Frontier Airlines is going premium. They’re facing increased labor costs, which cuts against their ultra-low cost model. And they haven’t had the products that people have wanted to buy. They don’t fly long haul international and they don’t have airline partners so they can’t sell those seats to their customers, they lose out on connecting passengers from foreign carriers, and their mileage program is less attractive as a result.
The carrier has changed the way they sell tickets, offering fare bundles rather than a la carte and more premium services. Now they’re taking it a step further:
- Real first class seats two rows on each aircraft, starting late 2025.
- Elite upgrades complimentary upgrades start early next year for gold members and above, including to new first class seats when available.
- Companion pass as a status benefit for Platinum and Diamond members to add a companion at no additional fare, starts mid-2025.
- Redeem miles for premium bundles like checked bags, seat upgrades, etc. starting mid-2025.
Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle was part of the leadership team at Spirit Airlines when they converted into an ultra-low cost carrier. They had first class because the earlier version of Spirit had the seats installed already and, like in so many things, they just didn’t want to spend the money to retrofit the planes. It turned out that their Big Front Seat product worked.
Spirit Airlines Big Front Seat
However, Frontier Airlines hasn’t had first class. They’ve long offered extra legroom ‘stretch’ seats at the front of the aircraft. And they’ve been selling blocked middle seats. That’s ghetto first anyway (really, European-style business class); you get legroom and seat width. I’m fine with it! My biggest problem with Frontier, aside from their operational reliability challenges (like JetBlue!) is that they are lack inflight wifi. That puts them in a category with only Allegiant among U.S. carriers. Flying Frontier means sacrificing productivity, so for me it is more expensive to fly them even when they’re cheapest.
Frontier ‘Up Front Plus’
The airline says these new efforts will generate $250 million in 2026 and $500 million in 2028. That strikes me as aggressive. It also seems to me that they’re eroding their unique selling proposition, and that there’s a continued role for ultra-low costs and a la carte pricing if they can continue to manage the cost side. Moving to ‘premium lite’ is a strange way to compete with network carriers without airline partnerships, but they’ll be driving more value to frequent flyers so I’m glad to see it. If only they’d add wifi to their planes I’d gladly give them a shot again.
Especially right now, since they’ve got some really attractive offers to accelerate status.
- 20,000 points for Platinum status instead of 50,000. And card spend with Frontier counts, of course.
For a limited time, earn Platinum Elite Status through 2025 by accumulating just 20,000 Elite Status Points with the FRONTIER Airlines World Mastercard or by flying on Frontier Airlines, from now until April 30, 2025. Premium Elite Status requires an accumulation of 50,000 points without this offer. Members must opt in to the offer and be 18 years or older to qualify. Complete details can be found here flyfrontier.com/reach-elite-platinum-status.
- 100,000 mile card offer if you have another airline’s card. Validate your eligibility and register for the extra 50,000 miles here.
Additionally, now through January 31, 2025, applicants who are current cardmembers with other eligible domestic airline carriers can earn up to 100,000 miles after approval and qualifying purchases with the card, double the normal bonus amount for new cardmembers. To determine eligibility, applicants must validate they are a primary cardmember of a co-brand credit card with another US domestic airline.
New cardmembers will receive the first 50,000 miles after paying the annual fee in full and spending $500 with the card within the first 90 days of account opening. The additional 50,000 Travel Miles will be awarded to cardmembers once they have spent $3,000 on purchases within the first 180 days of account opening.
I really do love the way Frontier is trying a lot of things and moving quickly, and I am hopeful they prove any natural skepticism wrong here.
@ Gary — If First Class includes no bag size enforcement and no cancellations, count me in. At least when in BFS, Spirit doesn’t harrass you about your bag size, and they tend to keep a stable schedule (except all of the route cancellations of late).
I do see it as still a la carte – the announcement reads like this will be the prior iteration of “Big Front Seat” where you can get the F seat and nothing else (unless purchasing a bundle) – so no free food/drinks, no free carry-on, etc. They specifically refer to it as getting a First Class seat/seating rather than getting First Class.
Depending on what price point Frontier is looking for. If it wishes to compete against cash upgrade offers from the legacies likely they will need free beverages and at least some kind of cold food option. I don’t see Frontier putting ovens in planes.
But anything that drives a stake in the bottom of the barrel fares and customer service is a good thing.
First class seats with an airline that suffers poor operational reliability, significant schedule changes, lack of wifi, and lousy customer service does not lead people to pay a premium over the legacy carriers. Sitting in the frontier gate area isn’t comfortable either.
How are their club lounges and dining variety and quality on board?
So Frontier’s First Class will be the same as Spirit’s Big Seat? a bigger seat, priority boarding and nothing else (food, alcohol, free bags)
Brian W. That’s a big issue for Frontier and Spirit. Both have a horrible reputation. Youtube is littered with a litany of Frontier and Spirit passengers behaving badly videos. People flying premium generally are trying to get away from the unwashed masses. I fly premium and my willingness to pay extra (and I’m not super rich) is to get away from the Frontier customer type.
Let’s be honest this is a bigger seat but not necessarily a first class product that F9 will be offering. Fly it next to a NK offering on any market and it should be a successful marketing tool and revenue enhancing product as.NK struggles to maintain its footing and share of the ULCC market. Managing passenger expectations against other airlines will be the true challenge for F9. Let’s see how effective B6 and WN are in this new arena of competition for the poor man’s spend thrift airline dollar. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so let’s see who innovates better.
It looks like a Big Front Seat in green. Once Frontier buys Spirit out of bankruptcy – they at least will have a common fleet.
Yes the writing is on the wall they are making the fleet look like Spirit. A merger seems likely. But as someone who is already Diamond this can’t happen fast enough. I’ll take it and run
My wife flew Frontier over Thanksgiving. She’s not a frequent flyer, took their upsell, and reported “They are better than Delta, actually.” Just one data point. Us frequent fliers might scoff, but can be good to remember there’s a lot of less frequent flyers.
DON’T DO IT! Good luck and Happy Holidays to all BUT this change will not make Frontier customer service and schedule nightmares any better. You have been warned.