Frontier Airlines World Mastercard Review [2020]

If you are interested in flying Frontier Airlines, the Frontier Airlines World Mastercard deserves a serious look. That’s because you can find a pretty decent welcome bonus on this card and some perks that are pretty competitive when compared to what other airline cards offer.

In this review article, I’ll tell you everything you need to know about the Frontier Airlines World Mastercard.

Frontier Airlines World Mastercard overview

• Welcome bonus (ranges)
• 5X on Frontier purchases
• 3X on restaurants
• 1X on all other purchases
• Earn toward Elite Status
• Earn a $100 Flight Voucher
• Unlock Family Pooling
• Priority boarding
• Award redemption fee waiver
• No foreign transaction fees
• $79 annual fee (not waived)

Tip: If you are interested in finding out the current top travel credit cards, be sure to check out our list here!

Welcome bonus 

The welcome bonus for the Frontier Airlines World Mastercard changes and we have seen offers as high as 50,000 bonus miles. The standard offer you may encounter may look like the following:

“40,000 bonus miles after spending $500 on purchases and paying the annual fee in full, both within the first 90 days.”

I do feel obligated to point out that Frontier miles are not worth a whole lot compared to other airline miles.

Many airline miles can be valued at around 1.5 cents per point but the valuation for Frontier miles is going to be closer to one cent per point.

Here’s a look at some example redemption prices in cash prices so you can get a sense of how far your miles can take you. (Some prices were depressed due to coronavirus so the cents per point is extra low currently.)

Route	Miles Price	Cash Price	CPP
Philadelphia, PA (PHL) to Miami, FL (MIA)	10,000	$28.10	.28
Denver, CO (DEN) to Las Vegas, NV (LAS)	10,000	$23.10	.23
Denver, CO (DEN) to Los Angeles, CA (LAX)	10,000	$24.10	.24
Trenton, NJ (TTN) to Orlando, FL (MCO)	10,000	$28.10	.28
Philadelphia, PA (PHL) to Montego Bay, Jamaica (MBJ)	15,000	$182.10	1.21
St. Louis, MO (STL) to Cancun, Mexico (CUN)	15,000	$146.48	.98
Cincinnati, OH (CVG) to Las Vegas, NV (LAS)	10,000	$164.20	1.64

Bonus categories

• 5X on Frontier purchases
• 3X on restaurants
• 1X on all other purchases

5X on Frontier purchases

Using a WalletFlo valuation of 1.03 cents per point, 5X comes out to 5.15% back which is pretty good for return spend on your airline purchases.

So if you plan on spending a decent amount on Frontier, this card can be quite rewarding.

Keep in mind that earning 5X on flights in the form of Frontier miles is not the same as earning 5X on flights in the form of something like Amex Membership Rewards.

For example, the Platinum Card earns 5X on flights and that 5X amount comes out to much more than 5% back. The card has a significantly higher annual fee but it also comes with a host of additional benefits as well.

Tip: Use the free app WalletFlo to easily find which cards earn the most points for different categories.

3X at restaurants

Bonus earnings for dining include: restaurants, bars, and fast food restaurants and are based on merchant category codes.

3X at restaurants would come out to about 3.1% back. Getting 3% back for dining spend is pretty good although you might want to look at cards like the American Express Gold Card which earns 4X on dining and offer much more than 3% back.

1X on all other purchases

1X on all of the purchases is going to come out to around one percent back which is not very competitive.

You will be much better off utilizing other credit cards to capitalize on better earnings for your points on every day spend.

Related: Is Frontier Airlines Safe?

Frontier Airline benefits

• Earn toward Elite Status
• Earn a $100 Flight Voucher
• Unlock Family Pooling
• Priority boarding
• Award redemption fee waiver

Earn miles toward elite status

There are not a lot of airline credit cards that allow you to earn miles toward elite status like this card does. You will earn 1 Qualifying Mile (QM) with every $1 spent on purchases.

