Winter escape from the San Francisco Bay area/Oakland to Las Vegas

Another gem in Spirit's crown of value is the short flight from Oakland to Las Vegas! This flight costs less than 2500 miles each way, and the availability is reasonable as well. What's not to love?!

OK, so maybe it leaves a little early, but that's just more time in Vegas!

Plenty of dates, and guess what? There's also hidden availability!

As you can see in the screenshots above, it looks like there are five days available for off-peak redemption. Not bad. Check out the date of the flight on my first screenshot, though. What?! All told, I found nine days of availability, almost twice what shows up on the calendar view! This is that "hidden availability," a Spirit Secret!

What a gem of a find! This is just another reason Spirit can be so great for your travel goals. Have fun and stay warm, folks!

Travel free!
~Free Spirit Travel

Spirit off-peak awards for the whole family

In today's value-find we have Dallas/Fort Worth-DFW to Phoenix/Sky Harbor-PHX. Now, normally you'd see this and think it was just another off-peak award on a short hop. Well, it is a great value at just 2500 miles each way, but that's not the point today.

2500 mile off-peak award availability from DFW to PHX - ahhh, isn't that refreshing?

It's nice having an airline with such open off-peak award availability. Do you know what's even nicer?

A family of five

That search with so many options was for an award for a family of five, all with their own seats (no lap-children)! Not only does Spirit offer amazing value on its award chart, it'll let you bring your family, too! It's just another way that Spirit helps you travel.

Travel free!
~Free Spirit Travel

The Spirit award calendar glitch

When booking a Spirit award online, you'll see a month-view calendar of dates and rates. Sometimes, though, it doesn't look like anything's available at the off-peak level. That makes Free Spirit Travel a sad panda. :-(

Woe is Free Spirit Travel, there is no available off-peak award space!

At least, so it seems! Click on a few dates, though, and you'll find that the calendar misrepresents itself to users sometimes!!! No more sad pandas! Hooray!!!! :D

WHAT?!?!? In the calendar view, 37,500 miles is all that's listed, but clearly, there is off-peak availability on September 26 from Orlando to LA!

What I suspect is happening is that, as you can see in the second screenshot, the off-peak (read: cardholder) availability is being listed lower in the available flights/routes list, and the calendar only displays the top option in the list. So, Spirt really has a sorting problem, not necessarily a calendar problem. I've no idea what could be causing the bad sorting algorithm (who wants a three-stop flight for 37,500 miles one-way?).

There it is, folks, the Spirit award calendar glitch. For now, you've been empowered with the knowledge that you should click through the dates to make sure you don't miss anything. Other people don't know that, putting you at an advantage when searching for awards! Make some bookings, and know to watch out for hidden off-peak availability!

Travel free!
~Free Spirit Travel

Quick post: Our new background

Grabbed (legally, mind you) from a Flickr user by the name of InSapphoWeTrust. They've released their photo under a Creative Commons license available here. Per the conditions, Free Spirit Travel has not modified the work. InSapphoWeTrust is not endorsing this blog.

What do you think? Want to see your Spirit-related picture up here? Shoot an email to shunter@embaucha.com and let's make it happen!

Spirit's frequent flyer elite program SUCKS, and why that's great for you!

Spirit doesn't have a frequent flyer program, at least not in the traditional sense. There are no benefits to frequently flying on Spirit other than the accumulation of miles at a reasonable rate, which anyone with the Spirit Mastercard can do very easily.

The Free Spirit tier level mileage earning chart

In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find any evidence of the Spirit frequent flyer program at all: Googling it turns up this FAQ, and the rest of the results are for other websites referencing the program! In fact, I found out more information from this informative post from The Points Guy, written in 2010. I even searched the Free Spirit terms and conditions for the words Elite and VIP and could find no reference to either. I suspect Spirit has virtually discontinued the program. One of the primary benefits used to be increased earning on refundable fares, but Spirit doesn't even offer refundable fares and hasn't since at least April 2012! I'm not even sure that it still exists, since it's not in the terms and conditions.

