Frontier Airlines announced an all-you-can-fly “GoWild” deal for the upcoming 2023-2024 travel year – but is it a good deal?
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Frontier GoWild! All-You-Can Fly Pass
Frontier Airlines announced its GoWild! all-you-can-fly pass that allows purchasers to fly all they want on Frontier but with some serious restrictions. For a base price of $799 (they have sold out the introductory pricing $599 offer) here’s what you get from Frontier:
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“An unlimited number of flights
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Flights are available 300+ days a year
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Access to Frontier’s domestic and international destinations
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Travel that will keep your miles from expiring
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One low annual price for pass access to 12 months of travel
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Get confirmed bookings the day before flight departure for domestic travel and starting 10 days before flight departure for international travel”
Getting into the specifics, here are all of the restrictions of the pass:
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“Flights will be available to book and fly starting May 2, 2023
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Flights can be booked and confirmed the day before flight departure for domestic travel and starting 10 days before flight departure for international travel
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Flights must be booked at flyfrontier.com
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Flights are subject to blackout periods:
- 2023: May 25, 26, 29; June 29, 30; July 1-5, 8, 9; August 31; September 1, 4; October 5, 6, 9; November 18, 22, 24-27; December 16, 17, 22-24, 26-31;
- 2024: January 1, 15; February 15, 16, 19; March 3, 10, 15-17, 22-24, 29-31; April 5-7, 12-14. Blackout dates for May 2024 and beyond will be posted in advance of accepting any enrollments for pass periods which cover those dates.
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Flights do not include any add-on products (like bags or seats), you can still customize your travel
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Taxes, fees, and charges apply at the time of booking
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A fare of $0.01 will be charged for each segment booked
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Flights and seats are subject to availability; last seat availability is not guaranteed
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Travel not eligible to earn miles or status
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Travel qualifies as activity and will extend your FRONTIER Miles expiration
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The GoWild! Pass is non-transferable. The pass holder is the only allowed passenger to travel with GoWild! Pass privileges.
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Your Pass will automatically renew for successive one-year terms unless you cancel
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You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the United States to enroll in the GoWild! Pass”
For review, you can’t use the pass until May 2nd, 2023 and there are 52 days during the span that are ineligible. Domestic travel is only available a day before departure, international only available 10 days in advance. Flights will still cost at least $20.21 per one-way segment for taxes and 1¢ fares including a carrier interface charge that starts at approximately $14.60 per person per flight (because flights have to be booked at FrontierAirlines.com and not at the airport.) Though they have a seat available, it may not be open for GoWild! passholders. Travel will qualify as activity but flyers will not earn miles nor elite status from the pass and flights. It’s only bookable for the passholder, extras like checked bags or seat selection are still extra, it’s only available to US adults, and if not canceled it will renew automatically at $1,999.
Practical Value
The value of an unlimited flight pass might seem like a good value, but is it? For Denver, Orlando, or perhaps Philadelphia or Atlanta flyers this might be a no-brainer simply because it would only take one or two trips using the GoWild! pass to make sense. But let’s look further afield.
We covered some secondary airports of size last week for a different purpose where Frontier would struggle to prove value with this offer. Even looking at heavier markets like New York, flyers would no doubt have to connect in Orlando and Denver too to reach destinations outside of the eastern seaboard. The fourth largest market in the country, Houston, serves just four destinations between two airports. Dallas has (11) including Cancun but every other destination will require a connection. If we look at the Los Angeles metro and even throw in San Diego, it’s just a handful of destinations without a connection.
But many flyers connect to reach their destination every day, why is that a big deal? It’s only a big deal because of Frontier’s concentration in Denver. My home airports are Pittsburgh and Fort Myers, Florida. I have a choice of six destinations if not connecting in Denver. However, connecting in Denver and opening the network requires a cross-country flight and sometimes long connections. Most searches resulted in day-long trips with a potential for overnights or redeyes to make it to most destinations. Obviously, a connection from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles via Denver is reasonable and logical, but traversing Denver from Pittsburgh to New Orleans, Dallas, or Chicago starts to thin the value quickly.
These are one-way flights, so the return is not guaranteed meaning you may not know when you can come back home. That’s a huge issue for most travelers and an unintended consequence of the deal though the limitation is in plain English, black and white on the website.
Frontier also doesn’t fly to and from all destinations they list. This may mean that flights going out on a Tuesday won’t come back for a few days, again, subject to availability and last-seat availability does not qualify. Some destinations are Saturday-only service meaning that visitors would have to wait a whole week if they are not able to make that return flight.
For retirees, with homes in a market where Frontier serves both non-stop, this could have a high level of value.
