The Guide to Frontier Miles

With more than 100 planes flying to about 120 destinations, Frontier Airlines is known for low fares and no frills. While you won’t find many onboard perks, frequent flyers can benefit from Frontier Miles, the airline’s surprisingly rewarding loyalty program. Platinum and Diamond elite members can even bring a companion on every flight for just the cost of taxes and fees.

Here’s how it works.

What’s the value of Frontier miles?

Based on NerdWallet analysis, Frontier miles are worth about 1.5 cents each.

To determine the value of reward miles, NerdWallet compared cash prices and reward redemptions for economy round-trip routes across several destinations and dates. We divided the cost of the cash ticket by the cost of the reward ticket to determine a “cent per mile” value for each flight, then averaged this value across several flights and dates.

» Learn more: How much are Frontier miles worth?

Earning miles and points

Frontier Miles is free to join and you can earn miles to apply to award flights and points towards elite status. For every dollar you spend on flights and eligible purchases on Flyfrontier.com, you can earn 10 miles and 10 points as a base member.

That earning rate goes up for Elite status members.

Miles are the currency you can redeem for free flights, and they don’t expire as long as a qualifying activity happens annually on your account.

» Learn More: Your guide to earning miles with Frontier Airlines

You can also earn miles with travel partners like rental car companies, hotels and more or by using Frontier's credit card.

Redeeming Frontier miles

One great thing about having frequent flyer miles is dreaming about how to redeem them.

Free flights using Frontier miles start at 5,000 miles. The airline has three different levels of award ticket redemption levels.

• Value award: Tickets start at 5,000 miles each way plus taxes and fees. 

• Standard award: More availability than value awards, and tickets start at 20,000 miles each way plus taxes and fees.

Last Seat award: Allows elite passengers only to book any flight that has an available seat. Tickets start at 22,500 miles each way plus taxes and fees.

Redemption costs are higher on flights to destinations outside the continental U.S.

When you’re ready to redeem miles for flights, log into your account and search for a flight using miles instead of dollars.

For instance, we found a nonstop flight from Tampa to Denver that cost 10,000 miles and $6 in taxes.

After you select your flight, you can complete the booking using miles from your account.

If you’re a few miles short, you can buy miles, but keep in mind this could cost more than just buying a ticket with money in the first place.

Buying miles costs $0.025 per mile for 1,000-30,000 miles, so 1,000 miles would cost $25 and 10,000 miles would be $250. The same ticket from Tampa to Denver that cost 10,000 miles only costs $129 if you paid in cash, so buying 10,000 miles for $250 would not be a smart idea.

There are no blackout dates for award flights, but there are only a certain number of seats available on each flight.

You can only redeem miles for flights, not for things like bag fees and seat selection.

Earning Frontier Elite Status

Elite status with Frontier unlocks additional perks, and qualifying is straightforward. You earn points towards elite qualification the same way you earn miles – by making purchases on the airline’s website or with the co-branded credit card.

Points and miles with Frontier are not interchangeable; miles are the currency you’ll use for award flights, while points are used for earning elite status. Still, having status means you’ll earn more of those redeemable miles when you fly.

Frontier has four levels of Elite Status: Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond. You need to rack up quite a few points to unlock higher status levels, but you unlock a faster earning rate on both points and miles by doing so.

• Elite Silver: 10,000 points to earn, and then the earning rate is 12x for both points and miles.

• Elite Gold: 20,000 points to earn, and then the earning rate is 14x for both points and miles.

• Elite Platinum: 50,000 points to earn, and then the earning rate is 16x for both points and miles.

• Elite Diamond: 100,000 points to earn, and then the earning rate is 20x for both points and miles.

You’ll need to earn points each calendar year and re-qualify for status.

Benefits of Elite status

Passengers with elite status might be able to change a flight, check a bag, select a seat and board early for free.

Changes or cancellations

Starting with Silver status, all passengers on a booking will be able to change or cancel a flight at least seven days before departure without a fee.

Without status, there isn’t a charge if you change a flight more than 60 days before departure, but there is a $49 fee if it’s between 59 and seven days before departure. Changes made six days or less prior to departure incur a $99 change fee. These charges apply to basic and standard fares, with select other fare classes charging no change fee.