For people who frequently fly on Spirit, this sucks. A lot.

For the rest of us, just like Festivus, the Free Spirit program offers a lot of benefits. For example, because there isn't any real elite status on Spirit, off-peak availability is restricted only to Spirit cardholders. That is to say, if you have the Spirit Mastercard and never fly Spirit paid fares, you have access to the same award availability, and at lower rates, as someone who flies Spirit every day.

Elites do not exist in the Spirit system, only passengers and cardholders.

For those of us who fly Spirit infrequently, this is a major boon. Unlike Delta, for example, who severely restricts access to the lowest redemption levels to their mid- and high-level elites, anyone with the Spirit Mastercard can fly for as little as 2500 miles each way. The only comparable program is BA Avios with strong value for short haul, direct flights on American.

So, to the truly frequent, loyal Spirit paid-fare flyers, I apologize. This sucks. For the rest of us, appreciate that while you will receive no special treatment from Spirit, neither will anyone else. It's part and parcel of the Spirit experience. Remember that when you're redeeming 5,000 points instead of 25,000+ points for a traditional mainline carrier.

Travel free!
~Free Spirit Travel

Spirit miles expire, but yours don't have to

Spirit's official policy on miles is that if you haven't earned any miles in three months, then your miles are forfeit. This is the most aggressive of any frequent flyer program I've ever heard of. This is bad.

Notice also that I bolded the earned part. Spirit specifically uses the word "credited," so this may be more broad than "earning." One trick in other programs that expire miles or points, is to use a minimum of miles for some kind of redemption, like ordering a magazine for 1200 miles. That will not work in the Free Spirit program. The miles must be earned or credited to the account!

There are a few ways to accomplish this.

1) Fly on Spirit at least every three months.

Not everyone will be able to do this, and I would even discourage it, because if you're close to the three month mark, and your flight is delayed, you might be stuck without a chance to use your points! No one wants that.

2) Sign up for the credit card and spend every month.

I'd recommend this option, and certainly Spirit pushes it hard enough! They have it plastered all over the home page! If you try to book an award and see the Mastercard availability, they'll push you to apply. If you're on a flight, they'll push you to apply. If you're breathing within earshot of a Spirit representative, they'll push you to apply!

3) Transfer in points from another program every three months.

Personally, I've found some value in the promotions that Choice Hotels run. It can be worth it just to get Spirit miles. Another I've found is the Vinesse wine program that Spirit sometimes pushes on email subscribers and airfare purchasers, but the offer differs between channels and month-to-month.

So, those are your three options to keep your Spirit miles from expiring. I'd recommend the credit card. There is some conflict in the terms where Spirit's FAQ says your miles won't expire when you spend every month on the card, versus the Free Spirit terms that only specify that you need to be credited every three months. I'd advise going the safer route, and just put a recurring bill on the card, like Netflix. Just remember to pay it off, maybe with automatic monthly payments!

Travel free!
~Free Spirit Travel

Cheating the Spirit online award booking system

This is what I'll call a "Spirit Secret!"

Spirit's award chart is distance-based. So, the award engine calculates the straight-line distance between two cities when generating the award pricing. However, the award chart prices scale faster than the distance does! This can be used to our advantage.

For example, the straight-line distance from New York City-LGA to Panamá City, Panama-PTY is 2209 miles.

2209 miles

According to the 2011 award chart, that means it should be a Region 3 award, requiring 7500 miles at the off-peak level.

You can see this reflected in the online award booking calendar as well.

However, it only costs 2500 miles for a flight from New York-LGA to Miami/Fort Lauderdale-FLL on the same day:

It also only costs 2500 miles for a flight from Miami/Fort Lauderdale-FLL to Panamá City, Panama-PTY:

There's more off-peak availability to Panama than to Miami!

That means that by booking each segment separately, you can save 2500 miles each way. That's a savings of 33% over the listed award price, for only a few more minutes of your time!

BTW, that trip normally costs $175.44. Backing out the fees paid on the award ticket, that means we're getting $139.19 in value, or 2.78 cents per mile!

