Should You Join the Frontier Airlines Discount Den? A Detailed Review

The Frontier Airlines Discount Den membership can save money with low fares on an already low-cost carrier. Members get exclusive discounts, early-access promotions, and a family-friendly Kids Fly Free program. 

Does the Discount Den add up to savings? It depends on your travel style with Frontier.

We analyze the numbers and weigh the pros and cons of this discount flight membership.

Frontier Airlines Discount Den Explained

Frontier Airlines Discount Den is a membership you can purchase to get lower fares on Frontier Airlines flights. The membership lasts for a year and includes perks such as reduced fares, Kids Fly Free, and special promotions.

The annual membership costs $99.99 for new members and $59.99 for renewals. If you let your membership lapse, you have to pay the $40 enrollment fee for a total of $99.99, just like a new member. Membership fees are nonrefundable and renew automatically.

Frontier Airlines guarantees that Discount Den fares are the lowest on flyfrontier.com and the Frontier Airlines mobile app for the same flight, excluding GoWild! Pass fares. You can book Discount Den fares for up to 8 other people on your reservation. Kids Fly Free benefits are available on select dates and flights. For every adult Discount Den fare purchased, 1 kid under 15 can fly for free. 

Although you have to pay for a Discount Den membership, it’s marketed as a money-saving tool for frequent travelers. How much you can save — and if you save more than the membership cost — depends on how you fly with Frontier. 

Bottom Line:

If you’re booking as a couple or family and fly with Frontier Airlines at least twice a year, your savings could outweigh the membership cost. Solo travelers who infrequently fly with Frontier Airlines may see far less value.

How Much Can You Save With Frontier’s Discount Den?

Just as flight costs are highly variable, so are Discount Den savings. How much you save depends on how often you fly with Frontier, how many tickets you need to book, and the routes you take. We calculated a couple of scenarios to illustrate Discount Den savings potential.

Let’s say I’m booking a solo flight from Houston (IAH) to Los Angeles (LAX). The fares are low, with a Discount Den fare of $84 or $117 for a regular fare. That’s a 28% discount with $33 in savings.

There are not many savings with Discount Den when you’re looking at low-priced fares to start. The savings can be much greater if you fly with multiple passengers or consider Frontier for higher-priced fares.

For example, if I booked a flight from Houston (IAH) to New York (JFK) for myself and my husband, the savings potential would be much greater. We’d each save $38 round trip, giving us a $76 savings.

Neither the $33 savings to Los Angeles nor the $76 savings would be enough to offset the $99.99 new member fee for Discount Den, but if I were to take both of those trips in the same year, I’d save $109 and see savings over the membership fee. The savings would be greater if I only had a renewal membership of $59.99.

If you’re comparing Frontier Discount Den fares to other carriers, be sure to account for baggage fees, seat selection fees, and inflight snacks and drinks you plan to purchase. Membership in the Discount Den doesn’t offer savings on these extras that you might consider essential.

Bottom Line:

Doing the rough math on our example trips, you might save about $30 to $40 per round-trip flight. That’s not enough savings to make the Discount Den worth it, but it could be worthwhile for multiple trips.

Kids Fly Free: A Game Changer for Families?

A Discount Den membership can pay off for families taking advantage of the Kids Fly Free benefit. With Kids Fly Free, 1 kid under 15 can fly free for every adult Discount Den fare purchased. If you’re flying as a family of 4 with 2 kids, that cuts your fare cost in half. 

That, of course, assumes you can book a qualifying Kids Fly Free flight. These can be limited, as they are only available on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and have numerous exclusions. But you can save if you don’t mind weekday travel and can find a qualifying flight. The savings are on top of the Discount Den adult fares.

There are many stipulations for Kids Fly Free. The offer is valid for round-trip, domestic, nonstop travel within the continental U.S. in select markets, with flights, again, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays only. There are blackout dates, usually around major holidays, and a 14-day advance purchase is required. Some routes, such as Denver (DEN) to Orlando (MCO) and Dallas (DFW) to Los Angeles (LAX), are excluded from the offer.

Although I’ve saved with the Kids Fly Free benefit, it can be tough to apply. For example, I could book a trip from Houston (IAH) to San Francisco (SFO) for my family of 5. We could fly during the week and take a Tuesday flight out with a return on Wednesday, so we should qualify for Kids Fly Free. 

The problem? Kids Fly Free only applies to nonstop flights, and none were available in my search.

