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Frontier Airlines is a Denver-based airline with flights throughout the continental US, Alaska, Mexico, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic.

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Frontier Destinations

Right now The Frontier Airlines World MasterCard® is offering 40,000 bonus miles after spending only $500 in the first 90 days.

That’s a huge sign up bonus for such a tiny minimum spending requirement. Making it even better is the fact that Frontier charges only 10k miles each way for a Standard award within the United States including Alaska. The sign up bonus is enough for two roundtrips within the US.

Frontier charges 15k miles each way to Central America and the Caribbean at the Standard level, so the sign up bonus is enough for one international roundtrip plus one domestic one way.

I think there are four types of Frontier awards that everyone should take a close look at:

  1. Alaska: Flights to Alaska in the summer are very expensive. If you can snag a Frontier award for 20k miles roundtrip, you are coming out way ahead! Frontier flies seasonally from Denver to Anchorage and Fairbanks.
  2. Small city pairs: Unlike most major US-based airlines, Frontier flies a lot of flights between non-hub cities like Cleveland to Orlando. If you can get a direct flight on a route that only Frontier serves, you can save a lot of time and a lot of miles by booking a Frontier award.
  3. To/from Denver: Frontier’s hub in Denver has flights to the rest of the country. Frontier miles are great if you want to go to/from Denver for only 10k miles each way.
  4. International: How does 30k miles roundtrip to go to the Caribbean or Central America sound? Pretty good to me.

What is the award space picture for these types of awards? What is my one big trick when using flyfrontier.com? How else can you get Frontier miles?

Alaska

Summer airfare to Alaska can be extremely expensive, so using miles is an attractive alternative.

American, United, US Airways, and Delta charge 25,000 miles for their Saver awards–when there is award space. (United charges 35k roundtrip since its devaluation.) Frontier charges only 20,000 miles roundtrip to Fairbanks and Anchorage at the Standard level.

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Award space isn’t as good as it was a few months ago. There is better space to Fairbanks than Anchorage, and better space at the beginning and end of the summer.

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Small City Pairs

Frontier has a hub at Denver and a few focus cities, but it also flies several point-to-point flights that don’t touch its hubs or focus cities, which is unusual in the United States.

For instance, Frontier is starting Cleveland to Orlando service in June 2014. Awards start at 10,000 miles each way. The 40,000 mile sign up bonus on the Frontier card is enough miles for two roundtrip awards on these routes.

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Don’t forget when searching for award space on flyfrontier.com that the calendar display is often incorrect! Just by clicking day-by-day, you’ll uncover a lot more Standard award space than just by trusting the calendar. (For more info, see the One Huge Trick with Frontier Award Booking section of this post.)

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To/From Denver

Frontier flies all over the country and internationally from its Denver hub.

Frontier Destinations from DEN
Frontier Destinations from DEN

I looked for a roundtrip from Denver to Washington DC this spring and found award space at the 10,000-miles-each-direction price on up to three daily flights.

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For two roundtrips, the award would cost 40,000 miles total, which is the bonus on the Frontier Airlines World MasterCard.

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International

Frontier flies to several Mexican beach destinations, Costa Rica’s two major airports, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic.

Awards are only 15,000 miles each way at the Standard level. I think there are some great options for open jaws like flying into Liberia, Costa Rica and out of San Jose, Costa Rica.

Or just spend a week in Cancun!

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At 30,000 miles roundtrip, international destinations like Cancun still leave 10k miles from the sign up bonus. That’s enough for another domestic one way.

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Recap

The Frontier Airlines World MasterCard® is offering 40,000 bonus miles after spending only $500 in the first 90 days. That’s enough miles for two roundtrips within the US including Alaska or more than enough for one international roundtrip on Frontier.

Or if you have Membership Rewards, they transfer 1:1 to Frontier miles.

Offer Details:

  • Earn 40,000 bonus miles after spending $500 in purchases in the first 90 days
  • Earn up to 10,000 bonus miles on balance transfers (1 mile per $1 transferred) in the first 90 days
  • Earn double miles on purchases at FlyFrontier.com and 1 mile per $1 on all other purchases
  • No blackout dates! Book any roundtrip award flight on Frontier starting at 20,000 miles (subject to fees/taxes from $5)
  • 0% Intro APR on purchases and balance transfers for the first 12 months. After that, a variable APR, currently 15.99% or 24.99% based on creditworthiness
  • $69 Annual Fee. Please see Terms and Conditions for complete details.

Application Link: The Frontier Airlines World MasterCard®

 

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