Spirit Business Credit Card Review and Alternatives

With their ultra-competitive pricing for flights, Spirit might be the airline of choice if you’re a particularly frugal business owner.

Can you make this less-than-cushy yet extremely affordable traveling experience work for you?

One straight-shot to improving flying with Spirit could be choosing the Spirit business credit card—the Spirit Airlines World Mastercard®—as your go-to business credit card.

Could the Spirit business credit card be the jet-setting frugal business owner’s best friend?

Read this ultimate review of the Spirit business credit card, plus its top alternative, to find out.

TL;DR: All You Need to Know About the Spirit Business Credit Card

Not quite able to make it through this entire Spirit airlines credit card review?

Not to worry, we’ll condense all of the essentials into a synopsis for you.

First and foremost, the Spirit business credit card is a World Mastercard® provided through Bank of America.

With this business credit card, you can access the following perks:

• A welcome bonus of 15,000 Free Spirit Miles with your first purchase
• An additional 5,000 bonus miles once you spend $10,000 within your first year after account opening
• 2x miles for every dollar you spend with the card

The card comes with an annual fee of $59 that’s waived for your first year as a cardholder along with a $20 fee for each additional authorized user.

Be sure to check out your top alternatives before deciding on the Spirit business credit card, though. With the Spark Miles Select, the Ink Preferred, or the Amex Business Platinum, you’ll be able to access even bigger travel rewards without being beholden to one particular airlines.

The Fundamentals on the Spirit Business Credit Card

First thing’s first, let’s take a moment to cover the fundamentals on the Spirit business credit card.

Who are the various entities you’ll be working with should you decide to do your business spending on this business travel credit card?

Well, most obviously, you’ll be attaching yourself and your business to Spirit Airlines—any time you want to take advantage of the perks this credit card offers, it will, by definition, have to be with a Spirit flight. Even more, Spirit Airlines doesn’t have any airline partners, so any miles you accumulate with this card won’t be transferable to any other flights.

The other entities involved in the Spirit business credit card?

Both Mastercard® and Bank of America—one of the nation’s credit card dream-team issuer and bank partnerships. This Bank of America Mastercard® lets you work with two of the most well-reputed financial entities possible, at once.

So, to wrap up the fundamentals on the Spirit business credit card, in practice, you’ll really mostly be interacting with Spirit Airlines. However, if you experience any complications with your Spirit business credit card, then you might be working closely with Bank of America or Mastercard® to figure them out.

The Details on the Spirit Business Credit Card

With all of the fundamentals on the Spirit business credit card covered, let’s dive right into the details on this card.

So, for starters, the Spirit business credit card is a travel rewards card. This means that you’ll earn rewards that come in the form of miles that can be redeemed as free travel.

When you do your business spending with the Spirit business credit card, you’ll have the following opportunities to earn miles:

• A welcome bonus of 15,000 Free Spirit Miles with your first purchase
• An additional 5,000 bonus miles once you spend $10,000 within your first year after account opening
• 2x miles for every dollar you spend with the card

These miles have a value that vary based on what type of flight you want to book with them, but generally speaking, they have much more value if you use them to book domestic direct flights.

Even more, you’ll gain access to the following travel perks that don’t rely on how much you spend with the Spirit business credit card:

• Spirit Airlines priority boarding
• Spirit Airlines domestic priority check-in at select airports
• No blackout dates when redeeming miles

For all of these perks that the Spirit business credit card comes with, you’ll have to pay an annual fee of $59. That said, Bank of America will waive the annual fee for your first year, so it’s a perfect trial run to see if this card is the right fit.

However, it’s crucial to note that you will have to pay an additional $20 annually for each additional employee card you get with your account, so be sure to factor in that additional cost, as well.

Your Top Alternatives to the Spirit Business Credit Card

Put simply, the Spirit business credit cards has some pretty significant flaws, most of which are baked into its definition as an airline-specific card.

Because you’ll be beholden to Spirit Airlines with this business travel credit card, you’ll be beholden to all of its quirks—especially those of its miles program.

