Frontier Airlines unlimited all-you-can-fly pass will cost $599, details released

Fewer things get frequent flyers more excited than the prospect of an all-you-can-fly pass.

It’s like an indulgent buffet of dreams in the sky for travelers. You can fly to as many places as you want and theoretically pay the same fixed price. In fact, one of the most iconic moments in modern-day era travel deals was in 2010 when JetBlue offered an unlimited Jet Pass for 30 days of flying.

A few weeks ago, Frontier Airlines announced an upcoming all-you-can-fly pass for 2023. Now we have the price and additional details on how this flight pass will work.

Frontier Airlines all-you-can-fly pass to cost $599 the first year

Frontier’s GoWild! Pass is on sale now to those who joined the advance notice list for $599 for the first year. A very important detail to note is that the pass will auto-renew at $1,999 the second year unless you cancel in time.

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I opted into their notification list when the pass was first announced, so I received an email and purchase link from that registration, though it appears the purchase link can be used by anyone who is ready to plunk the cash.

Once you pay for the pass itself, it’ll cost just $0.01 for the airfare as you use it — “plus applicable taxes, fees and other charges at the time of booking”. What is not yet clear is whether those will really be the $5.60 sort of taxes that are imposed on award tickets you book with most domestic airlines such as United and Southwest, or the much larger fee that Frontier sometimes passes on to its own flights.

For example, here’s a regularly available flight from Houston (IAH) to Orlando (MCO) that has the airfare at $1.28 and the taxes and carrier-imposed fees at $37.70. You will also be charged if you need any full-sized carry-on, checked bags or advance seat assignments.

Where you can fly with the Frontier GoWild! Pass

While Frontier’s first hints of information about the pass said that it would be able to access all the destinations that Frontier flies to, it seems that has changed.

The terms and conditions state that you will be able to fly as much as you want on Frontier between any of the U.S. destinations, including Puerto Rico. Presumably, that means Frontier’s service to countries such as Mexico, Jamaica and the Bahamas is off the menu.

You can view Frontier’s route map here.

Frontier Airlines plane at the gate in Cancun — ARTUR WIDAK/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES

Frontier GoWild! blackout dates

We knew that there would be blackout dates for this all-you-can-fly pass and now we have that list of at approximately 56 blackout dates in the first year. The pass will be eligible for use beginning on May 2, 2023, other than on these dates:

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
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 are not yet available.

How to use the Frontier flight pass

After you purchase the pass, you’ll search and book your flights on Frontier’s website. Unfortunately, there’s a pretty hefty catch. You won’t be able to use the Frontier GoWild! pass until the day before travel, which is when you can book and confirm your next flight. The terms continue to say that flights are subject to availability and that “last seat availability is not guaranteed”.

While flights on the pass will qualify as activity in your Frontier frequent flyer account for the purposes of extending the life of your miles, the flights on the pass will not earn miles or count towards earning Frontier elite status.

Is Frontier’s GoWild flight a good deal?

The idea of an all-you-can-fly pass is borderline intoxicating for travelers.

Ignoring — for now — the $1,999 renewal price, getting to fly around the country all year for $599 could be a good deal. But could is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

That’s assuming not only that you won’t regularly spend a lot on bags and seat assignments but also that you’ll be OK to not have confirmed flight plans until just one day before travel. Perhaps even more importantly, the value of this pass may come down to whether fares are really $0.01 plus just the $5.60 type of taxes and fees instead of the more than $37 in taxes and carrier fees Frontier currently assigns some of its domestic fares. TPG has reached out to Frontier for clarification on that point.

If indeed there turns out to be more than high fees attached to each booking, you may in many cases be better off just purchasing your travel on Frontier when fares pretty frequently dip to as low as $19 or $29 each way rather than ponying up $599 in advance without the ability to confirm plans ahead of time.

Bottom line

There’s an undeniable allure to knowing you can fly as much as you want for an entire year at a fixed price and I love the ingenuity put into this pass.

In an era where hybrid and remote work is still more common than it used to be, Frontier’s FlyWild! pass could be a great match for someone who has the freedom to go where the wind — and seat availability — takes them.

But there are catches — a lot of catches — and still some significant unknowns about exactly how much this pass will cost to use.