Frontier Airlines Frontier Miles Loyalty Program Review

Q: Does Frontier have a loyalty program?

Yes, Frontier Miles is Frontier’s loyalty program.

Q: Do Frontier miles expire?

Yes, your Frontier miles will expire after just 6 months of account inactivity. The only way to extend your miles in is by earning more miles by flying with Frontier or by holding the Frontier Airlines World card. However, if your miles do expire, Frontier can reinstate the miles for you for a fee based on the number of miles you had expire.

Q: How much are Frontier miles worth?

On average, you’ll usually get around 1 cent to 1.1 cents per mile when redeeming your Frontier miles, though it is possible to get a higher value than that when booking during peak season.

Q: Can you redeem your Frontier miles for baggage?

No, at this time you cannot redeem your Frontier miles for baggage, seat selection, or any other ancillaries. The only thing you can redeem your Frontier miles towards is Frontier flights and magazines.

Q: Is there a minimum number of Frontier miles needed for a redemption?

Yes, Value tickets start at 10,000 miles for flights within the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and 15,000 miles for flights to Mexico, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic. For standard tickets, the number of miles jumps to 20,000 and 25,000, respectively.

Q: How many miles do you earn on Frontier flights?

With Frontier, you’ll earn miles based on how many miles you’ve flown, regardless of the cash cost of the ticket. So if the flight distance from Denver to Chicago is 888 miles, you’ll earn 888 redeemable miles for taking that flight.

Q: When does Frontier elite status expire?

Your Frontier status will be good throughout the rest of the year that you earn it, and all of the following year. For example, if you earn Frontier 50K status in September of 2021, your status is good until December 31, 2022. But you’ll need to requalify in 2022 in order to extend it beyond that.

Jarrod West

- Updated: March 28, 2023

Travel /
Airlines

We may be compensated when you click on product links, such as credit cards, from one or more of our advertising partners. Terms apply to the offers below. See our Advertiser Disclosure for more about our partners, how we make money, and our rating methodology. Opinions and recommendations are ours alone.

Airline Summary Table

Home Country U.S.
Airline Website flyfrontier.com
Loyalty Program Frontier Miles
Major Hubs Atlanta, Chicago-O'Hare, Cleveland, Denver, Las Vegas, Miami, Orlando, Philadelphia, Tampa, Trenton
Airline Alliance N/A
Points Are Worth 1.1 cents per point
Signature Lounge N/A
Earn Points/Miles The Best Ways To Earn Lots of Frontier Miles
Redeem Points/Miles The Best Ways To Redeem Frontier Airlines Miles for Maximum Value
Airline Review
- Frontier Airlines Boarding Zones & Process — Everything You Need To Know
- Frontier Airlines Review — Seats, Amenities, Customer Service, Baggage Fees & More
Airline Fees
- How To Cancel a Frontier Airlines Flight [Points or Cash Ticket]
- Frontier Airlines Baggage Fees & Tips To Cover the Expenses

Branded and Partnered Credit Cards

Frontier Airlines World Mastercard Card Art — Image Credit: Frontier

With Frontier, you have just 1 co-branded credit card option that earns Frontier miles directly — the Frontier Airlines World Mastercard® from Barclays.

The card comes with a $79 annual fee and a sign-up bonus of up to 60,000 miles — 40,000 bonus miles after spending $500 on purchases within the first 90 days and an additional 20,000 bonus miles after spending $2,000 on purchases within the first 6 months. This bonus is worth $660 towards Frontier flights based on our valuation of Frontier miles.

Rewards Rates

The Frontier Airlines World card earn miles at the following rates:

5x miles per $1 on eligible purchases at flyfrontier.com (including airfare, hotels, and car rentals purchased directly from Frontier)
3x miles per $1 on restaurant purchases
1x mile per $1 on all other purchases

Card Benefits

Cardholders enjoy the following Frontier perks as well:

Earn 1 Qualifying Mile towards Frontier elite status with every $1 spent on purchases
Unlock family pooling to be able to share miles with your friends and family
Earn a $100 Flight Voucher every year after spending $2,500 or more on purchases with your card during your card membership year
Your miles never expire
Redeem your miles with no blackout dates
Zone 2 priority boarding
Award redemption fee waiver

Each of these perks makes it easier to get even more value out of each Frontier flight you take!

Marriott Bonvoy Credit Cards

Chase and American Express offer many great Marriott Bonvoy credit cards to choose from, and Marriott Bonvoy points transfer to Frontier at a 3:1 rate, plus a 5,000 miles bonus when you transfer 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.

