Frontier Airlines World Mastercard Review: Valuable Perks for Frequent Frontier Flyers

The Frontier Airlines World Mastercard® is an airline card with valuable benefits. While it does come with an annual fee, frequent Frontier flyers will appreciate the generous bonus miles offer, early boarding, $100 flight voucher at each anniversary, waived award redemption fees, and the potential to earn elite status just by spending with this card. Find out more about this card's top benefits in our full Frontier Airlines World Mastercard® review.

This credit card is a good fit for: Frequent Frontier Airlines flyers who want to earn bonus miles and get access to other perks that may improve their flight experience.

Top perks

Here are the most notable perks that come with this credit card.

50,000 bonus miles

The Frontier Airlines World Mastercard® has a generous bonus mile offer of 50,000 miles after spending $500 within 90 days of account opening and paying the annual fee in full.

Award flights begin at 10,000 miles for one-way journeys and 20,000 for round trip. If you earn all 50,000 bonus miles, you can redeem your miles for around three round-trip flights for destinations within the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

Bonus categories

The Frontier Airlines World Mastercard® gives you the chance to earn bonus miles in more than one category. You can earn:

• 5 miles per $1 spent on eligible purchases made directly through Frontier Airlines
• 3 miles per $1 spent at restaurants, bars, and fast food restaurants
• 1 mile per $1 on other purchases

If you regularly fly with Frontier and like to dine out, you'll have an easier time earning miles with this credit card.

Learn more: Best Travel Rewards Credit Cards

Early boarding

Cardmembers can also take advantage of early boarding. When you book a ticket with your Frontier Airlines World Mastercard®, you'll be eligible to board in Zone 2 before general passengers board. If you like to get seated on the plane earlier, this is a nice perk. This benefit is only available to the primary cardmember.

No foreign transaction fees

When using this card for international purchases, you won't be charged foreign transaction fees. The typical foreign transaction fee is 3%. If you travel internationally and want to avoid extra costs, this benefit can save you money.

0% intro APR on balance transfers

This card has a 0% intro APR offer on balance transfers, available for the first 15 billing cycles. If you have credit card debt that you're trying to pay off, the Frontier Airlines World Mastercard® gives you time to pay off that debt without incurring additional interest charges. Balance transfers must be made within 45 days of account opening.

$100 flight voucher offer

If you use your Frontier Airlines World Mastercard® and spend at least $2,500 per year, you'll be eligible to earn a $100 flight voucher. This benefit is available at every anniversary as long as you spent at least $2,500 during the previous year. The flight voucher expires 180 days from the date of issue. You can apply this voucher to the total price of a single purchase. It can be used toward airfare and associated taxes, but not change fees, seat assignment fees, bag fees, or similar fees.

Read more: Best Airline Credit Cards

Waived award redemption fees

Unless you're booking a trip 180 days (or more) in advance or have Elite status, Frontier charges award redemption fees for most bookings. The fees vary from $15 to $75. But award redemption fees are waived when you pay with this Frontier Airlines World Mastercard®. Elite status members also get these fees waived.

Potential to earn elite status by charging your card

You can earn elite status by using your Frontier Airlines World Mastercard®. The lowest elite level is Elite 20K. You can achieve this by flying 20,000 qualifying miles or flying 25 segments (one-way flights are one segment while a round-trip journey is considered two segments).

Frontier also allows you to earn status by spending with a Frontier Airlines World Mastercard®. For every $1 that you spend on your card, you'll earn 1 elite qualifying mile. If you plan to spend a lot with this card, you can unlock elite status.

What could be improved

Frontier Airlines World Mastercard® does have some faults.

Annual fee

Frontier Airlines World Mastercard® does come with a $89 annual fee. This credit card can be well worth the fee if you regularly fly with Frontier Airlines and will use the card's perks. As a new cardmember, to earn the bonus miles, you'll need to pay the annual fee and make a purchase with your card. If you're looking for a no-fee airline or travel credit card, this isn't the card for you. Many other travel credit cards don't charge an annual fee.

No free checked bags

The Frontier Airlines World Mastercard® doesn't include a free checked bag as one of its perks. Many other airline credit cards with similar annual fees allow the cardmember to check a bag for free. When you fly with Frontier Airlines, bringing any baggage beyond a small personal item will cost you. Baggage fees vary by destination and flight. Generally, you can expect to pay $25 or more for a carry-on bag and $30 or more for a checked bag.

Elite members can avoid baggage fees. Elite 20K, Elite 50K, and Elite 100K members can bring a carry-on bag at no extra cost. Elite 100K members can also check a bag for free.

Miles can expire

It's worth noting that miles can expire. But, if you're regularly using your Frontier Airlines World Mastercard®, you won't have to worry about that happening. You can keep your cards from expiring by using your card to make at least one purchase every six months.

More options: Best Rewards Credit Cards

If you want to apply for the Frontier Airlines World Mastercard®, we recommend having a FICO® Score of 670 or higher. This credit card is intended for consumers with good credit. Other factors are also assessed, such as income and current debt. It could be possible to get approved with a lower credit score -- or be denied with a higher score.

If you're a Frontier Airlines loyalist, the Frontier Airlines World Mastercard® could be a beneficial credit card option to explore.

However, it doesn't include free checked bag benefits, there's an annual fee, and miles can expire if you're not using the card regularly. This airline card won't make sense if you're not already flying with Frontier Airlines or don't plan to do so. But if you're comfortable paying an annual fee and will use the card's benefits, this card may be worthwhile.

Our credit card methodology

At The Motley Fool Ascent, we rate credit cards on a five-star scale (1 = poor, 5 = best). Our rating criteria includes rewards rates, welcome bonuses, fees, and perks like travel credits and 0% intro APR offers to evaluate our ratings.

We combine these factors with an evaluation of brand reputation and customer satisfaction to ensure you're getting the best card recommendations. Learn more about how The Ascent rates credit cards.