How to Use the Frontier GoWild Pass (2026)

The GoWild Pass is simple to buy and surprisingly easy to misunderstand. The fare is nearly free, but you can only book inside a tight window, on a limited pool of seats, and Frontier's own site doesn't make any of that obvious. Here's exactly how to use the pass from start to finish, including the parts that trip people up.

Before you start

Three things make the whole process go smoothly:

• Have the pass active. You buy the GoWild Pass once on flyfrontier.com; after that, every GoWild fare books at a $0.01 base fare.
• Know the booking window. The standard free window opens the day before departure for domestic and 10 days before for international. You can book sooner with Frontier's early-booking option for an extra per-segment fee, but the free window is the reason the pass rewards flexible travelers.
• Plan to travel light, or get the card. Bags and seats aren't included. Fly with a personal item, or pair the pass with the Frontier credit card for free bags and seat selection.

How to find and book the GoWild fare

This is the part that confuses newcomers most. GoWild fares aren't a separate website or a hidden code. You book them right in the Frontier app or on flyfrontier.com:

1. Search the route and date you want, the same as any flight.
2. Open the flight and go to its GoWild fare to see the price and whether a seat is open.
3. If a seat is there, book it. If not, the GoWild fare simply won't be available on that flight.

The catch is availability. Frontier only releases a handful of GoWild seats per flight, close to departure. Most open around 12:00 AM local time the night before, but here's the part guides miss: more seats appear at random through the day, often when other travelers cancel. So a flight that showed nothing at midnight can open up by afternoon. It pays to check more than once, which is exactly the kind of watching software should do for you instead.

Booking a round trip

A round trip on GoWild isn't one booking, it's two. Each leg has its own day-before window. You book the outbound when its window opens, then book the return separately when its window opens, usually the day before you fly home.

That means your return seat is never guaranteed in advance, which is the real risk of an all-GoWild trip. The fix most experienced pass holders use: keep Discount Den as a backup and stay flexible on dates. If no GoWild seat opens for your return, a discounted Discount Den fare gets you home without paying full price. (We break this down in GoWild Pass vs Discount Den.)

Protect yourself: carry travel insurance

This is the tip almost no GoWild guide gives you, and it matters. If you fly the pass regularly, get travel insurance.

Here's why. On a near-free GoWild fare, a Frontier delay or cancellation leaves you exposed. Hotels, rebooking, and getting home can land on your own dime, and because GoWild only books the day before, you can't always just grab another cheap seat on the spot. One cancelled flight can quietly cost more than the pass did. A modest travel insurance policy is cheap protection against an expensive bad day, especially if you fly often.

A few tips that make it easier

• Travel midweek. Tuesdays and Wednesdays have the best availability and the lowest fees.
• Be flexible on direction and date. The more open you are, the more often a seat lines up with your plans.
• Set alerts. Seats open at odd hours, so let software watch instead of refreshing all night. See when GoWild seats get released for the timing, and the best airports for the GoWild Pass for where to base your hunting.

New to the pass? Start with our honest GoWild Pass guide for what it really costs and whether it's worth it, or see what a GoWild flight actually costs. Here's the whole process as a checklist: