Frontier Airlines wants you to tell your boss that you’ll be logging in next month from Miami and Cancun and San Diego.

The Denver-based airline recently announced its 30-day all-you-can-fly GoWild! Pass, which gives travelers unlimited access to 85 destinations for the price of the $49 enrollment fee for the first month, and $159 per month thereafter. If you’re suspicious, so were we. 

Vice president of commercial Daniel Shurz assures us: it's not a trick.

“We’re the lowest cost airline in the US in terms of seat per seat mile,” says Shurz. “So we thought, We can offer something different.” 

According to Shurz, the idea began in 2022 when an internal analysis showed that most of its 500+ daily flights were only operating at 87 percent capacity, leaving 20–25 empty seats per flight. So they thought: why not let dedicated customers essentially subscribe to those seats. The promotion mimics a standard airline practice: employees filling empty seats on standby. Shurz describes GoWild! as having the perks of working for an airline without actually being in the biz. “It really caught people’s attention,” Shurz says.

Other airlines have tried similar promotions in the past, most memorably JetBlue's $599 All You Can Jet one-month pass back in 2009, which proved to be a marketing bonanza after fliers freely blogged about their adventures and demand became unexpectedly high. JetBlue repeated the promotion in 2010. Frontier says they will limit the number of passes.

Is GoWild! Worthwhile from Portland?

Frontier flies to three locations nonstop from PDX—Denver (a Frontier hub), Phoenix, and Las Vegas—which connect to 77 other locations across the country, plus Cancun and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Belize City, Belize, and Montego Bay, Jamaica. Taxes and fees for most domestic flights are about $15. 

The fine print: there are blackout dates, seat upgrades will cost you, and Frontier's usual bag fees apply (one free personal item; a checked bag or carry on is north of $50). 

For those new to the GoWild! universe, the monthly pass joins a GoWild! brood: an annual pass (next starting April 11, 2024 for $1,999), a summer pass (April–Sept, $499) and a fall/winter pass (September 2, 2023 through February 29, 2024, $299). This last pass is not charity; January and February are the slowest months of the year for global air travel. 

The rub: earlier GoWild! Pass customers complained that they could not find flights. A bit of digging indicates that customers booked easily during early booking periods, but not on short notice during the height of summer travel. Pass users share their experiences in a Facebook group with over 14,000 members.

On our calendar: Life Is Beautiful Music Festival, September 22–24 in Las Vegas (The Killers or Kendrick Lamar, anyone?), and the Great American Beer Fest in Denver, September 21–23. As the name of the pass implies, Frontier expects some customers to log intensive itineraries. “They can absolutely do that,” say Shurz. “If you’ve got the flexibility and the time, have at it.”