In other words, using points would cost me ~$8 more than not using points. In this scenario, points would actually be worth around -0.2c per point. Yes, that’s right — I’d be getting negative two tenths of a cent per point using Spirit points.
If I weren’t a Savers Club member, I’d be looking at spending 5,000 points plus $55.60 instead of paying $66, so the five thousand points would be saving me about $11 for a value of about 0.2c per point — that’s positive, but not very positive.
However, the $50 redemption fee is not unavoidable. In this case, I was looking at a flight that will occur within the next month. That $50 redemption fee only applies to “close-in” bookings:
- Departures within 0-28 days: $50 booking fee to use Free Spirit points
- Departures 28 days or more in advance: $0 booking fee to use Free Spirit points
My problem here was not planning far enough in advance. If I booked the same route on a day with the same cash prices more than 28 days in advance, the award prices were actually a little bit less:
In that case, booking the Savers Club fare would just cost the 3,000 points and $5.60.
In that case, the Savers Club cash fare was listed at $47 or the award would cost 3,000 points and $5.60. In that scenario, the value of Spirit points is considerably higher:
- $47 – $5.60 = $41.40 / 3,000 points = 1.38c per point
That is far more value per point! In fact, between our tickets and the cost of our bags and seat selection for the one-way flight to Myrtle Beach, earned a total of about 4,900 points, which would be a solid rebate if I were able to use it at a value of 1.38c per point.
As you can see, the value of Spirit points depends highly on whether or not you pay the $50 redemption fee. There are a couple of other ways to avoid that $50 redemption fee:
- Free Spirit Mastercard holders pay no award redemption fees
- Free Spirit Silver and Gold members pay no award redemption fees
In other words, if I were a cardholder or an elite member, I’d avoid the $50 redemption fee and get solidly decent value for points even for my close-in booking:
- $47 – $5.60 = $41.40 / 3500 = 1.18c per point
That’s a little less value per point for the close-in booking since Spirit wants an additional 500 points for that one, but that’s still far better than the negative two tenths of a cent per point that I’d get as a non-cardholder or elite member booking within 28 days of departure.
Spirit no longer charges change or cancellation fees. I don’t know whether the old United Airlines trick of booking a flight that’s more than 28 days in advance and then changing to a flight within 30 days of departure would work here, though I suspect that Spirit might force a cancellation and rebooking that wouldn’t help you avoid the fee (but I don’t know).
Value for points varied a bit on other flights I checked, but ran around the 1.3-1.5cpp on many routes. For example, that itinerary to St Martin would yield 1.3-1.45cpp depending on whether you’re a Savers Club member or not.
The key issue is that you’ll either need to plan more than 28 days in advance or have the credit card or elite status, otherwise the $50 redemption fee really kills the value of the points.
It’s worth noting that cardholders and elite members can also create a points pool, so that’s another benefit of having one or another. Between our round trip at the holidays and the first half of our current trip, my family of four has earned almost 17,000 Free Spirit points in total. If and when I want to use those points, I would probably want to consider either getting the credit card or seeing if there is a match to elite status available in order to use all of the points on a single booking. I did recently take note of an increased offer on the credit card, but I won’t be hopping on it unless and until I have a future use for the points. Still, if you eliminate the booking fees, the welcome offer on the card could yield nearly as much as you’ll spend to earn the offer.
Bottom line
I enjoyed a mini dive into the Spirit Savers Club and Free Spirit points (and it makes me curious about a deeper dive in the future!). We don’t often have call to cover Spirit’s programs. For me, that’s simply because Spirit doesn’t serve my home airport, so it is rarely convenient for me to fly Spirit (I have to drive nearly 3 hours each way to the closest airports served by Spirit, so that’s not often my preference when traveling domestically). However, each time I’ve flown Spirit over the past couple of years, I’ve been happy enough with the in-flight experience. If I lived closer to an airport served by Spirit, I think I’d probably consider maintaining a Savers Club membership (rather than driving to the airport each time I wanted to buy a ticket) and I’d probably find Spirit points more valuable. As things stand, Spirit is more likely to come into my plans as a last-minute option when fares and awards on other airlines are expensive. Through that lens, Spirit points aren’t terribly valuable for me since I’d get hit with the $50 close-in booking fee. However, knowing that much will at least have me thinking farther in advance the next time that Spirit points might be useful — and maybe one of these days I’ll consider opening the Spirit Mastercard to pool my family’s points and avoid the close-in fee.
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Truly the opposite of sex sells.
What is the rationale for having a “buy at the airport” discount? Makes no sense.
