which air miles credit card should i go with?

[kyomagi]

I am debating between Airtran and Spirit.

We flew spirit and the flight was great, to florida was early and we landed 45minutes sooner than expected.

The Flight back was late 15 minutes but actually landed on time.



Airtran we have not flown in 2 years, but the exp was fine too.

Here are the main differences

Airtran card: 32 credits when you spend 2k in 3 months. Kind of hard for me to do as i normally pay cash.

32 credits for 2 round trip flights, can be used any time except a few black out dates
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Spirit card: 15k miles when we spend $5, have to use the card every month to keep rewards

15K miles = 3 round trip flights during off peak times (Jan - june 1, september)

Which is fine since we are planning on going back next may

Baggage is cheaper by $10 on airtran.

Have to book 180 days in advance to have 0 fees. which is also fine since i booked the trip we just came back from in august.


i am leaning toward spirit, but airtran is not far behind

 

[bjscheel]

Would you consider Southwest? They are giving 50,000 bonus miles when you spend $2K in 3 months. I know you said that would be hard for you to do, but I'm really loving my SW card. No blackouts or restrictions that I know of.

DH and I each got a card so had over 100,000 points. The flexibility of booking with SW points is awesome! I booked OMA-SAN and SNA-OMA flights. Then realized I wanted to flip the trip and do OMA-SNA and SAN-OMA instead. I just changed my flights, and since one leg was cheaper, the points went right back in the account. I really wanted a later time coming back though, so this week when the next flight out got within a reasonable price, I changed again. Can you do that with other airlines? I really don't know.

I don't have any experience with the ones you are looking at, sorry.

 

[kyomagi]

we dont have southwest flights from detroit to orlando, unless you can use points with a sister airline

 

[mm1971]

I am debating between Airtran and Spirit.

We flew spirit and the flight was great, to florida was early and we landed 45minutes sooner than expected.

The Flight back was late 15 minutes but actually landed on time.



Airtran we have not flown in 2 years, but the exp was fine too.

Here are the main differences

Airtran card: 32 credits when you spend 2k in 3 months. Kind of hard for me to do as i normally pay cash.

32 credits for 2 round trip flights, can be used any time except a few black out dates
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Spirit card: 15k miles when we spend $5, have to use the card every month to keep rewards

15K miles = 3 round trip flights during off peak times (Jan - june 1, september)

Which is fine since we are planning on going back next may

Baggage is cheaper by $10 on airtran.

Have to book 180 days in advance to have 0 fees. which is also fine since i booked the trip we just came back from in august.


i am leaning toward spirit, but airtran is not far behind

I agree with the SW offering. If you can fly SW from where you are it may be a better offer. 50K points allowed me to book 4 flights and you don't lose any unused points. No bag fees. No change fees (I have re-booked 2x already and saved points) and they own Airtran so you get the same customer service.

I would be concerned that Spirit requires you to charge every month. What if you miss a month? There go your points. You have to book at non peak times? Too many restrictions. To be honest I was never a fan or Spirit when we used to fly them years ago.

 

[sweetdana]

From Detroit I would use Delta.

You get free bags, and it is one of the cheapest when you end up paying to fly.

I am thrilled with my Delta Amex. we save 75$ in bags each way, and get 100$ off 1+ air tickets every trip.

 

[kyomagi]

well southwest is only offering 25k right now which is 1 trip. I think i am now more on the airtran side

 

[kyomagi]

From Detroit I would use Delta.

You get free bags, and it is one of the cheapest when you end up paying to fly.

I am thrilled with my Delta Amex. we save 75$ in bags each way, and get 100$ off 1+ air tickets every trip.

delta also has only 1 round trip ticket. plus i have not seen any terms for $100 off.

 

[mm1971]

well southwest is only offering 25k right now which is 1 trip. I think i am now more on the airtran side

Yes. It seems the offer has changed. I tried the 50K link and it is no longer available and it shows 25K on the website. Remember that you still save on bag fees and if you have to change flights on SW, so it still may be worth it. You said it would be difficult to spend $2k in three months. With the 25K card you only need to spend $1K in 3 months. Just sayin'.

 

[kyomagi]

Yes. It seems the offer has changed. I tried the 50K link and it is no longer available and it shows 25K on the website. Remember that you still save on bag fees and if you have to change flights on SW, so it still may be worth it. You said it would be difficult to spend $2k in three months. With the 25K card you only need to spend $1K in 3 months. Just sayin'.

true. And it sucks too because this morning airtran was giving away 2 round trip flights and now its only 1.

I really did not have an issue with spirit when i flew with them last week.

 

[sweetdana]

delta also has only 1 round trip ticket. plus I have not seen any terms for $100 off.

Every 10,000$ miles you can turn in for 100$ off .. or 25,000 miles for a free ticket ( up to 250$ I think). We make up for it on bags too though.

