Frontier Airlines is to any major airline what taking the city bus is to taking an Uber. That’s why I like it.

No frills, just get me to where I’m going for cheap.

I never thought I would ever do a mileage run, but I’m heavily considering making my first run a Frontier flight. I’ll explain why below.

But first:

What is a mileage run?

These are flights people take solely for the purpose of earning cheap frequent flyer miles, and usually in order to earn miles toward elite status with an airline (NY Times explains further here).

Example: Let’s say American Airlines has a sale on flights from San Francisco to Atlanta, with stops in Seattle and Boston in between. Round-trip for $199. You might earn around 10,000 elite-qualifying AA miles by taking that flight, which is around 2 cents/mile. Not a bad deal for someone who is only 10K miles away from earning elite status with American Airlines. You could take the opportunity to spend a day in Atlanta as well.

As a note, many airlines are moving to a revenue-based loyalty program instead of mileage-based, as American will be doing this year.

Why on earth would I do a mileage run on Frontier Airlines?

I flew Frontier a lot over the past year visiting my girlfriend and brother in Florida and my grandma in Cheyenne.

I recently realized I’m only 900 miles away from the 20K-mile requirement to qualify for elite status, which would be nice to have for a year while I hopefully spend the 60K Frontier miles I’ve earned from flying and signing up for their credit card (not a card I would recommend).

Here are the elite benefits:

I’m not sure how well these benefits work, or even what exactly “stretch seating at check-in” means, but whatever the case I’d like to try out these benefits if I’ll be using 60K miles this year anyhow. At a minimum I could do a review on their elite status in case there is anyone out there wondering about it…*crickets*

Here’s an example of a flight from SF I could use to earn the 900 more miles before September that would elite qualify me:

I have a $20 voucher from Frontier’s mascot contest fail, and another $40 credit from a flight I canceled, so a round-trip sale flight to Vegas would likely be free. Flights earn a minimum of 500 miles, so this trip would definitely get me to the 20K-mile requirement.

Update: I did it! Here’s a look at Frontier Elite status.

Is it worth it? I would love to hear your thoughts!