As an update, I was flying another US airline the past week on a domestic route and my intention was to by two domestic F9 tickets without paying the CIC ( they were both connecting itineraries so was going to save $46 per ticket ); the airport that I departed did had a Frontier departure nearby but all employees at the check-in desk were outsourced ( had a polo shirt or sweater of the ground handling company rather than the green polo shirts or light-gray hoodies with the Frontier logo ) and they told me that the system wouldn't let them ticket anything unless departing from that airport. Is this something new as I experienced this for the first time and two employees tried it on two different computers multiple times. Is this a new restriction? I would totally understand if they do have an agreement with the third party ground handling company getting a commission or fixed rates on the tickets sold by their end. Does anyone have more insight or experience with this?

In the end, the arrival airport of my flight had 2 Frontier flights so the desks were open and was manned with proper Frontier employees and a professional agent was able to issue those two tickets within 3-4 minutes.