Conclusion
At the introductory level of $599, I could see the GoWild! pass making sense to a wider audience, but at $799 with the limitations, the black out dates, the connection struggles, it seems less valuable to me. Many readers have reached out asking if this is a good deal, and for our Denver flyers, I’d recommend it. But the impracticality of it outside of Frontier direct cities makes it a hard pass for most consumers.
What do you think? Have you considered/did you purchase a GoWild! pass from Frontier Airlines? How will you use it?
No, it isn’t.
I live in the metro Denver area and do not consider this a great deal. Frontier is a crappy airline and I will happily pay more to fly on another carrier.
It’s no worse than any other airline. They’re all terrible for anyone 6′ tall…. Anyway awesome deal for a guy that owns his own business and likes to go hiking in rmnp or paddle boarding in Tampa for the weekend
It must be to the advantage of the airline not for the customer, otherwise, they wouldn’t do it. But there’s a sucker born every minute.
Well wouldn’t that logic apply to every item for sale by a business? Frontier can lose money on this deal on an average price per leg flown but still gain customers who wouldn’t normally fly them. Create loyalty etc. create brand awareness.
Frontier’s entry level elite status confers seat selection and a carry-on bag. I believe elite benefits would apply to pass holders, so it you could lock down 20K status by May, the value prop goes up a lot. It’s not for everyone, but there’s definitely value to be had.
I live in Austin. F9 only serves DEN and LAS, but even with 2 trips to each city over the course of a year, you’re probably coming close to breaking even. With a little creativity you could do a monthly trip and save a ton.
You could always book an alternative return and cancel if needed I guess. Would be fun to just cruise around lolll. Chi to Vegas for eg
If you fly a lot of Frontier already, and are extremely flexible on travel dates, it might make sense. But domestic travel only available a day before departure? And the same on the return trip? And seats may not be available under the Pass even if there are still seats available? I think you hit it right when you say it is really only good for retirees with homes in a market where Frontier serves both non-stop. The one person I know who has bought one is in that situation. But even there, with all of Christmas and New Years blacked out, and the last seat available not guaranteed, there is the possibility it will be about as useful as my UA Priority Points.
I’ve always wanted an all you can fly pass, however, this is not the one. Too many no no’s. I can’t imagine anyone buying one but a few people might not understand how restrictive the pass is. I guess I will still wish for a better flight pass.
Clearly you don’t like to take off and go hiking in Utah or rmnp for the weekend…. Two flights and it’s paid for
Not really. The flight fees you avoid are sometimes as low as $5 each way. The rest of the charges are taxes and fees that total over $100 much of the time, even$200. I bought it and I regret it.
I chose to buy one because I live in Austin and my daughters moved to DC and Denver as they both graduated in 2020.. The Denver daughter just had her 2nd daughter. I can hop a direct flight and go see either at any time as I am retired. I also have a daughter who lives with me and can take me to the airport. It’s a win win. Even if Denver is the hub to connect I can fly there and see my daughter then go to another destination. I also plan to use the international flights. I have spent at least this much on a few flights on Frontier this year. I realize I have to pay taxes but I will save on luggage as I have clothes at their homes and will just bring the free personal item which holds quite a lot. I can put 4 outfits and accessories in one. Really excited about this. Probably won’t renew though.
You need a Lawyer to explain the RESTRICTIONS. Cancel? You probably won’t get your money back.
That’s overly dramatic…. Who wants to waste money to attend a family fight anyway? My travel is reserved for good times, like hiking national parks on the weekends, couldn’t imagine wasting money to go to some city I’ve been to a 1000 times to hang around people I can’t hardly stand
If I were 18 and had my Dad’s credit card, this would be great!!
Sounds like a Euro Train Pass for North America.
At 64, I’m too old for such a scheme.
I’m more of the guided tour type guy now days.
I tend to agree with you. In a rush of the moment, I bought two passes, s we are retired couple. Now few days into it, I am unable to cancel the Go Wild Pass, though I haven’t use it yet. Apparently, there is 24-hour cancellation rule that is nowhere written (at least I couldn’t find it). This is not a good deal for even at $599.00. Buyer Beware, its false advertisement. I am working with BBB to get my money back.
I missed the $599 deal. If you can get it transferable in my name, I would buy one from you. I took to long to decide and now they have increased to $799. The increased price with the sur charges is not worth it. Being that I already am a Den Discount member of them.
Non-transferrable.
Hi Kyle please write a follow up article on this GoWild Pass…..I bought one and deeply regret it…..at most you are saving a few dollars on each flight because you still have to pay taxes and fees…..but it gets worse the Frontier website says you will be charged next year automatically unless you cancel your subscription by hitting the “cancel auto renewal button” at any time ……..except that feature doesn’t exist anywhere in their website. There is no cancel button…..help us by writing about this scam….