Frontier GoWild! pass offers year of unlimited flights with caveats
Weeks after teasing an all-you-can-fly deal in an email to customers, budget carrier Frontier Airlines has put its GoWild! Pass up for sale on its website.
The promotional cost for a year of flights is $599, which covers the entire domestic map, including Puerto Rico. The booking and travel clock starts on May 2 and expires a year later.
Frontier spokeswoman Jennifer de la Cruz told The Washington Post in an email the $599 cost represents “special introductory pricing” for a “limited” group of customers and will be the lowest price offered for the pass this year. The pass automatically renews for a second year at a $1,999 charge unless customers cancel their membership.
CEO Barry Biffle said in an interview that the number of available $599 passes would be “in the thousands.” The airline started selling them Tuesday afternoon to customers who had signed up in advance; Biffle said early sales had “kind of blown us away.”
“We’re just seeing that work from home is enabling a whole new class of travel; that’s what’s driving a lot of this surge,” he said. “And so for those people that are the most flexible and could move around their dates, then we could reward them with an unlimited travel pass.”
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The pass is valid on more than 300 days of travel; however, several blackout dates apply. In addition to the usual holiday periods, travelers cannot use the pass on a handful of regular dates, such as July 8 and Dec. 16.
Under the GoWild! Pass, flight tickets don’t become available to book and confirm until the day before departure, which means travelers will have to be flexible. The carrier warns that “last seat availability is not guaranteed.”
While leisure travel has swelled since the early days of the pandemic, Biffle said planes are still not as full as they were before early 2020. In the third quarter of the year, he said Frontier’s load factor — or the percentage of available seats that were filled — was about 83 percent on average. That means on a 200-passenger plane, 34 seats went unfilled.
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“If you’re talking about Thanksgiving Sunday, yes, those days are full,” he said. The blackout dates were chosen to make sure travelers knew when demand would be high and a seat would be tough to nab anyway. But otherwise, he said, “there’s a lot of availability there.”
Another factor to consider: The $599 is not all-inclusive. Passengers must pay taxes and fees, a 1-cent charge for each flight segment and cover any extras, such as seat selection and baggage fees.
Ancillary fees are typically based on the fare. For example, an early December flight from Reagan National to Denver costs $138 round trip, including about $60 in taxes and fees. Passenger pay $24 to $60 for seats, $48 for a checked bag and $53 for a carry-on each way. According to de la Cruz, government and airport taxes, fees and charges start at approximately $14.60 per person, per flight.
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With the GoWild! Pass, frequent fliers won’t rack up miles, but they won’t lose their points or status, either. You must be a loyalty member to purchase a pass.
Biffle said the target customer for the pass is someone who works from home, has a lot of flexibility in their schedule and wants to visit friends or family in different cities. Another group: “active retirees” who might have grandkids a flight away.
“If you’re deciding to play tennis tomorrow or go see the grandkid in Dallas, maybe I’ll go to Dallas,” he said.
He said even his own mother called him and asked if she should buy the pass; he reminded her that being his family member came with flight privileges.
“She was just falling in love with the idea of ‘Well, I can go as much as I want,’” he said. “I’m like, ‘Well Mama, I didn’t realize I was holding you back.’”
Frontier’s $599 pass might ring familiar to airfare bargain hunters and travel gamers. In 2009, JetBlue unveiled the All You Can Jet Pass, which covered a month of unlimited flying for the same price tag. The deal, which applied to 56 domestic and international destinations, was so popular, the company had to pull the offer before the purchase-by date.
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More recently, Alaska Airlines introduced the annual subscription program, Flight Pass and Flight Pass Pro. For a monthly fee, travelers can hop on any nonstop flights in California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah.
Alaska’s Flight Pass starts at $49 a month, plus taxes and fees, and allows one round trip every two months for the year. Flight Pass Pro, which grants more flexibility, starts at $199 a month. With the plan, members receive credits they redeem for flights. There are no blackout dates.
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