Spirit Airlines’ miles are extremely unpredictable in their worth, so much so that there’s no easy way to quantify what one mile is generally worth.

There are tons of other business credit cards out there that won’t tie you to a specific airline and its corresponding rewards program. Additionally, most rewards programs that accompany business travel credit cards do come with a uniform mile worth, so it’s less work for you to figure out how to find the best deal.

Ready to learn more about your top alternatives to the Spirit business credit card that won’t tie you to Spirit?

Let’s take a look:

The Capital One Spark Miles Select

The first of your top alternatives to the Spirit business credit card is the Spark Miles Select. This is one of the very few fee-free business travel credit cards available on the market. Unlike the Spirit business credit card, the Spark Miles Select won’t charge you an annual fee or a foreign transaction fee.

Additionally, the miles you earn with the Spark Miles Select are generally be redeemable around 1 cent per mile and can be redeemed for anything from hotels to taxis to flights. You can earn these miles in the following ways:

• A welcome bonus of 20,000 miles once you spend $3,000 on purchases within three months of opening your account
• 1.5 miles for every dollar you spend with the card

Even better?

This card also comes with a 9-month 0% intro APR period, after which your APR will set in at a rate that will depend on your creditworthiness. See the issuer’s terms and conditions for the latest APR information.

The Chase Ink Business Preferred

Next up on your top alternatives to the Spirit business credit card is the Ink Preferred. This Chase business credit card arguably offers the most generous welcome bonus on the market.

If you spend at least $5,000 within your first three months after opening your account, you’ll earn a whopping 80,000 points.

And while, as a default, these points are generally worth 1 cent per point, if you redeem them through Chase’s travel portal, they’ll be worth 25% more. This means that, if redeemed strategically, the Ink Preferred’s signing bonus is worth $1,000 of free travel.

Not to mention, you’ll also earn 3x points for every dollar you spend (up to $150,000 worth of purchases) on:

• Travel
• Shipping purchases
• Advertising purchases made with search engines and social media sites
• Internet/cable/phone services

That said, you will have to pay an annual fee of $95 for this business credit card, so be sure that you’ll be able to get enough value out of the Ink Preferred to offset this additional cost. However, it’s worth noting that you won’t have to pay an annual fee for additional employee cards. So, if you need two or more employee cards, opting for the Ink Preferred will end up being the same amount annually as the Spirit business credit card.

The American Express Business Platinum

Last on the list of top alternatives to the Spirit business credit card is the Amex Business Platinum.

If you’re looking for top-of-the-line, luxury business travel perks, then look no further than the Amex Platinum. If you opt for this business travel card, you’ll gain access to a long list of travel amenities, not the least of which are:

• A TSA PreCheck or Global Entry annual credit
• A $200 airline credit
• Airport lounge access and Priority Pass Select
• Hilton Honors Gold status

Plus, you’ll earn Amex Membership Rewards all the while. As you spend with the Amex Platinum Charge Card, you’ll earn at the following rates:

• 5 Membership Rewards points every dollar you spend on flights and prepaid hotels booked on Amextravel.com.
• 1.5 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent on each purchase that’s worth $5,000 or more—up to 1 million additional points per year.
• 1 Membership Rewards point for every dollar you spend elsewhere.

This all sounds pretty nice, right?

Well, the perks do come at a cost—$450 a year, to be exact. The Amex Business Platinum’s annual fee is certainly substantial, but the value of even just its travel perks—much less than the rewards you earn for your spending—more than compensate for the lump sum annual fee.

What’s the Verdict for the Spirit Business Credit Card?

So, now that we have all of the pertinent information laid out in front of us, what’s the verdict on the Spirit business credit card?

Of course, at the end of the day, the answer to this question is for you—the one who knows your business best—to decide. Plus, now that you’ve made your way through this Spirit credit card review, you’ve got the knowledge to make the best decision possible.

If you want my advice, though, I’d suggest you look beyond the Spirit business credit card for your business travel rewards.

There are so many business credit cards out there that are willing and eager to reward you for your business spending without  limiting your rewards to one specific airline.

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