For cancellations, there is a $99 fee no matter when you cancel the flight for basic and standard fares. Exceptions may apply to other fare classes.

Bag fees

Free bags of any kind don’t kick in until Elite Gold status, and then it’s only for the passenger with the status. Further, Gold status only comes with a free carry-on bag – not checked luggage.

Everyone on the booking gets a free carry-on and first checked bag for Elite Platinum members, with two free checked bags for Elite Diamond.

Remember, Frontier typically only gives you a personal item for free. Everything else has a fee, and that fee depends on what flight you’re taking and when you pay the fee.

The fee for a carry-on can be as low as $29 if you pay for it while booking the flight or as high as $99 if you do it at the gate. The first checked bag can be as little as $34 and as high as $99.

Seat selection

Since basic fares don’t include seat assignments, you might not end up sitting where you want if you don’t pay for a seat.

Elite members can also save on seat assignments. Different status levels offer complimentary seat selection as follows:

• Silver: Standard seat at booking, preferred seat at check-in for members only.

• Gold: Standard seat at booking, preferred seat at check-in, premium seat at check-in and UpFront Plus four hours before departure for members only. 

• Platinum: Standard or preferred seat at booking for members and others on the reservation. Premium Seat at booking for the member only and UpFront Plus 12 hours before departure.

• Diamond: Preferred or premium seat at booking or check-in for everyone on the booking. UpFront Plus 24 hours before departure.

Without status, seats on a flight from Tampa to Denver started at $32 for something in the back of the plane and as high as $75 for the front of the plane (UpFront Plus) with extra legroom and an empty middle seat.

Frontier plans to add first class seats to cabins sometime in late 2025.

Free companion travel

One of Frontier’s newest benefits for elite flyers is unlimited travel for a companion. All the second person has to pay are the government taxes and fees which start at $5.60.

The companion travel benefit is only available to Elite Platinum and Diamond members, for which qualification requirements start at 50,000 points. Once you earn the benefit, it’s active for as long as you have the status. Members can use it for all Frontier flights except for ones booked with passes (more on those later).

Any Frontier Miles member can be a companion, and you add the companion and their frequent flyer number when you book the ticket. The companion cannot be added later.

Unlike competitor Southwest’s Companion Pass, which requires you to designate a specific person to be a companion and that person can only change up to three times each year, Frontier’s companion benefit automatically applies to a second person on the booking. If more than one additional person is on a booking, the companion benefit will go to the person with the lowest level of elite status.

When you get all the way through the booking process to the payment page, you’ll get confirmation that the companion has been added. That companion will not earn any miles or points for the trip.

Here’s one kicker. You can’t use the companion benefit to book yourself an extra seat for more personal space. The name of the companion must be different from the primary flyer.

Other elite benefits

Elite passengers can also pool miles with family members, board early and get discounts on flight passes. Some can even travel with pets for free.

If you don’t have status, you can choose a bundle of seat selection, bags, priority boarding and more when you book your ticket. This might be cheaper than choosing them separately.

Frontier passes

In addition to low fares for individual flights, Frontier also offers several kinds of flight passes that allow you to unlock discounted fares or to take an unlimited number of flights during your membership period for one fee. You can earn miles and points towards status for buying some of the passes.

The Discount Den membership gives passengers access to lower fares, free flights for kids and other deals and promotions.

A new membership is $99.99 for the first year, plus a $40 enrollment fee, and $59.99 after that. Members still earn miles and status points for flights booked using the program.

There is also an annual all-you-can-fly pass called GoWild! and other seasonal passes.

With the GoWild! pass, you can fly on any flight, but flight confirmations won’t be available until the day before a domestic departure or 10 days before an international trip. If you need an earlier confirmation, you can pay an early booking charge. Being flexible is the key to getting the most out of these passes. When you book a flight with the GoWild! pass, you’ll pay just $0.01 in airfare, plus taxes and fees.

The annual GoWild! pass costs $699, or $149 monthly, with occasional discounts. Blackout dates apply, and bags or seats still cost extra — unless you have elite status, which covers eligible add-ons.