This could be a worthwhile way to top off your Frontier balance if you’re close to a specific redemption, but you should generally try to avoid transferring your Marriott Bonvoy points to Frontier and instead opt for a partner that offers higher-value redemptions.

Loyalty Program Overview

The Frontier Miles program is pretty basic as far as frequent flyer programs go. You’ll earn 1 mile per 1 mile flown, and then you can easily redeem those miles for reward flights with Frontier.

Joining Frontier Miles

Getting a Frontier Miles account couldn’t be easier. All you need to do is head to flyfrontier.com, hover over the myFRONTIER tab, and then click Sign Up Today. From there you’ll enter your email, create a password, and fill in all your personal details, and then boom — you’re done!

Once you’ve done this you’ll be given your Frontier loyalty number which will be added to each of your Frontier flights so you can start earning and redeeming miles.

How To Access Your Frontier Account

To sign in to your account, you just need to click log in in the top right-hand corner of the screen, enter your email or Frontier Miles number, along with password, and then click log in.

Viewing Your Account Activity

Frontier Account Dashboard — Frontier Miles account dashboard. Image Credit: Frontier

After you’ve logged in to your account, in the top right-hand corner of the screen you should see your name followed by your Frontier mileage balance. Simply click on your name, and then click View My Profile.

From there you’ll be able to see your entire account dashboard, which includes your membership number, your mileage balance, settings, your elite status level, a map of where you’ve flown with Frontier, and your total distance flown with Frontier.

Below that you can view and access any upcoming trips you have planned in case you need to make any changes or cancellations.

You’ll also see a myMiles section near the bottom of the page that shows you how many miles away you are from your next Frontier award flight. Award flights with Frontier start at 10,000 per way and increase from there to 40,000, depending on destination and demand.

Miles Expiration

Frontier has a pretty brutal policy when it comes to mileage expiration, as all of your Frontier miles will expire after just 6 months of inactivity. Further, redeeming some of your miles will not extend the expiration of your remaining miles.

The only way to extend the miles in your Frontier account by another 6 months is by earning more miles by flying with Frontier or by holding the Frontier Airlines World card.

Loyalty Program Benefits

Frontier livery on aircraft — Image Credit: Frontier

Frontier Elite Status

Frontier offers flyers 3 levels of elite status: Elite 20K, Elite 50K, and Elite 100K.

Each status tier comes with the following benefits:

Frontier Elite 20K Benefits

Free carry-on bag
Free seat assignment
Access to family pooling
Priority boarding
Waived award redemption fees
Last seat availability
Stretch seating upgrades at check-in

Frontier Elite 50K Benefits

At this tier, you’ll receive all Frontier Elite 20K benefits plus:

Stretch seating upgrades at booking
Family seating
50% off a Discount Den membership
25% bonus miles on flights

Frontier Elite 100K Benefits

Top-tier Elite 100K status includes all Elite 50K benefits plus:

Free Discount Den membership
50% bonus miles on flights
Free checked bag
Free “The Works” bundle on each flight (which includes 100% refundability)

Value of Frontier Elite Status

Placing a value on Frontier status will largely come down to how often your fly with the carrier.

It is worth pointing out that you can get many of the benefits of Elite 20K status, like priority boarding, family pooling, and award redemption fee waivers, just by holding the Frontier Airlines World card.

However, other key benefits like a free carry-on bag, free seat assignments, and upgrades to stretch seating at check-in will certainly come in handy if you fly with Frontier often.

Earning Frontier Elite Status

Working your way towards elite status with Frontier is extremely straightforward when compared to other programs.

For starters, there is no set spend requirement that you must meet for each level, only a flight distance requirement.

As you can probably guess, Elite 20K status requires that you fly 20,000 miles with Frontier in a calendar year, with 50,000 miles required for Elite 50K status, and 100,000 miles required for Elite 100K status.

While this might seem like quite a lot of flying throughout the year, and it certainly is especially at the 50K and 100K levels, keep in mind that you can also earn 1 qualifying mile for every $1 spent on the Frontier Airlines World card.

This allows you to work your way towards staus both by flying and by the everyday spending you make with your credit card.

How To Earn Frontier Miles

Frontier aircraft interior — Image Credit: Frontier

There are quite a few ways for you to earn Frontier miles, but here are the 3 major ways:

Earn Miles Through Flying

Naturally, the most obvious way to earn Frontier miles is by flying with Frontier!