I linked to a post at One Mile at a Time that explains it. My basic understanding is that there is a 7.5% federal excise tax on airfare, but not on optional fees (presumably like baggage / seat selection). By making the “passenger usage fee” optional, they avoid paying a tax on the money they collect from that fee. The way they make it “optional” is by not charging it if you buy your ticket at the airport. Obviously the vast majority of people are going to buy online, but they can argue that it’s an “optional” fee for the “convenience” of booking online and therefore avoid paying tax on it. So it essentially allows them to charge $23 more for airfare without paying tax on that $23 as though it is airfare.
Frontier acts exactly the same way with their Discount Den. It’s always a toss up whether I should go to the airport to “save” $19-$32 in usage fees that’s actually only a $8-$12 discount on top of the Discount Den fare, which of course is only available online. Generally, the usage fees are a bit higher than the Discount Den discount, so the more passengers on the itinerary, the more I want to go to the airport. But for solo rides, even though I can take a roundtrip train to the airport for $3 in 30 minutes, I’d rather sit at home.
Your time is too valuable to go to the airport just to buy tickets on Spirit. Just use the Savers Club and save your time, gas, parking, etc.
Eh. Like it says in the post, that varies. I have a retired family member who gets free parking at the airport and most days is happy to take a 10 or 15 minute ride just to have a reason to get out of the house. Maybe it doesn’t make sense for *you*, but I wouldn’t assume that what’s worth it to you is a universal truth necessarily.
With the no fee Spirit Mastercard you still pay a close in booking fee.
Great summary! One of the most in depth I’ve seen on Spirit. I’ve long been a Spirit fan (not just because I spent a decade working there… though when I started, I flew other airlines because Spirit paid great but sucked to fly… now out of the airlines, it’s great value and a much better product than American). I have the credit card and Gold status. Tomorrow I’m flying CLT-MCO for $95 one way in a Big Front Seat. American’s Basic Economy was $130 when I booked and that only came with a seat assignment because of my AS MVP75k status.
I’ve gotten great value out of the Savers Club. The discounts also extend to Big Front Seats (and other seat assignments, but I don’t pay for other seat assignments as a Gold). There is a “counter” on the website to show your annual savings and I’m at $350 for the past year. I just bought a CLT-FLL for a Saturday in mid-December and (besides being 40% the price of AA) Savers Club reduced the base fare by $29 and the Big Front Seat by $16.
Yes, all airport locations do have set hours for selling tickets. Whether they completely follow them or not can vary. I used to be general manager of a Spirit station with 45 flights per day. We had posted hours basically 9am to 3pm for ticket sales and usually dedicated a line and one agent to it…. before 9am we had 17 departures including 3 international with 9 planes on the ground at one time so even having 20 kiosks and 12 counter positions didn’t seem enough. We did commonly use our baggage service office for ticket sales (and repeat customers would get the local number and I found out often called my baggage agents – they were a dedicated group that got a pay premium for hazard pay – to make an appointment to come in, which I was perfectly okay with). I know some stations will say it’s a hard NO outside of the hours, even if they have nothing else going on (I got that at MSY earlier this year) but we always tried to accommodate or even just say, hey, if you can come back in 45 minutes, or would have people sit aside and “shop” on their phone showing them how to find what the passenger usage fee would be and calculate the counter price. I used to have the director of operations for the airport authority and the fire marshal come to my office to book tickets to fly for $20 every other weekend to their condos in MYR! At my home airport CLT, they have a really late departure (like 11pm) to Florida. I commonly stop by when coming off another airline at 930/10pm and have never been turned away. They are contract agents (as are all agents but FLL) but many have been there since the station opened 5 years ago. Spirit sets their pay scale by contract and they make more than any other contract handlers at the airport.
I haven’t used Spirit miles very much.. but back in April during a busier time I did get two great redemptions CLT-LAX to position for a round-the-world trip. The cash price was north of $200. Ended up using miles and paying about $170 each for a Big Front Seat (worth it for 4 hours to LAS plus 1.5 hours to LAX).
Spirit I think also does the best job with frequent flyer elite recognition. Yes, I said Spirit. As a Gold, there is a dedicated phone number. It doesn’t go to a phone tree. Someone answers it. I got a live person on the phone in 22 seconds last week and had changed date on a ticket and bought an upgraded seat within 6 minutes. Spirit prints the Gold/Silver members on the paperwork for the flight attendants. Almost always I have a F/A come to me at the start of the service, thank me for being a Gold, and ask what free drink and snack I’d like. On American, having Oneworld Emerald status doesn’t ever get recognition – maybe they don’t actively try to stick you in the eye. On United, as a 1K, they’re pretty good. But I don’t get someone on the phone as quick on the 1K hotline.
