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For the past several years, I’ve almost exclusively flown with one of the largest U.S. airlines. The onboard experience, elite status perks, and co-branded credit card benefits have made it feel worth it, and I don’t have to drive more than a few minutes to reach one of the airports it serves.
As a solo traveler, paying a little more for a full-service airline has paid dividends. But the math starts to change once I’m booking two tickets to travel with my wife — and soon three when my small child ages out of being a lap infant.
Thinking ahead about the cost of visiting family and taking weekend trips over the next year, I started crunching the numbers. Frontier ended up looking better than I expected, and even though I’ll have to stretch a bit to make it work, it convinced me enough to go for its limited-time Elite Gold status match.
Here’s why.
Frontier’s Limited-Time Elite Gold Status Match Explained
The words elite status and cheap don’t usually belong in the same sentence. But that’s exactly what you’ll get if you apply for Frontier Airlines’ limited-time Elite Gold status match.
Unlike most airline status matches, this one’s incredibly simple. If you joined the loyalty program belonging to Southwest, Alaska, JetBlue, or Spirit before August 18, 2025, and have a frequent flyer number, you can buy Frontier Elite Gold status for just $69. You don’t need to hold elite status to match, and there’s no requirement to spend a certain amount on flights or take a set number of trips.
Just by paying the application fee, you’ll get money-saving Elite Gold perks through December 31, 2026.
This offer won’t be around for long, so it’s worth applying now before it takes flight. And if you’ve taken advantage of a Frontier status match in the past, you’re still eligible for this one as long as you meet the current requirements.
Paying $69 Got Me Frontier Elite Gold Status With Money-Saving Perks Through 2026
I love to travel, but I don’t like spending a lot of money to do it. That’s why I pulled out my travel rewards card and paid $69 for more than 15 months of Frontier Elite Gold status for myself. I also paid the fee again for my wife, since many of the perks only apply to the status holder — not everyone on the reservation.
Because of how we travel — we prefer to bring a carry on bag and put it in the overhead bin, and we’d rather sit next to each other than at opposite ends of the airplane — we’ll recoup the entire cost of this match on our next trip to see family for the holidays.
And even factoring in the fees for the match, we’ll still spend less than if we had booked round trip flights with the full service carrier I usually fly. What’s more, the savings will keep snowballing as we get these same perks on every flight through the end of 2026.
We'll recoup the cost of the match (and then some) on one round-trip
On our next trip from Raleigh to Orlando around the holidays, we’ll save hundreds on the cost of extras. That's because Frontier Elite Gold offers:
- Premium seats at booking: We’ll save $90 on this itinerary because we can each select a Preferred seat at no extra cost. Frontier charges $18 for these seats on the outbound flight and $27 on the return. In addition, we’re also eligible for UpFront Plus upgrades starting four hours before departure.
- A free carry on bag: We’ll save $196 by each bringing a carry on bag for free. On this itinerary, Frontier charges $49 per carry on bag each way.
- Priority boarding: Elite Gold comes with Zone 1 Priority Boarding — or Zone 2 if there are multiple people on your reservation. This benefit otherwise costs $5.99 per person per direction, or just under $24 for our entire trip.
- No change or cancel fees: If our plans change more than seven days before departure, we won’t be charged change or cancel fees. These fees can be as high as $99 depending on when you make the change. But since we didn't plan to pay them in the first place, I’m not including this in our overall savings.
The all in cost for a basic round-trip fare is $98.98 per person, or $197.96 total. By having Elite Gold status, we’ll save $310 on extras we care about. That’s $172 more than the cost of matching two people to Elite Gold. And it's still less than the $500+ I would’ve spent on two Basic Economy tickets with my preferred full service airline.
On top of that, we’ll each earn 14X Frontier Miles and elite qualifying points on our reservation. Plus, Elite Gold lets us pool our miles together. With redemptions starting at 5,000 miles, we’ll already be halfway to an award ticket from this trip alone.
Bottom Line
All told, the math of paying $69 for Frontier Elite Gold status perks through December 31, 2026, makes too much sense.
Once I need to start buying three seats instead of two to accommodate my small family, the savings will only keep growing expontially. It’ll be the cheapest airline elite status I’ll ever earn, and I’m stoked to see just how much I save over the next 15 months.
If you want to unlock similar savings on your own trips, you can purchase Frontier Elite Gold status through this limited time offer. Make sure to act soon, though, since it won’t be around for long.
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