Spirit Survives (For Now), Adds Transfer Partnership With Bilt
This is the December 21, 2025 edition of the LazyPoints Weekly newsletter. It goes out by email every Sunday at 8:00 a.m. Pacific–unless I oversleep–and is archived here on the blog. Want it straight to your inbox each week? Sign up here.
Last week, we heard rumors that Spirit Airlines might cease operations. Instead, the airline secured $100 million in funding to remain in business, at least for a while.
With that uncertainty temporarily resolved, Bilt announced that it had added Spirit as its latest transfer partner, with a 1:1 transfer ratio. That is Bilt’s 24th transfer partner, and an interesting one. Spirit has… a bit of a reputation. It’s not known for creature comforts or customer service (it is an ultra low cost carrier, after all), but in the past year or so I have been surprised to learn that it has an impressive record of safety and reliability.
As for Spirit’s points, they seem to have some value, especially for ultra-cheap short-haul flights (as low as 2,500 points), or for premium seating—Spirit has big comfy seats up front, and while the service won’t match that of other airlines, if you want to get to your destination at the front of the plane, transferring points to Spirit might be a cost-efficient way to do it. Just be careful. With Spirit’s future in doubt, I would not recommend transferring points without a plan to redeem them and fly in relatively short order (they can also expire).
Personally, though, I will be saving my Bilt points for trips to Japan with Atmos or Japan Airlines. 🗾
This week on the blog 📝
I compiled the history of Alaska’s Global Getaways promotions to see what the patterns are and how they can fit into a points strategy.
Quick Points of the Week ⚡
Correction 🛠️
Earn 1 Bilt point per $2 when paying rent with most credit cards. When talking about the new opportunity to earn extra miles when paying rent with a United card via Bilt, I originally said that you could earn 1 Bilt point per $1 spent with most Visa, MasterCard, or Discover cards. That was outdated (correct info here), so I updated the post.
Major news 🚨
American Airlines cuts basic economy benefits. Customers will no longer earn redeemable miles or progress toward elite status. (TPG) (Good analysis from VFTW here.)
Special offers ✨
Had a Mesa card? Get up to 5,000 Rove miles if you had a Mesa card that got shut down. (MilesTalk)
25% off Thrifty Traveler gift cards. The deal alert service isn’t on sale right now (although we have a discounted affiliate link in our review), but a discounted gift card is almost as good. (Thrifty Traveler)
30% off Roame. Missed the Black Friday 40% off sale? You can get 30% off your first payment on the award flight search service. Promo code in our review.
Recommended 👍
Use United miles for good. View From the Wing wrote about Give a Mile, a charity “that uses donated miles to book flights of compassion for people trying to reach a loved one in hospice or critical care.”
Sign-up bonus of the Week 🎯
I didn’t see anything special pop up this week, but there are plenty of great options:
Other great current bonuses
100k points on the Capital One Venture X (our take: 🔥🔥🔥🔥)
100k points on the Citi Strata Elite (our take: 🔥🔥🔥)
125k (175k?) points on the Chase Sapphire Reserve (our take: 🔥🔥🔥)
175k points on the Hilton Aspire (our take: 🔥🔥)
75k points on the Chase Sapphire Preferred (our take: 🔥)
$250 gift card on the Amazon Prime Visa (our take: 🔥)
$300 on the Chase Freedom Unlimited (our take: 🔥)
Up to 100/175k on the Amex Gold/Platinum (our take)
Enjoy the weekend! 🦥
An early Merry Christmas to you and yours! 🎄 We’ll be taking the week off on the blog and running a limited newsletter next week—then we’ll be back in full in 2026!