While most other airlines reward miles based on the cash cost of the ticket, you’ll earn Frontier miles based on how far you’ve flown, regardless of the cash cost of the fare.

For example, if you fly 1,546 miles from Denver (DEN) to Orlando (MCO), you’ll earn 1,546 redeemable Frontier miles. This jumps even more with the 25% bonus for Elite 50K status, netting you 1,932 miles, and the 50% bonus for Elite 100K status, which would earn you 2,319 miles.

Earn Miles Through Credit Cards

As covered previously, you have a few options when it comes to earning Frontier miles with credit cards.

Your main, and best, option would be to use the Frontier Airlines World card that earns you 5x miles per $1 spent on Frontier flights, 3x miles per $1 spent at restaurants, and 1x mile per $1 on all other purchases.

Similarly, you could also use one of the many Marriott Bonvoy credit cards, as Marriott Bonvoy points can be transferred at a 3:1 rate to Frontier — but this is generally a poor value proposition for your Marriott Bonvoy points.

Earn Miles From Hotel Partners

Marriott

When you stay at Marriott hotels, you can opt to earn Frontier miles during your stay instead of Marriott Bonvoy points. For most full service, premium, and luxury Marriott brands you’ll earn 2x Frontier miles per $1 spent, while you’ll earn just 1x mile per $1 spent at lower-end brands.

Wyndham

Similarly, you can earn Frontier miles instead of Wyndham Rewards points during your Wyndham hotel stays. The amount of Frontier miles you’ll earn is based on your elite status level with Wyndham at the following rates:

Wyndham Rewards Elite Status Level	Miles Earned
Blue and Gold	1x mile per $1
Platinum and Diamond	2x miles per $1

Radisson

Lastly, there is Radisson, which doesn’t allow you to earn Frontier miles for your Radisson Hotels Americas stays directly, but after you’ve earned your Radisson Rewards Americas points you can transfer them to your Frontier account at a 10:1 rate.

Earn Miles From Rental Car Partners

You can also earn Frontier miles with Frontier’s various rental car partners. If you rent cars rather infrequently and don’t really have a good use for accruing points within the rental car program, then this could be a great option for you.

Here’s a look at all of Frontier’s rental car partners and the rates you’ll earn miles at:

Brand	Miles Earned
Avis	Up to 500 per rental
Alamo	50 per day, 500 per 5+ day rental
Budget	500 per 3 to 4 day rental, 1,000 per 5+ day rental
Dollar	50 per day, 500 per 5+ day rental
Hertz	Up to 500 per rental
National	50 per day, 500 per 5+ day rental
Thrifty	50 per day, 500 per 5+ day rental

Earn Miles With Other Partners

Frontier offers partnerships with many other companies like cruise lines and merchants like FTD Flowers, Vinesse Wines, and many more, all of which will allow you to earn Frontier miles when making purchases through them.

Purchase Frontier Miles

You can also easily purchase Frontier miles through points.com if you’re ever short, but it is generally a very bad deal to do so. This is because points.com sells Frontier miles at 2.5 cents per mile, but you’ll pretty much always get just 1 to 1.1 cents per mile when redeeming them.

How To Redeem Frontier Miles

When it comes to redeeming your Frontier miles, you’ve got 2 main options: for Frontier flights or towards magazines. Only one of those is actually a great option, and that is Frontier flights — here’s why.

Redeeming for Frontier Flights

When it comes to redeeming your Frontier miles, redeeming them for flights is by far your best option. First, let’s take a quick look at the Frontier award chart.

Award Travel Type	Value Ticket	Standard Ticket	Last Seat (Elite Only)
Frontier Award Chart
Travel Within U.S. & Puerto Rico
One-way	10,000 miles	20,000 miles	22,500 miles
Round-trip	20,000 miles	40,000 miles	45,000 miles
Travel To/From Mexico, Dominican Republic, Jamaica
One-way	15,000 miles	25,000 miles	27,500 miles
Round-trip	30,000 miles	50,000 miles	55,000 miles

As you can see, these award rates, even at the standard level, are generally pretty reasonable. With one-way tickets in the U.S. and Puerto Rico costing just 10,000 to 20,000 miles and one-way tickets to Mexico and the Caribbean costing just 15,000 to 25,000 miles.

However, it is important to keep in mind that Frontier is a low-cost carrier, and cash tickets for these flights are usually pretty inexpensive when compared to other airlines that fly to these destinations.

