Breeze Airways launches new credit card, but you don’t even get a free carry-on

Breeze Airways started service almost three years ago and has now partnered with Barclays to launch a new credit card.

For people living near airports served by Breeze, this card could be worth picking up for the first year, but longer term it’s unlikely to be a keeper unless you fly with Breeze a lot and will be paying more for their bundles due the card’s annual fee and the fact that it doesn’t offer a free checked – or even carry-on – bag. The way that the card is being advertised is a little misleading too, so be sure you understand its earning rates before applying.

The Offer

Card Offer and Details

BREEZE EASY™ VISA® CREDIT CARD ⓘ $371 1st Yr Value Estimate 50K Points ⓘ Non-Affiliate 50K points after $2K spend in 90 days $89 Annual Fee Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: Points are worth $0.01 each toward paid travel. This card might be worth it for the bonus if you know you'll make good use of BreezePoints. Long term, it only makes sense if you frequently fly Breeze Airways -- and even then, there are other cards that might be as good or better for airfare purchases depending on how you value transferable points vs airline-specific penny points. Earning rate: 5X on Breeze Airways Nicer and Nicest Bundles & Trip Add-ons ✦ 2X on Breeze Airlines Nice Bundles ✦ 2X grocery ✦ 2X restaurants ✦ 1X everywhere else (including Breeze flights) Base: 1% Dine: 2% Grocery: 2% Card Info: Visa issued by Barclays. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: One-way bundle upgrade with every $15K in purchases Noteworthy perks: 7,500 BreezePoints after every account anniversary with $10K in cardmember year purchases ✦ Priority Boarding ✦ Complimentary Inflight WiFi ➥More

Quick Thoughts

At the time of its launch, Breeze is offering 50,000 bonus BreezePoints after spending $2,000 in 90 days. BreezePoints are worth 1cpp (cent per point) which makes the value of the bonus easy to calculate – $500. However, having a fixed value for their points means that you can’t get outsized value on award flights with Breeze – what you see is what you get.

The card comes with an $89 annual fee which isn’t waived in the first year, so you’re effectively getting $411 as the welcome offer which can only be spent on Breeze Airways flights. That bonus isn’t anywhere near as valuable as the welcome offers available on many other airline credit cards, but if Breeze is who you fly with regularly nowadays, this could still be a useful card to pick up, especially thanks to their interesting route network.

We used to live in Portsmouth, VA and so our closest airport was Norfolk. Most flights out of ORF only go to larger hub cities like Washington D.C., New York, Chicago, etc. Breeze meanwhile operates flights from Norfolk to cities like Charleston SC, New Orleans LA, San Diego CA, Portland ME and more. If we ended up settling back in the Hampton Roads area after our road trip’s over, I imagine we’ll end up flying with Breeze sometimes seeing as they’ll have direct flights where we want to go.

That $89 annual fee means this card probably won’t be worth keeping longer term though. The bonus categories aren’t very exciting; other than when paying for bundles on Breeze flights, you earn 2x on groceries and restaurants and 1x everywhere else. You can get that or better on a regular 2%/2x card, so unless you’re spending a lot on their bundles, you’ll be hard pressed earning enough BreezePoints to offset the annual fee versus other card options.

The bundles is where the Breeze Airways credit card becomes misleading. On the card’s landing page it says you can earn the following:

• Earn up to 10X BreezePoints on Nicer Bundles, Nicest Bundles and Trip Add-Ons, that’s 5X when you buy, plus 5X when you fly
• Earn up to 4X BreezePoints on Nice Bundles, that’s 2X when you buy, plus 2X when you fly
• Earn up to 2X on No Flex Fares, that’s 1X when you buy, plus 1X when you fly

At first glance, that makes it seem like paying for flights and bundles with the Breeze credit card will earn you 10x, 4x or 2x depending on which flights and bundles you buy. That’s not the case though – Barclays is listing the earnings you’ll get when combined with what you’ll earn separately via Breeze’s loyalty program. You’ll earn 5x, 2x or 1x respectively via the loyalty program which means the credit card only offers 5x, 2x or 1x respectively too. While 5x is a better return than is offered by most cobranded airline credit cards for spending on their own flights, it’s certainly not as good as the 10x rate that your eye will initially be drawn to. That 5x is also only earned with certain bundles and trip add-ons; for a regular Breeze flight, you’ll only earn 1x which is worse than most cobranded credit cards for other airlines.

The card does have a couple of big spend bonuses, although the emphasis there is on the big spend and less on the bonuses. When spending $10,000 on the card in a cardmember year you earn 7,500 BreezePoints (i.e. $75 that can only be spent with Breeze.) That’s a 0.75% additional return which means it won’t be worth making any great effort to achieve, but is nice to have if you’re putting that much spend on the card anyway.

For every $15,000 in purchases in a calendar year, you also get a one-way bundle upgrade. Breeze offers Nice, Nicer and Nicest bundles, but the terms and conditions of the card don’t state which bundle you’ll earn and so I suspect it’s the lower Nice bundle you’ll get. It’s also not clear how much those normally cost; a flat price isn’t listed on their website, so I suspect the price varies depending on the cost of the flight itself seeing as their bundles include bonus points.

Unlike most airline credit cards that come with an annual fee, the Breeze Easy Visa card doesn’t offer a free checked bag. Unless you pay more for one of their bundles when booking a flight, you don’t even get a free carry-on bag. Paying an $89 annual fee for an airline’s credit card and not even getting a free carry-on is a big miss in my book.

Despite that, cardmembers do get a couple of benefits when traveling with Breeze. If the aircraft is equipped with WiFi, you’ll get complimentary in-flight WiFi. Cardmembers and your companions also get Group 1 priority boarding.

Overall, I’m mildly impressed with the card’s welcome offer as 50,000 BreezePoints is more than I would’ve expected from the airline, but other than that the card isn’t particularly appealing given its $89 annual fee and lack of a free checked – or even carry-on – bag as a cardholder.

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