Frontier Airlines World Mastercard® review: A good value for Frontier loyalists

The Frontier Airlines World Mastercard is worth a look if you’re a frequent flyer who doesn’t care about traveling first class and has the option to fly frequently with Frontier Airlines. As a low-cost carrier, the price you pay for a ticket pretty much only buys you a seat. You’ll pay extra for anything else, including carry-on bags and checked bags. Like other co-branded airline cards, this card can erase some of those fees and provide useful benefits, which could add up to big savings. 

The Frontier card can provide enough ongoing value to offset the annual fee if you can take advantage of the perks. Here’s a look at how much value you can expect to earn based on our card value rating methodology, which assumes an annual spend of $22,500 and our latest point valuations of around 1.3 cents per point.

Frequent Frontier flyers can put the card’s perks to good use and easily offset the annual fee.

Perks: More value through regular use

The Frontier card’s perks shine when flying with them, which makes sense for a co-branded airline card. Here’s a look at all the flight benefits you can take advantage of:

• Priority boarding: You’ll get Zone 2 boarding on Frontier Airlines, which can help you get your luggage stowed before overhead space fills up.

• Free checked baggage: Primary cardholders get two free checked bags on flights operated by Frontier Airlines.

• $100 flight voucher: If you spend $2,500 or more in a year, you’ll get a $100 flight voucher on your account anniversary. This is a nice perk for a budget airline and covers the annual fee on its own. Many airlines that offer similar yearly vouchers require much higher spending.

• Award redemption fee waiver: If you book a Frontier flight with your rewards, you won’t have to pay an award fee as long as you use your card to cover any additional taxes and fees. Depending on when you book your travel, this perk could save you up to $75.

• Earn elite status through spending: You’ll earn 1X elite status point per dollar spent. You’ll hit status levels after earning the following:

  • Elite Silver: 10,000 points

  • Elite Gold: 20,000 points

  • Elite Platinum: 50,000 points

  • Elite Diamond: 100,000 points

Welcome offer: Easy boost

The Frontier Airlines card is currently offering 50,000 bonus miles and a $100 flight voucher after you spend $500 on purchases within 90 days of opening your account. You’ll also receive instant Elite Gold status after your first purchases within 90 days, which normally requires 20,000 points to earn and provides some solid additional benefits. Within those 90 days, you can maintain the status if you spend $3,000 in purchases. Otherwise, you’ll lose the status after the 90-day period is up.

This is an easy-to-earn and fairly valuable offer, especially for a budget airline. We value Frontier Miles at around 1.3 cents each, giving this offer an overall value of $650. Since Frontier award flights start at 10,000 miles, this welcome offer could get you multiple round-trip flights, and the flight voucher offsets the annual fee for the first year. 

Rates and fees: Easily offset annual fee

The Frontier Airlines Mastercard charges a $99 annual fee and no foreign transaction fees, which is on-par with many mid-tier travel cards. If you can earn and use the card’s $100 annual flight voucher perk and take advantage of the elevated rewards categories, it shouldn’t be difficult to offset.

The card also comes with a 0 percent intro APR for 15 months on balance transfers made within 45 days of account opening (then the ongoing rate of 20.24% to 29.99% (Variable), based on your creditworthiness), which isn’t too common with co-branded airline and travel cards. The card’s regular APR is fairly typical for a rewards card and at least slightly higher than the national average credit card interest rate. If you’re unable to pay your balances off quickly, the interest charges along with the annual fee after the first year will cut into the rewards you earn.

Frontier miles have limited use outside of booking Frontier flights, so if you don’t value them, you probably want to explore other options.

Rewards: Decent categories but limited use

The Frontier Airlines card allows you to earn 5X Frontier Miles on Frontier flights and 3X on dining purchases. However, you’ll have to make a purchase with your card at least once every twelve months to keep your miles from expiring. You can also earn 1X elite status point for every dollar spent to help boost your in-flight status earnings. 

You can redeem Frontier Miles for award tickets starting at 10,000 miles for a one-way domestic flight when traveling in the U.S. or Puerto Rico. You can also redeem for magazines, but that won’t give you the best value for your miles. Frontier Airlines doesn’t have any partner airlines you can transfer your miles to, but you can transfer points from Marriott Bonvoy to top up your account if needed.

Unless you plan to fly frequently with Frontier, you’d be better off spending on a general-purpose travel card with more flexible points or higher potential value. 

Frequent flyers on Frontier Airlines will get the best value with this card. But there are other options out there for budget travelers looking for low-cost ways to travel. 

The Frontier Airlines World Mastercard is a solid choice for loyal Frontier flyers, especially if you can take advantage of perks like the yearly flight discount, free checked baggage and path to elite status. But if you don’t fly Frontier Airlines often, this credit card may not be worth it. Consider this card if you:

• Fly frequently with Frontier Airlines

• Want to travel on a budget

• Don’t mind a no-frills low-cost flight experience

The Frontier Airlines World Mastercard is a solid co-branded option for Frontier flyers, but other options can provide more flexibility or offer similar perks at a lower cost.