Given that, you’ll usually receive around 1.1. cents per mile when redeeming for Frontier award tickets, though it is certainly possible to get significantly more value if you redeem your miles when the cash price for your ticket is very high during peak travel season in the summer months.

You’ll also want to keep in mind that Frontier charges the following redemption fees on award tickets, which will no doubt cut into the overall value you’re receiving when booking an award ticket.

180+ days before travel: Free
21 to 179 days before travel: $15
7 to 20 days before travel: $50
<6 days before travel: $75

Aside from booking 180+ days before you plan to travel, there are a few ways to avoid paying redemption fees on your award tickets, the easiest of which is by having the Frontier Airlines World card, but all Frontier elite members also receive waived redemption fees.

Redeeming Towards Magazines

Through MagsforMiles, redemptions using your Frontier miles start at just 600 miles for a subscription. But unless you’re regularly purchasing these magazine subscriptions already, then this is probably a poor use of your miles, and you’d be better off just saving up until you have enough for an award ticket.

The information regarding the Frontier Airlines World Mastercard® was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.

For rates and fees of the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card, click here.

Featured Image Credit: Frontier

Frequently asked questions

Does Frontier have a loyalty program?

Yes, Frontier Miles is Frontier's loyalty program.

Do Frontier miles expire?

Yes, your Frontier miles will expire after just 6 months of account inactivity.

The only way to extend your miles in is by earning more miles by flying with Frontier or by holding the Frontier Airlines World card.

However, if your miles do expire, Frontier can reinstate the miles for you for a fee based on the number of miles you had expire.

How much are Frontier miles worth?

On average, you'll usually get around 1 cent to 1.1 cents per mile when redeeming your Frontier miles, though it is possible to get a higher value than that when booking during peak season.

Can you redeem your Frontier miles for baggage?

No, at this time you cannot redeem your Frontier miles for baggage, seat selection, or any other ancillaries. The only thing you can redeem your Frontier miles towards is Frontier flights and magazines.

Is there a minimum number of Frontier miles needed for a redemption?

Yes, Value tickets start at 10,000 miles for flights within the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and 15,000 miles for flights to Mexico, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic. For standard tickets, the number of miles jumps to 20,000 and 25,000, respectively.

How many miles do you earn on Frontier flights?

With Frontier, you'll earn miles based on how many miles you've flown, regardless of the cash cost of the ticket. So if the flight distance from Denver to Chicago is 888 miles, you'll earn 888 redeemable miles for taking that flight.

When does Frontier elite status expire?

Your Frontier status will be good throughout the rest of the year that you earn it, and all of the following year.

For example, if you earn Frontier 50K status in September of 2021, your status is good until December 31, 2022. But you'll need to requalify in 2022 in order to extend it beyond that.

About Jarrod West

Jarrod has been writing about the ins and outs of credit cards and loyalty programs, along with airlines and hotels, for over 6 years. He is regularly called upon to share his expertise on the latest news within the space, and has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, RetailMeNot, and Yahoo! Finance. Jarrod has over 20 credit cards in his wallet and has tested out dozens more in order to vet the very best card options for readers. As he is constantly sampling new cards, Jarrod also earns (and redeems) over 1 million points and miles each year. This allows him to book luxury travel experiences the world over, and save tens of thousands of dollars in the process.

Airline Summary Table

Branded and Partnered Credit Cards

Rewards Rates

Card Benefits

Marriott Bonvoy Credit Cards

Loyalty Program Overview

Joining Frontier Miles

How To Access Your Frontier Account

Viewing Your Account Activity

Miles Expiration

Loyalty Program Benefits

Frontier Elite Status

Value of Frontier Elite Status

Earning Frontier Elite Status

How To Earn Frontier Miles

Earn Miles Through Flying

Earn Miles Through Credit Cards

Earn Miles From Hotel Partners

Marriott

Wyndham

Radisson

Earn Miles From Rental Car Partners

Earn Miles With Other Partners

Purchase Frontier Miles

How To Redeem Frontier Miles

Redeeming for Frontier Flights

Frontier Award Chart

Redeeming Towards Magazines

Frequently asked questions

Does Frontier have a loyalty program?

Do Frontier miles expire?

How much are Frontier miles worth?

Can you redeem your Frontier miles for baggage?

Is there a minimum number of Frontier miles needed for a redemption?

How many miles do you earn on Frontier flights?

When does Frontier elite status expire?

About Jarrod West

Any thoughts or questions? Comment below! Cancel reply

Related Articles

Advertiser Disclosure