Yeah, when things go into IROP, sometimes it can be a mess with Spirit. But I’ll tell you it is a LOT better than it used to be. Most of the time, I’m happy with newish, very clean planes, friendly crews, and knowing I’m getting a heck of a better deal and service than I would over at AA.
@ NedsKid — Can you please tell me where to locate the Gold phone number? I have been Gold for several months, and I have been unable to find it anywhere.
@Gene – It’s on your monthly statement that comes in email… if you scroll down it’s in a yellow box under “Have A Question?”
They don’t really want you to buy your tickets at the airport. They want to charge you a junk fee for buying them online, but airlines (unlike hotels and car rental companies) can’t just impose junk fees at will. They are required to advertise all-in prices that can really be purchased, so they have to give you a way to avoid the junk fees, and they make it as inconvenient as possible, of course. I give as little business as possible to junk fee operators.
Of all the carriers who do this online booking fee (or technology fee as some call it), Spirit makes it the easiest to avoid. Frontier doesn’t have specific ticketing hours… just “the counter is open from 2 hours to 1 hour before each departure.” And good luck even at Denver getting them to sell you a ticket without a long wait. Allegiant has specified hours but only 1-2 hours a week at odd times on certain days (like 8am-9am on a Tuesday and 7pm-8pm on a Friday). And at that they usually have plenty of people coming to book so they’ll limit you to one ticket at a time, or say you only get one transaction per day. Breeze sells tickets at the airport: for 1 hour every Tuesday. And they don’t really sell there… someone comes to the counter and posts a QR code that you scan and it brings up a google form to fill out, someone books it, then calls the airport to slide your credit card.
Spirit typically has hours every day, and outside of that time many times will still assist. Atlantic City airport actually stopped allowing the first 30 minutes of parking for free because of Spirit ticket sales…. so many people go to the airport there that they have a separate ticketing desk, and the airport wanted to profit off people running in to buy.
If you’re booking from your laptop, it is most certain you are paying that fees regardless of airlines. Most people price shop total fare online and dont know about the convenience fee.
We must be talking about different things. If I buy a ticket from American, for example, I see a fare of $671 on the initial search. I have the option to purchase add-ons, but if I don’t, the fare I see at the moment of purchase that is charged to my credit card is $670.95. There is no “convenience fee” inconveniently added on later.
Total fare is the appropriate way to compare. An average Spirit round trip is $120 total. To me, it doesn’t matter what fees are added as long as the total cost are compared. I usually only have a personal item so I pay pretty close to bare fare. The convinece fee is just peanuts.
I was able to status match to Spirit Gold from an AA promotion late 2022. Between the bag and seat selection fees being waived, a snack and drink for free in flight, and the waiver of point redemption fees, having Gold status turns the Spirit experience into a mainline carrier experience. For me living in Chicago where Spirit’s fares are half of American’s or United’s to regularly visit family in South Florida, the Spirit Savers Club coupled with Gold has more than paid for itself. The planes are new and the crews are nice (or nicer when compared to AA in my most recent experiences). So, people should not discount (pun intended) Spirit if they live in a market where they can regularly fly the carrier and status match to make the experience on par with non-discount airlines.
Completely agree on status matching being worth it! I’ll add on that pet fees are waived for Gold Spirit members as well, which makes it all the more valuable if you are travelling with pets since those are at least $100 each way on every carrier out there. Just a one-way trip with a pet made up the cost of the status match for me and they even status matched Hilton Diamond status from my Aspire so it takes 0 effort to actually get it.
Thanks for the tip on the Hilton Status Match. When my status runs out, I’m definitely going to try to match from Hilton (or Hyatt as a Globalist)!
Great summary on spirit’s program. I’ve flown spirit frequently and get tremendous value by maintaining the saver club and credit card. It’s not worth it for me to take an Uber to the airport to book the tickets, unfortunately.
I’ve been searching for flights into the future I want to book, and it looks like their prices are higher on award tickets if you book them more than ~100 days in advance. Not sure what the exact number is, but this has been my experience thus far.
I believe the sign up bonus with only $1k in spend is quite incredible value if you can make use of the points for good redemptions.
Keep in mind that the passenger usage fee or carrier interface charge is not always $23. For example: a SJU-FLL flight might have a $10 fee while a SJU-MIA would have the $23 fee. So that needs to also be factored in when deciding if that trip to the airport is worth it.
Also sometimes the airport price isn’t exactly a direct correlation to online minus that fee. They have on occasion had web-only fares. Also sometimes there may be a fuel surcharge added at the airport (though I haven’t seen that recently).
@NedsKid Thanks for providing all the insight. Super helpful!