Frontier has an elite loyalty program (full review here) that’s broken down into the following tiers:

• Elite 20k: Earn 20,000 Status Qualifying Miles or 25 Segments
• Elite 50k: Earn 50,000 Status Qualifying Miles or 50 Segments
• Elite 100k: Earn 100,000 Status Qualifying Miles or 100 Segments

Here are some of the benefits for elite 20K members:

1. Waived Award ticket fees.
2. Option for Family Pooling.
3. Advance Seat Assignment for the Member only.
4. Carry-on bag for the Member only.
5. Last seat available Award ticket option. Can be applied to any traveler using an Elite Member’s Miles.
6. Stretch Seats upon check-in, for the Member only.

You’ll notice that some of the benefits like with the waived award ticket fees and family pooling are the same benefits you get for being a cardmember.

So you need to consider that spending $20,000 to get 20K may not move the needle too much although it is nice that you get advanced seat assignments, a free carry-on bag, and the last seat available option.

You also even get some of the benefits at the 50K level. For example, one of the new benefits you get when you jump from 25K to 50K is priority boarding but that is already included with the card (though it’s not quite the same).

However, there are other benefits like a 50% discount on the Discount Den membership and a 25% redeemable mileage bonus on all eligible Frontier flights

At the 100K level, the benefits expand so that you can receive a free carry-on for yourself and for eight other passengers, Free Discount Den Membership, and free checked luggage (more about baggage fees here).

Whether or not it is worth it to put your spend on this card to earn elite status would just depend on your travel preferences. (For me personally, I would rather put a huge amount to spend on other cards.)

It is worth noting that purchases made by authorized users through additional cards will earn QMs and count toward the primary cardmember’s qualifying spend.

• Related: Best credit cards for elite status

Earn a $100 Flight Voucher

If you spend $2,500 or more in a cardmembership year, you will receive a $100 flight voucher.

You can expect to receive your voucher about 6 to 8 weeks after the account anniversary date and it should be delivered via email.

The flight voucher expires 180 days from date of issue. The flight must be booked before the voucher expiration date but the flight may take place after the expiration date.

The spend requirement of $2,500 in a card membership year is very low and pretty reasonable.

$100 is not a huge discount but considering your spend, it’s like getting 4% back when your spend. So that’s a pretty good return if you ask me.

Unlock Family Pooling

Family pooling is going to allow you to consolidate the miles between multiple related parties. This allows you to build up a higher balance and can increase your ability to redeem rewards.

Card members will be able to pool with one primary card number and up to eight friends and family members known as “pool contributors.”

This just makes using points more convenient and makes it easy to keep everybody on the same reservation which can be helpful when trying to utilize benefits like free baggage.

As a reminder this is a benefit for elite 20K members.

Priority boarding

As a cardmember, you’ll also get priority boarding which means that you will board in “Zone 2.”

Zone two boarding will begin after military passengers, elite status members, “Meet and Assist”, passengers with disabilities, or passengers with children under the age of 5.

If you have multiple carry-ons and need to utilize the overhead storage bin space this perk can save you some stress because you will be boarding before most other individuals and should be able to easily store your bag in the overhead storage bin.

Something to note about this benefit is that only the primary cardmember is eligible.

Award redemption fee waiver

Cardmembers who use their card to pay the award fees on redemptions will have the fees waived.

These fees can be very low on domestic flights and may start at $5.60 for a one-way ticket so sometimes the savings will be minimal but it still feels very good to be able to travel completely for free.

Balance transfer perks

With this card you can get a 0% intro APR on balance transfers made within a certain window, such as 45 days. So if you need to hit the reset button on some credit card debt this could be a decent option.

The balance transfer fee is 3% which is pretty standard and not as high as other cards that may charge as much as 5%.

Free FICO score

Barclays is great about offering free FICO scores and they will show you your FICO score from TransUnion.

Frontier Airlines World Mastercard FAQ

Final word

If you fly Frontier Airlines, the Frontier Airlines world MasterCard is actually a pretty decent option.

You can find an okay welcome bonus that can get you some free flights and perks like the $100 voucher and priority boarding aren’t bad. It’s also pretty cool that you can spend your way into elite status which is something that not many airline credit cards offer, especially with such a low annual fee.