Every so often, a passholder searches a flight three weeks out, sees a GoWild fare sitting there, and assumes the airline made a mistake. No mistake. You've found an early booking promotion, one of the most useful and least understood corners of the pass.
What early booking is
On a promotional basis, Frontier opens GoWild availability beyond the standard windows we covered in the booking window guide. During these promos you can book certain flights days, weeks, sometimes even months ahead, still at $0.01 airfare, but with an additional early booking fee attached.
These promos tend to follow demand patterns. Off-peak travel dates get them more often, which makes sense: the airline is happy to lock passholders into seats it wasn't going to sell anyway.
Spotting the fee before you pay it
The early booking fee hides in plain sight. At checkout, open the cart summary and expand the taxes and carrier-imposed fees breakdown. If your domestic total is meaningfully above the usual $15 or so from the standard tax stack, the difference is the early booking fee. We've seen these fees range from a few dollars to $30+ depending on the flight and how far out you're booking.
The strategic question: pay or wait?
Paying the fee buys certainty. Waiting saves money but risks the fare. Our rule of thumb:
- Pay the fee when the trip matters: meeting friends, an event with a date, connecting to something else you've already booked. $20 for certainty on a trip you care about is fine.
- Wait for midnight when the trip is a whim and you'd happily swap destinations. That flexibility is the whole reason you have the pass.
Also note: early booking inventory is capacity controlled like everything else. If early booking isn't showing for a flight, that says nothing about whether the standard midnight window will have seats. Different buckets, different rules.
Early booking vs Discount Den fares
If you also hold a Discount Den membership, always compare. Because GoWild and Discount Den are separate programs with separate fare buckets, a Discount Den fare on the same flight can occasionally beat the GoWild early booking total. Thirty seconds of comparison at checkout is free money either way. We compare the two programs head to head later in this series.
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WildFares is an independent tool and publication. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Frontier Airlines, Inc. GoWild! is a trademark of Frontier Airlines, Inc. Where this article mentions third party products or services, including other GoWild search tools, those names are trademarks of their respective owners and we have no affiliation or relationship with them. Program rules, prices, taxes, and dates change often. Always confirm current terms directly with the airline before you buy or book anything.