The trick to Kids Fly Free is finding nonstop routes with available flights. For me, that usually means destinations closer to my home in the Houston area. San Francisco is usually too far from Houston for nonstop Frontier flights, but we can typically find at least 1 nonstop flight to Denver on Frontier. 

When I searched for a flight to Denver, I hit the jackpot: low fares and nonstop flights for Kids Fly Free.

This booking would cost $324.80, which is $32.48 per person per flight — a great deal that’s probably cheaper than a road trip.

But the savings don’t add up too well when you compare Kids Fly Free and Discount Den to a regular fare. Without Discount Den (or Kids Fly Free) savings, those flights would cost $364.80, just a $40 difference. 

If you look closely, you’ll see that the Frontier fare costs were very low — just $17.10 for all 5 of us on the outbound flight and $26.40 on the return flight. What we’d pay for on those cheap flights are taxes and fees, which the Discount Den can’t help with.

With only a $40 savings, that’s not enough to justify paying the $59.99 renewal fee or the $99.99 new member sign-up fee if we only took this trip. But if we planned to take 2 or more flights like this on Frontier within the membership year, it could pay off.

Bottom Line:

The math might not work out for Kids Fly Free unless you can make the stars align with nonstop Tuesday or Wednesday flights with moderately priced fares.

Early Access Savings

Discount Den members are among the first to know about new deals and promotional fares, which can give you a head start on booking the cheap flights Frontier is known for. For example, Frontier might offer a limited $19 fare sale for certain routes. While these sales are open to everyone, Discount Den members could be among the first to snap up cheap fares with early alerts. Early access could give you rock-bottom pricing if you’re in a competitive market or targeting popular travel dates.

It’s tough to quantify the value of these savings, as it depends on how often you can take advantage of these early sales. If you save about $50 per flight and take advantage of sales twice yearly, you’d easily cover the annual membership fee. 

However, getting value out of early access requires major flexibility. You need to be ready to book immediately and be willing to work with the dates and destinations on sale.

Hot Tip:

Although promotional fares are limited, Discount Den savings on fares are available year-round.

Disconut Den Costs and Drawbacks

The Frontier Airlines Discount Den membership offers attractive benefits, especially if you can take advantage of fare sales and Kids Fly Free benefits. However, you should understand the limitations that can minimize its value:

• Other airlines may be cheaper.
• Connections may be long.
• Fares are nonrefundable, and change fees may apply.
• Seat selection, baggage, and snacks are extra.

Although Frontier is known for cheap fares, joining the Discount Den will not always get you the cheapest flights to your destination. 

Let’s look at the flight from IAH to JFK that we tested. Even with the Discount Den savings, it would cost $763.92. And we’d have to do a nearly 14-hour layover in Orlando.

Looking on Google Flights, I see that a combination of JetBlue and Delta could get us there and back for $504, which is about $260 less. That includes a free carry-on (which isn’t free on Frontier), and there’s only 1 short layover compared to the more than 13-hour layover with Frontier. 

Piecing together flights with Frontier can sometimes be an adventure. When I search my options on Frontier, I frequently see zany layovers. Sometimes, it’s fun, like the time we spent a night in Las Vegas on the way home from San Francisco, but generally, I only book nonstop Frontier flights because the layovers can be horrendous. That limits my options for good flights.

In the IAH-to-JFK example, we’d arrive in Orlando at about 1 a.m., spend the night and all day there before we fly out at 10 p.m., and get to JFK at 1 a.m. As much as I’d enjoy adding a day in Orlando to a New York trip, 2 straight days of travel and late nights would wipe us out before we got to our destination. 

On the way home, we’d leave at the early morning hour of 6 a.m., spend about 5 hours in Orlando, then fly home. That’s a nearly 11-hour travel day. There is zero chance I’m booking those flights.

If you’ve changed your mind about your Frontier flight? Good luck. Frontier Airlines does not refund fares unless you cancel within 24 hours of booking a flight 7 or more days before departure.

You could pay up to $99 to change your flight if you change it 6 days or less before departure. It’s $49 if you change it within 59 days of departure. The only way to avoid a change fee is to change it 60 days or more before departure or by purchasing an economy, premium, or business bundle or Bizfare.

