Frontier All You Can Fly/ Low Cost Carriers

 Those of you who know me, absolutely know that since retirement and maybe even a little before that....travel is my thing. 

I consider myself lucky to live 15 minutes away from CVG (Greater Cincinnati Airport) as it allows me to be ontime for my departures. Now, CVG is not JFK, IAD, or ORD, you will not get the super cheap transatlantic flight you could find from those three major airports. You can however, find great flights and plenty of them on low cost carriers if you are not too picky about your travel. Many of them nonstop. 

CVG is blessed with plenty of low cost flights from the likes of Allegiant, Breeze, Frontier, Southwest and I've just started seeing Sun Country flights leaving Terminal 1 at CVG. Im pretty experienced with Allegiant , Frontier and Southwest. Most low cost carriers have been pretty good to me as long as I follow a few cheap flight rules.....

1.  I will only fly these airlines if its a nonstop flight. I dont give them the opportunity to lose my luggage or leave me stranded on a connection.
2.  I always book the first flight of the day. These smaller airlines dont have the number of planes the larger airlines do and if something goes wrong with the airplane coming to pick you up at 2;00PM , you are now stuck until they fix it. If you take the first flight of the day, your odds of an ontime trouble free departure go way up. 
3.  Based on rule #2, I will not fly these airlines if i need to be somewhere by a specific time i.e. a cruise departing from destination city. An important event in another city. I will only use them if i can afford a day delay or will not suffer large financial loss if they fail me. 

There is definitely a place in your life for these low budget carriers, I an fortunate enough  to own a vacation home on the gulf coast of Florida. I have flown to my home in Florida at leats 30 times roundtrip for less than $150 and usually less than $100. People complain about being charged for seats or being nickle and dimed for luggage. The flight will only be as expensive as you want it to be. 

For example, my wife and I flew roundtrip on Allegiant from CVG to PGD for $170 total!!! Dec 18-23 2024. We do not pay for seat selection, our theory is that we have been married for 35 years and that 2 hour flight apart will not end our marriage, we have yet to be seperated. I check in for the flight immediately when check in is open 24 hours before flight. Allegiant provides two free bags as a thank you to both active duty and veterans. Most people are not aware of the baggage perk.  

When using veteran bag perk, do not enter any baggage when booking the flight. You must take your luggage to the counter before boarding and provide proof of militarey status. I have used my VA ID card and my drivers license that shows the Armed Services stamp. I know OHIO and Florida have this stamp available. The perk is for the veteran so ensure you claim both bags as your own. On the trip above I checked one bag and carried another on at no charge. 

This year I was blessed with a ton of travel but of course its never enough for me and I will be trying desperately to beat my 2024 numbers

In early December, I received an email from Frontier Airlines advertising their All you can fly annual pass. Now, Ive seen this before but at about $600 and i just didnt think I could get the value out of it based on my habits at the time. This ad was different!!!!

Thats right, $299 for a year of free flying on Frontier Airlines........I was instantly hooked. I had to join a waiting list and be ready to pounce when they opened up the offer, the offer was only available to the first 5000 people that signed up. A couple weeks later, I just happened to be in my truck, playing on my phone when the announcement arrived!!! I was In!!! I now have an a $299 all you can fly pass from Frontier Airlines. Im excited to see how it goes....I already see how it could be a waste of money for most people and some pretty big possible issues.

So, I have my pass and after reading the email it came with I think I know how to use it. Lets go over a few of the concerns I already have;

1.  You can only book a flight the day before its departure. I can still probably work with this beacause I have military friends all over the country I would like to visit. So I have decided I will have to plan a three or four day excursion with no actual idea which place im going until 24 hours ahead of time. International flights can be booked 10 days in advance. Frontier now flys to Central America and some Carribean destinations.
2.  Frontier does not have a veteran bag policy and i will be paying for a carry on for each segment.
3.  You can only book a one way segment and you will still need to pay tax and fee which is about $20
4.  Because you can only book 24 hours before departure, I have concerns I will be stuck in a destinantion unable to get a return flight when I want it which will in turn force me to pay more for a return flight and nullify the free flight I took.  

In short, If you don't have an open schedule, this pass is not for you, I will be trying it out soon and plan to report back here on my concerns. Im excited and cautiously optimistic!

Now, just for fun I booked 4 days in Savannah February 23-27 roundtrip on Allegiant for $87 ......Just Travel

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See you in the sky!