There's a new Spirit Airlines credit card – and it's invite-only
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
Spirit Airlines recently announced the launch of a brand new credit card, the Free Spirit® Points Plus Mastercard®. In partnership with Mercury Financial, this card – along with the Free Spirit Points Mastercard®, which was introduced back in February – will give travelers even more opportunities to earn points to jump-start their next vacation.
There's one main difference between this card and many other credit cards out there: this is an invite-only card offer. That's right, you must receive an invitation to apply, typically through the mail. If you have received a mailer, you'll see a reservation code on the flyer. This is your key to applying for the card.
Assuming you have an invitation, let's look at what new benefits cardmembers will receive and how this card differs from the two other existing Spirit credit cards.
The information for the Free Spirit Points Plus, Free Spirit Points Mastercard and Free Spirit Travel More Mastercard has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
The basics
Those eligible to apply can earn 20,000 Free Spirit bonus points and a $100 Companion Flight Voucher after making qualifying purchases of $750 and at least one minimum monthly payment within the first day 90 days of account opening. While the card comes with a $79 annual fee, it's waived the first year.
Related: Reasons to love Spirit Airlines
Cardmembers will also earn 3x Free Spirit points on eligible Spirit purchases, including flights, 2x Free Spirit points on dining and grocery purchases, and 1x Free Spirit points on all other purchases.
Additionally, new cardmembers will receive:
- 25% rebate on inflight food and beverage purchases
- Shortcut boarding/Zone 2 early boarding
- Points pooling for individuals and up to eight additional Free Spirit members
- $100 Companion Flight Voucher each year after they spend $5,000 during the cardmember year
- One status qualifying point (SQP) for every $10 spent in purchases
- Spirit points will not expire for cardmembers
As with the other Spirit Airlines credit cards, one very attractive benefit is the ability to earn status through credit card spending. Spirit requires you to earn 2,000 SQPs for Silver and 5,000 SQPs for Gold status, so earning 1 SQP for every $10 spent is potentially significant. This means you'll earn Silver status after making $20,000 in annual charges and Gold status with $50,000 in charges. While that's a lot of spending, the SQPs you earn from spending also can be combined with SQPs you earn by flying Spirit, thus reducing the needed credit card spend to earn the respective status levels.
Earning status on Spirit Airlines can save you a decent amount of money over the year. Spirit charges for almost everything — including onboard beverages like soda — but having status means the airline will waive many of the fees that you might otherwise incur. Status will keep your low fare from creeping up in overall price due to all the extra add-ons.
Related: How much is Spirit Airlines' elite status worth?
Comparing the Spirit credit cards
The Free Spirit® Points Plus Mastercard® card looks extremely similar to the Free Spirit Travel More World Elite Mastercard, which also has a $79 annual fee.
The earning rate is precisely the same and the benefits are identical. The main difference is that the welcome offer on the Free Spirit Travel More World Elite Mastercard is twice the number of points and that card is not invite-only -- 40,000 bonus points plus a $100 companion voucher after making at least $1,000 on purchases in the first 90 days of account opening. So even if you didn't get an invitation to apply for the new card, you might want to get the older one instead and still come away with a significant points haul.
The information for the Free Spirit Travel More Mastercard has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Related: Spirit relaunched its loyalty program today with cheap award flights and new cobranded cards
There are also two no-annual-fee Spirit cards: the Free Spirit Points Mastercard® and the Free Spirit Travel Mastercard. These cards have a slightly lower earning rate as well as fewer benefits. The welcome offers on these two cards are also significantly reduced, making the annual fee on the Free Spirit® Points Plus Mastercard® and Free Spirit Travel More World Elite Mastercard well worth it, at least in the first year.
If you prefer a low-cost airline, but Spirit doesn't work for your traveling needs, there's also the Frontier Airlines World Mastercard®. This credit card will also help you earn reward points to fly around the U.S., Mexico and select Caribbean islands.
With the same $79 annual fee (waived the first year), it offers many similar benefits such as the ability to pool your Frontier miles, the opportunity to earn a $100 voucher and the ability to earn qualifying miles towards elite status. The Frontier card earns 5 miles per dollar spent while flying Frontier, 3 miles per dollar on restaurant purchases, and 1 mile per dollar on all other purchases. If you fly often, the extra miles earned can add up quite quickly with Frontier.
Related: Frontier Airlines World Mastercard vs. Free Spirit Travel More World Elite Mastercard
Additionally, the Frontier Airlines World Mastercard® has an incredibly high welcome offer where you can earn up to 60,000 bonus miles — 40,000 bonus miles after spending $500 on purchases and paying the annual fee in full, both within the first 90 days, then an additional 20,000 bonus miles after spending $2,000 on purchases within the first six months.
Related: Priority boarding, family pooling and yearly voucher: Frontier Airlines World Mastercard review
The information for the Frontier card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Bottom line
If you are a frequent Spirit flyer — or even if you only travel a few times a year — the Free Spirit® Points Plus Mastercard® is one to consider if you receive an invite. Still, you'll earn twice as many miles from the welcome bonus with the Free Spirit Travel More World Elite Mastercard as compared to the invite-only Free Spirit Points Plus Mastercard, so you might want to go for that card instead.