Barclays Frontier Credit Card Review: Limited-Time 100,000-Mile Welcome Bonus

[Update 2024.12] This card has increased its welcome bonus to 100,000 miles. What’s interesting is that the first 50,000 miles come from spending, while the other 50,000 miles are only offered if you hold a co-branded credit card from another airline. They’re clearly trying to poach customers!

• Apply here

Here are the detailed steps:

• Step 1: Apply through the link above by January 31, 2025.
• Step 2: If you are a cardholder of another U.S. airline, you may be eligible for an extra 50,000-mile bonus (after spending $3,000 within 180 days). You can verify whether you qualify at this link (verification link).
• Step 3: On the verification page, enter your Frontier frequent flyer number and the first six digits of your co-branded card from another airline.
• Step 4: Complete the verification form. You will need to provide the full card number, expiration date, ZIP code, and CVV for that co-branded card. Your card will receive a $1 pending charge for verification.
• Step 5: Spend $3,000 within 180 days, and you can earn 50,000/100,000 bonus miles.

In theory, if you don’t have another airline co-branded card, you could have someone who does add you as an authorized user. That should also allow the charge and verification to go through normally. But if you’re already considering applying for this Frontier card, you’ve probably applied for other airline cards before and kept at least one of them around.

Barclays Frontier Credit Card Review

Benefits

• Family pooling: Holding this card unlocks mileage pooling, so you can combine miles with family members or friends and use them together.
• Priority boarding: Cardholders get Group 2 boarding (Zone 2). That can be quite useful on an ultra-low-cost carrier, since it makes overhead bin space easier to get.
• Spending bonus: Spend $2,500 each year, and when you pay the annual fee in the second year, you’ll receive a $100 flight voucher.
• No award redemption fee: When redeeming Frontier miles for award tickets, cardholders can avoid the $5.6 booking fee.
• Free monthly FICO score: You can keep tabs on your credit score. See also: Comparison of free credit scores

About Frontier

Frontier Airlines (F9) is an ultra-low-cost carrier headquartered in Denver. The airline flies to 65 destinations across the United States, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Mexico. Its fleet is entirely all-economy. However, passengers can upgrade to preferred seats near the front of the plane or Stretch seats with extra legroom. Frontier’s hub is Denver International Airport (DEN). Eight other airports have been designated as focus cities.

My Take

This card may look pretty ordinary, but its benefits are actually fairly practical. Spending $2,500 per year gets you $100 back, which basically offsets the annual fee. It also unlocks mileage pooling and waives the award ticket fee, both of which can be useful for mile redemptions. That said, route coverage on ultra-low-cost carriers can be uneven, so it’s best to check whether your nearby airport is a hub and whether Frontier serves the destinations you need before applying—otherwise you may find the card hard to use.

Application

• This is a co-branded airline card. When applying, you can enter your Frontier frequent flyer number; if you don’t have one, one will be assigned automatically.

Barclays Application Guide

• Check Barclays credit card application status
• Barclays credit card applications generally pull TransUnion (TU), and HPs on the same day can be combined
• If you already have another Barclays card and your new application is not approved, there will usually be no hard pull
• You can call the reconsideration line (866-408-4064) to speed up credit card approval or request another review of a denied application. They may verify your identity and address, ask why you want the card, and review your employment and repayment situation, so be prepared. You may need to move credit limit from an existing card to get approved.
• More on applying for Barclays credit cards

Application Link