Update – This offer is now EXPIRED
Frontier Airlines is a lesser-known budget airline that actually has a pretty decent nationwide footprint using its main central hub at Denver. (see route map). For example, you could fly from Los Angeles to New York La Guardia or from Seattle to Orlando (with a stop in Denver). They also fly to Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Mexico.
I looked this up because The Frontier Airlines World MasterCard® currently has a sign-up bonus of 50,000 miles. You get 40,000 bonus miles after spending $500 in purchases in the first 90 days, and another potential 10,000 bonus miles on balance transfers (1 mile per $1 transferred) in the first 90 days. The extra 10,000 balance transfer miles aren’t really worth it due to the 3% balance transfer fee (there are better no-fee balance transfer options).
The good news is that it only takes 20,000 miles to book a roundtrip award ticket anywhere in the US that they fly. (Roundtrip awards from US to Mexico and Costa Rica are only 30,000 miles.) This means 40,000 miles is enough for 2 domestic roundtrip award tickets (subject to government fees/taxes of $2.50 per leg). I just quickly priced out a San Francisco to New York La Guardia flight and it was $385 roundtrip per person. That’s over $750 of potential value right there.
You will need to subtract out the $69 annual fee that is not waived for the first year. However, the spending requirement is relatively low at $500 within 90 days and the issuer is Barclaycard. This makes it a good option if you’ve already gotten the good cards from the other major issuers like I have. The only Barclaycard that I have so far is the Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® with $400+ value bonus, but this card can actually offer more value if your flight plans match up with their routes.
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Have you flown them? I haven’t , but I’ve heard bad things. They charge for carry-ons and have some horrible reviews.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/frontier-airlines-denver-4
http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/airlines/frontier-airlines/
I’ve never flown them and haven’t heard either good or bad things, but I suspect they are on the same level as AirTran which I have flown. Every airline is going to get 1-star reviews, check out the same page for Delta:
http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/airlines/delta-air-lines/
Basically I’d take a free flight on any FAA-approved US airline but I probably wouldn’t pay for a Frontier flight unless it was significantly cheaper than an airline where I am trying to collect miles/status.
Since I don’t travel, I’m curious if they have gift card cash out options for the miles. $400 in GCs – $69 = $331 net is decent for $500 in spend.
@Brad: Frontier is a good airline. I’ve flown with them multiple times from NYC to DEN. However, they are increasing fees and are giving into the fees that the major airlines are charging. It used to be one of the most popular airlines in Denver before Southwest took over.
I’ve flown Frontier a ton since my family is in Denver. They *used* to be a great airline – super cheap, friendly and on-time. But they got into financial trouble a few years ago and ever since the service has gone downhill and the costs up. Southwest and United (DEN hub) are so much better and Frontier is the carrier of last resort for me.