This is a free card, you can also upgrade for I think 99 annual fee for a free ticket too. (*** Off memory)

 

[JessM]

I personally wouldn't get the Spirit card. I think there are better carriers out there with less restrictions. I would probably go for the Delta Card in your shoes.

I also really dislike AirTran, they are so rude and not helpful. I love Southwest and Jetblue I'm hoping to get one of their cards soon!

 

[Firefly09]

AirTran =southwest I thought they merged ??

 

[kyomagi]

I did more research on both cards. Spirit as of right now would technically be a better value for the 3 of us.

Spirit- Off peak big front seats = 21000 Points
I already have 2k points, so earning the additional 4k should not be hard.

So lets assume $180 for baggage there and back, plus misc fees of $75 = $255

for 3 round trip flights, with baggage and big front seats


Airtran- If i can get another offer for 2 round trip flights, it would break down like this

$275 going rate for a ticket
$150 for baggage

= $325. So its $70 less and i get normal seats

And that is IF they bring back to two ticket deal. If not, add $275

 

[bianca]

We have the Spirit card. Have never had a problem. We just flew free in February to MCO with our first reward trip. We like having the card, as it s the ONLY way you can access their 2500 mile/point trips. Don't have experience with any of the other cards, as Spirit makes it so convenient to fly out of DTW that we've never looked elsewhere.

 

[teCh0010]

Once you get past the initial bonus and start earning points with the spend I prefer the Starwood Amex over any of the airline cards. You can transfer starwood points at a 1:1 ratio to over 20 airlines including Delta and America, and for every 20k you transfer starwood kicks in a 5k bonus.

So transfer 20k Starpoints to 25k skymiles, or 60k Starpoints to 75k skymiles.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

I would go with SWA.
You can book you AirTran flights on SWA out of Detroit and use the SWA points to pay for the tickets.

No bag fees
If the flight price goes down you can get a refund in the form of a travel voucher or have your points restored and you don't have to pay a change fee to do this!!!

 

[bronwyn]

I would also go with Southwest, but would probably hold off and see if the 50,000 bonus comes back. That's a great deal IMO. Last year, we used it for 3 round trip flights (off peak times). Right now you can book some of the Airtran flights on the Southwest website out of Detroit. I would think that in the future it will only get better as the two finish merging. Southwest also has direct flights from Flint if that is convenient. Can't beat the free luggage and love that I can rebook if the prices go down!

It really bothers me that Spirit charges for checking luggage and carry ons. I know many airlines do but once you add in these fees sometimes it's not really a savings.

My 2nd choice would be Delta for convenience and that you can use a combination of miles and $s. I really like that feature.

 

[tmmalave]

I am debating between Airtran and Spirit.

We flew spirit and the flight was great, to florida was early and we landed 45minutes sooner than expected.

The Flight back was late 15 minutes but actually landed on time.



Airtran we have not flown in 2 years, but the exp was fine too.

Here are the main differences

Airtran card: 32 credits when you spend 2k in 3 months. Kind of hard for me to do as i normally pay cash.

32 credits for 2 round trip flights, can be used any time except a few black out dates
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Spirit card: 15k miles when we spend $5, have to use the card every month to keep rewards

15K miles = 3 round trip flights during off peak times (Jan - june 1, september)

Which is fine since we are planning on going back next may

Baggage is cheaper by $10 on airtran.

Have to book 180 days in advance to have 0 fees. which is also fine since i booked the trip we just came back from in august.


i am leaning toward spirit, but airtran is not far behind

Why not get the Disney Rewards Visa Premier. It has a 49.00 fee. 1% back on almost everything, 2% on groceries, gas, and Disney purchases (store, vacation, DCL). You can use the points towards the purchase of airline tickets. You purchase the tickets with the Visa card, and the.n request your accumulated points be applied towards the purchase. The nice things are that you are not restricted to an airline, and that you do not have to have all the points. For example, if your tickets are 800.00 and you only have 600.00, than you can use the 600.00 towards the tickets, and pay the difference! We did this for the first time in December, and they credited our account in a few business days, and we were able to purchase 4 JetBlue tickets entirely with our rewards.

 

[kyomagi]

Why not get the Disney Rewards Visa Premier. It has a 49.00 fee. 1% back on almost everything, 2% on groceries, gas, and Disney purchases (store, vacation, DCL). You can use the points towards the purchase of airline tickets. You purchase the tickets with the Visa card, and the.n request your accumulated points be applied towards the purchase. The nice things are that you are not restricted to an airline, and that you do not have to have all the points. For example, if your tickets are 800.00 and you only have 600.00, than you can use the 600.00 towards the tickets, and pay the difference! We did this for the first time in December, and they credited our account in a few business days, and we were able to purchase 4 JetBlue tickets entirely with our rewards.

actually have a disney card lol