Is GoWild! All You Can Fly Pass A good deal?

Frontier Airlines announced a “GoWild” all-you-can-fly deal for the upcoming 2023-2024 travel year – but is it a good deal?

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Limit GoWild! All You Can Fly Pass

Frontier Airlines announced its GoWild! All You Can Fly Pass that allows buyers to fly as much as they want on Frontier, but with some serious limitations. For a base price of $799 (the $599 introductory offer has sold out), you’ll get the following from Frontier:

• “An unlimited number of flights

• Flights are available more than 300 days a year

• Access to Frontier’s national and international destinations

• Travel that ensures your miles don’t expire

• One low annual price for pass access to 12 months of travel

• Get confirmed bookings the day before departure for domestic travel and starting 10 days before departure for international travel.”

Getting to the details, here are all the restrictions of the pass:

• “Flights can be booked and flown from May 2, 2023

• Flights can be booked and confirmed the day before departure for domestic travel and from 10 days before departure for international travel

• Flights must be booked on flyfrontier.com

• Closing times apply to flights:

  • 2023: May 25, 26, 29; June 29, 30; July 1-5, 8, 9; Aug 31; September 1st, 4th; October 5, 6, 9; 18th, 22nd, 24th-27th November; 16th, 17th, 22nd-24th, 26th-31st December;
  • 2024: 1 Jan 15; February 15, 16, 19; 3rd, 10th, 15th-17th, 22nd-24th, 29th-31st March; 5th-7th Apr 12-14 Blackout dates for May 2024 and beyond will be published prior to accepting applications for pass periods covering those dates.

• Flights do not include ancillary products (such as bags or seats), but you can still customize your trip

• Taxes, fees and charges are applicable at the time of booking

• A fare of $0.01 is charged for each segment booked

• Flights and seats are subject to availability; Last seat availability is not guaranteed

• Travel is not eligible to earn miles or status

• Travel is considered an activity and extends your BORDER Miles Expiration

• The GoWild! Pass is not transferrable. The pass holder is the only passenger allowed to travel with GoWild! pass on privileges.

• Your pass will automatically renew every year unless you cancel

• You must be at least 18 years old and a resident of the United States to register with GoWild! Happen”

For verification, you cannot use the pass until May 2, 2023 and there are 52 days during the period that are not eligible. Domestic travel is only available one day before departure, international only 10 days in advance. Flights continue to cost a minimum of $20.21 each way for taxes and 1¢ fares, including an airline interface fee, which starts at about $14.60 per person per flight (because flights are booked on FrontierAirlines.com and not at the airport have to). Although they have a spot available, it may not be open to GoWild! passport holder. Travel counts as an activity, but flyers don’t earn miles or elite status with the pass and flights. It’s only bookable for the pass holder, extras like checked baggage or seat selection are still extra, it’s only available for adults in the US, and unless canceled, it’s automatically renewed for $1,999.

practical value

The value of an unlimited flight pass might seem like good value, but is it? For Denver, Orlando, or maybe Philadelphia or Atlanta flyers, this could be a no-brainer simply because it would only take a flight or two on the GoWild! happen to make sense. But let’s look further afield.

We covered some large size secondary airports last week for another purpose where Frontier would struggle to prove its worth with this offering. Even looking at heavier markets like New York, flyers would undoubtedly need to arrive in Orlando and Denver, too, to reach destinations outside of the east coast. The country’s fourth largest market, Houston serves just four destinations between two airports. Dallas has (11) including Cancun, but every other goal requires a connection. If we look at the Los Angeles subway and even throw in San Diego, it’s just a handful of unconnected destinations.

But many aviators connect every day to reach their destination, why is that a big deal? It’s a big deal just because of Frontier’s concentration in Denver. My home airports are Pittsburgh and Fort Myers, Florida. I have a choice of six destinations if I don’t transfer in Denver. However, connecting in Denver and opening up the network requires a cross-country flight and sometimes long connections. Most searches resulted in full-day trips with potential for overnight stays or red eyes to reach most destinations. Obviously, connecting Pittsburgh to Los Angeles via Denver is reasonable and logical, but passing through Denver from Pittsburgh to New Orleans, Dallas, or Chicago begins to diminish the value quickly.

These are one-way flights so return is not guaranteed meaning you may not know when you will be able to return home. That’s a major problem for most travelers and an unintended consequence of the deal, despite the restriction being written in plain English, black and white on the website.

Frontier also doesn’t fly to and from all of the destinations they list. This may mean that flights departing on a Tuesday may not come back for a few days, subject to availability, and last seat availability does not qualify. Some destinations are only served on Saturdays, meaning visitors would have to wait a full week if they can’t make that return flight.

For retirees with homes in a market where Frontier consistently serves both, this could be of great value.

Conclusion

At the introductory price of $599, I was able to use the GoWild! Pass makes sense for a wider audience, but at $799 with the restrictions, the lock dates, and the connection issues, it seems less valuable to me. Many readers have wondered if this is a good deal, and for our Denver flyers I would recommend it. But the impracticality outside of direct frontier cities makes it a tough pass for most consumers.

What do you think? Have you considered/have a GoWild! Frontier Airlines passport? How will you use it?