5 Ways You Can Benefit From Frontier’s Revamped Loyalty Program

Reyna Gobel
By Reyna Gobel 
Published
Edited by Mary M. Flory

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If you’ve flown a discount airline such as Frontier Airlines, you may have paid for every convenience from assigned seats to carry-on luggage. But there’s good news from Frontier.

The carrier remodeled its frequent flyer program, giving customers more perks, including easier ways to earn Elite status, which typically is awarded to travelers who fly a lot of miles. The status comes with special privileges that often eliminate fees for luggage and assigned seats. The rebranded program, with a name change from EarlyReturns to Frontier Miles, offers three tiers of Elite status and lets you pool miles with up to eight members of the Frontier Miles program to redeem an award ticket.

Here’s what you need to know about Frontier Miles’ Elite status and five ways to take advantage of it:

  1. You can get Elite status this year by flying two round trips to anywhere Frontier flies. All you have to do is book and complete two trips by Oct. 15 to earn the Elite status through the end of this year. Called the Elite 20K, that status is typically gained by flying 20,000 qualifying miles or 25 segments per year.

  2. You can pick friends and family members for mileage pooling. You can pick any eight people with whom you want to share miles under the Elite status. Those eight people can be family members, coworkers, friends or classmates. But one person does have to qualify by having elite status or becoming a Frontier Airlines World Mastercard® card holder.

  3. You can pool miles and pay for others’ tickets. For instance, let’s say you have a family of four. If your Frontier mileage program balance isn’t enough to buy a round-trip ticket but if together you have enough miles, you can pool them for one ticket while paying for the rest.

  4. You don’t have to pay for a seat assignment or carry-on bag. This benefit is available at the 20K level. In addition, when you move up to the 50K tier by earning 50,000 miles in a calendar year via flights and/or credit card purchases, you can get upgraded seats for your entire family. At the 100K level, you also get a free checked bag per ticket, your airfares are fully refundable, and you don’t incur ticket change fees for yourself or family members.

  5. You can earn status with the Frontier Airlines Mastercard. While there are bonus miles for using your Frontier-branded credit card to book flights on the airline and making other purchases, you can also earn Elite status at the rate of one point per dollar spent. So if you spend $20,000 in a calendar year, you can earn points for travel and status even without buying airfare with your card. The card does, however, have a $79 annual fee.


How to maximize your rewards

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Travel Cards from Our Partners
Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card

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NerdWallet Rating
Rewards rate

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1.5%-6.5%

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Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

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4.7
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Rewards rate

2x-5x

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Enjoy a one-time bonus of 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel.

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