That's an amazing return and a Spirit Secret!

Travel free!
~Free Spirit Travel

Using the Spirit website to find off-peak award space

This is where I hate the Spirit website. It isn't always accurate on the calendar view! I've searched before for award space and seen only the "premium" level of miles available for redemption. Screens filled with 25,000 miles awards for as far out as the calendar will allow!

Today, though, the calendar view seems to accurately reflect off-peak (read: Spirit Mastercard holder) availability.

Off-peak (Spirit Mastercard holder) availability is indicated with a blue arrow in the upper left-hand corner of the date. This is a flight from Chicago ORD to Miami/Fort Lauderdale FLL.

Select your date, and a list of flights and routings appears below the calendar. You might not even notice at first.

The full list of options. Be careful to check the departure times!

Another thing you might not notice? Four of those flights depart before 8AM! Be careful when booking to know which flights you've selected.

There you have it! As long as the Spirit website is working, finding award space is easy! When it's not working, be sure to select each date individually, and you should still see a list of available flights that day at the correct pricing; it's only the calendar view that messes up!

Understanding the value of free travel on Spirit

Probably the cheapest way of achieving free travel on Spirit is through the appropriately named Free Spirit program.

Spirit used to publish an award chart annually, but the last one dates from 2011. Spirit now says to check their website for all award redemptions and point costs.

The old award chart is still a great guide. It can be found here: http://www.spirit.com/content/documents/en-us/awards_chart_2011.pdf

The basic gist of it is that there are only four redemption levels based on the distance traveled. Within those levels there is significant variation in redemption costs based peak vs non-peak travel and whether you want to sit in a "big front seat."

At the lowest levels are some real gems, comparable to British Airways' Avios program. For example, Spirit cardholders can purchase one-way tickets up to 1249 miles for just 2500 Free Spirit miles! That makes a domestic round-trip potentially 1/5 of the 25,000 miles needed on a mainline carrier.

Find someplace you'd like to go and look up the costs! You might be pleasantly surprised!

The first Spirit secret

Make sure that Spirit is the right carrier for you.

Spirit will generally get you from point A to point B.

Spirit will not provide free refreshments, even water. Spirit will not allow you to choose your seat. Spirit will not clean the seats between flights. Spirit will charge you extra for the "privilege" of tugging some baggage along with you. Spirit will charge you punitively for doing things at the airport the day of your flight, including printing your ticket, or checking a bag that you previously did not let Spirit know about. Spirit will charge you for trying to cram your oversized duffel into the tiny "personal item" category (16"x14"x12"). Spirit will not provide you with legroom. Spirit's bathroom will be maintained by passengers (read: it will not be clean). Spirit's advertising will be cheeky and in your face, and you might be offended. Spirit might cancel a flight and wait two hours to tell anyone. Spirit might cancel a flight arbitrarily and come up with an excuse. Spirit might kick a kid off an overbooked flight and not comp them a room at a local hotel. Spirit might prevent you from boarding for an entire day as a "security risk" because you spent three hours being interrogated by the FBI in a private room; even though the FBI cleared you, Spirit may feel that you'll pose less of a threat to their aircraft after 24 hours. Spirit will try to hard sell you on the $9 fare club. Spirit will try to sell you travel insurance. A customer service rep will hang up on you. If you do not pay to select seats in advance, Spirit will split up your family for seats purchased on the same itinerary, even if you're going to Disneyworld (though there is no evidence that this is done maliciously).

Google around, and you'll find thousands of horror stories about Spirit. Basically, though, most of these experiences are the result of assumptions. People have an expectation of their airline that's been set by mainline carriers such as Delta, United, and American. These airlines offer a superior experience. However, Spirit offers a unique value proposition:  If a flyer is willing to accept the risks and forego the amenities (like free water) of the mainline carriers, then Spirit will provide that flyer with fast air transportation at a lower cost. It's the Spirit tradeoff, and it's the Spirit value.

Fly free!
~Free Spirit Travel