Also, remember that everything on Frontier Airlines is extra, even for Discount Den members. You don’t get a discount on bags, seat selections, priority boarding, snacks, or drinks. You even have to pay an assistance charge of $25 per passenger per direction airport agent if you need help at the airport. There’s also a $5 online check-in fee per passenger per direction if you use the Frontier website to check in instead of the mobile app.

Bottom Line:

Frontier often has low fares, but it isn’t always the best deal. You can save by flying Frontier, especially if you have a Discount Den membership, but understand that you might not always find great routes and have to pay for extras. If you can find a direct flight and don’t need to pay for bags, seats, or service, Frontier’s Discount Den can open access to savings on good flights.

Tips for Making the Most of Discount Den

Maximizing the value of a Frontier Airlines Discount Den membership requires strategic travel planning. Use these tips to get the most savings from Discount Den:

• Book Early: Frontier’s lowest fares are often limited in quality, especially on popular routes and during peak travel periods. To secure the lowest fares, book as soon as you finalize your travel dates.
• Choose Flights Strategically: Nonstop flights tend to offer the most savings on Frontier, especially if you’re using Kids Fly Free benefits.
• Travel Flexibly and Lightly: If you don’t care where you sit on the plane and are comfortable with possibly being split up from travel companions, you can decline to choose a seat and avoid paying for a seat selection. If you can fit all your necessities into a personal bag such as a backpack, you can skip paying for a carry-on or checked bag.
• Buy Bundles for Extras: Although the Discount Den membership doesn’t apply to bundles, you can save on optional services with a bundle compared to buying these options separately. Additionally, purchasing a bundle can help you save on change fees if you need to adjust your flight.

Is Discount Den Worth It?

Whether Frontier Airlines’ Discount Den is worth it comes down to how often you fly with Frontier, your travel plan flexibility, and whether Frontier’s benefits align with your travel needs.

The $99.99 annual membership fee (or $59.99 renewal fee) can pay for itself if you’re a frequent traveler. My family often sees savings of $30 to $40 per trip, so we more or less break even on the membership cost if we take 2 to 3 trips per year with Frontier Airlines. If we can book Kids Fly Free flights, we can save more, but those can be tough to nail down, in my experience.

Discount Den is best for travelers who prioritize low fares, can be flexible with travel dates, and can live without amenities — or don’t mind paying for them.

If you’re not sure whether you should join, consider these factors that could make purchasing a Discount Den membership worth it:

• You fly with Frontier 2 or more times per year.
• You prioritize low fares over amenities.
• You’re flexible with travel dates.
• You travel as a family, usually on nonstop flights.

Discount Den isn’t for you if:

• You only fly Frontier once per year.
• You prioritize amenities such as baggage, seat selection, and flexible fares.
• You take flights that would usually require a layover on Frontier.

Bottom Line:

I’ve had a Discount Den membership for 2 years, and it’s helped me save on Frontier’s already low fares. But whether my family flies Frontier or not depends on whether I can find good flights for our travel dates. Sometimes, Frontier only has high-priced flights with long layovers for my desired travel dates and destination, and I look elsewhere for flights rather than using my Discount Den membership.

Frontier Airlines Discount Den vs. Spirit Airlines Saver$ Club

Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines are comparable low-cost airlines, and both have a savings membership. The Spirit Airlines membership is the Saver$ Club, which costs $69.95 whether you’re a new or renewing member. 

Saver$ Club offers low-fare access like Discount Den but doesn’t offer a discount on qualifying fares for children. However, it offers discounted prices on bags, seats, and other options (such as shortcut security), not just fares.

With its lower membership cost, it may be easier to justify the fee for Saver$ Club, especially if you plan to purchase bags, seats, or other options. However, the Discount Den could offer more savings if you can benefit from Kids Fly Free or fly more frequently with Frontier Airlines.

Final Thoughts

There are substantial savings to be had with the Frontier Airlines Discount Den, especially for frequent Frontier flyers and families who can take advantage of the Kids Fly Free benefit. However, the value of Discount Den depends on how often you fly with Frontier, how flexible you can be with travel dates, and whether your desired routes offer low-cost fares.

Discount Den has been worth it for my family, but it has drawbacks. There are limitations on Kids Fly Free Flights. Added seat selections, bags, and service costs can offset savings, and Frontier doesn’t always have the best or cheapest flight options.

The membership can be a worthwhile investment if you’re a frequent Frontier flyer and don’t mind a flight light on amenities. Other programs may be a better fit if you’re an occasional traveler and need more flexibility or amenities.