Spirit airlines offering status match (useful for holiday travel!)

Spirit Airlines is offering a status match promotion that I imagine could be very handy for those with holiday travel plans given the benefits of top-tier Spirit status. Note that keeping status might be challenging given the spending requirement since those with Gold status won’t have so many incidentals to purchase.

The Deal

• Spirit Airlines is offering a status match challenge for those with elite status with other US-based airlines whereby you’ll get Spirit Silver or Spirit Gold status for 90 days. To maintain status until the end of 2025, you’ll need to earn as follows:
  • Spirit Silver status: 500 SQPs (Status Qualifying Points) within 90 days of your match
  • Spirit Gold status: 1,250 SQPs (Status Qualifying Points) within 90 days of your match
  • You must fly at least one flight on Spirit in the 90 days of your match to maintain status
• The following chart demonstrates what matches to Spirit Silver or Gold:
  
• Direct link to this deal

Key Terms

• You must earn 500 SQPs within 90 days of your match to maintain Silver status or 1,250 SQPs within 90 days of your match to maintain Gold status
• You can only do one status match challenge every two years
• If you meet requirements, your status will last until the end of 2025
• You must book one qualifying flight segment on Spirit between December 9, 2024 and February 28, 2025 and complete travel within 90 days of the Status Match approval

Quick Thoughts

Spirit Airlines previously ran a free status match challenge like this one in 2022, which we wrote about here. They offered a different status match promotion in 2023 where you had to pay a fee to match but then got status for 12 months and we wrote about that offer here. I actually think I preferred the paid match since they offered a match from not only airline but also hotel programs and the fee for Gold ($99) was very reasonable for 12 months of status.

With this status match challenge, you will initially get status for 90 days. In order to extend status until the end of 2025, you’ll need to first book a qualifying flight on Spirit between December 9th, 2024 and February 28, 2025 and travel within 90 days of the date your match is approved. You will also need to earn 500 SQPs (Status Qualifying Points) to maintain Silver status or 1,250 SQPs to maintain Gold status.

Spirit purchases earn 1 SQP per $1 spent, which means that you’ll need to spend $500 with Spirit within 90 days to maintain Silver status or $1,250 with Spirit within 90 days to maintain Gold status. You can alternatively earn SQPs with credit card spend, though at 1 SQP per $10 spent, you’d need to spend $5,000 on the card to maintain Silver status or $12,500 to maintain Gold status. You can of course mix and match earning SQPs from flights or spend, but the match requires that you fly at least one flight on Spirit in the 90-day window to extend status.

The benefits are pretty good, particularly at the Gold status level. As a Gold member, you get a free checked bag, a free carry-on, free Wi-Fi, free drinks and snack on board, oversized/overweight bag fee waived, free seat selection (including exit row at time of booking), the ability to create a points pool, and usual stuff like priority check-in and boarding.

Silver status is a bit lighter on benefits, with key benefits being free seat selection (including exit row starting 180 minutes prior to boarding), oversized/overweight bag fees waived, priority boarding / check-in, and increased points earning for flights and extras.

Here’s a look at a chart with full benefits:

As you can see, top-tier Spirit Gold benefits are quite good. If I had holiday travel booked on Spirit, I’d be pretty excited to hop on this match and save on seat selection, bags, etc.

However, there are some key things to consider if you’re tempted by this match:

1. Benefits do not extend to others on your reservation. Only the Gold member gets a free checked bag, carry-on, seat selection, etc. That makes it less convenient for family travel (though I love the ability to pool points from the whole family!).
2. Maintaining status can be tough. While spending $1,250 on Spirit might not be so tough for those of us without status, keep in mind that Gold members don’t have to pay for seat selection or a checked bag/carry-on and other ancillary fees that might help others qualify for status. This means that a Gold member basically needs to spend $1,250 on airfare or use credit card spend, which isn’t a terrific value at 1 SQP per $10 spent since that spend could otherwise be put to better use.

That second reason is why I think I prefer a paid match that lasts for 12 months. To be clear, they aren’t offering that deal this year, but I will probably hold out hope that they bring that offer back in a future year rather than burning a match now since I’d rather pay $99 out of pocket than have to spend $1,250 on Spirit airfares or get and use the Spirit Mastercard.

Ironically enough, Spirit cut the route I flew last holiday season from Hartford, CT to Myrtle Beach, SC. I was actually hoping to fly that again this year as the nonstop route was convenient for my needs, parking is cheap at Hartford, and they have an Escape lounge (which can be accessed even on arrival with an Amex Platinum card!). Alas, they cut the route and I’m now booked on Allegiant out of Albany instead.

Still, I’m sure this match will be useful for some folks given the travel period. For what it’s worth, I’ve flown Spirit a few times in recent years and despite the bad rap they get in frequent flyer circles, I’ve been very happy with the experience each time. That was particularly true when I had status for a time.

Also worth a mention is that Spirit is currently in the bankruptcy process. Personally, I wouldn’t be too concerned about that as companies often spend years in the bankruptcy process reorganizing debt, etc, only to emerge and be fine. I don’t think there is any notably imminent risk of Spirit ceasing operations though I suppose there is some risk of your preferred routes being cut long-term.

H/T: One Mile at a Time

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