Frontier Airlines Early Returns Rip Off
 

Hello All,
I'm wondering if anyone else has had the problem I am having with Frontier Airlines abruptly deleting all the miles in my Early Returns account? I've searched their web site which is suddenly very user un-friendly. I've called and written them and gotten no response whatsoever. I can't even reach a human on the phone.

Here's the background: About a month ago, I received an email message from Frontier saying that their Early Returns Program is changing. Specifically, that after March 7, 2015, all miles in Early Returns accounts will expire in six months unless you earn or buy more miles between March 7 and May 7, in which case they will expire six months from the day the new miles are earned.

Last week all the miles in my account suddenly vanished. Is anyone having the same problem? Does anyone have ideas about where I go now with this? Any answers are appreciated.

here is the number to the cooperate office customer relations 1800-432-1359 open monday through friday

Had you earned or bought a mile in the last 6 months?

Won't the miles reappear (be credited back) if you earn between now and May 7?

What did they say when you called?

I received the email from F9 on Feb 4, 2015. All my miles are still there as of today.

"Changes to EarlyReturns® Mileage Expiration
Beginning March 7, 2015, you'll need to earn miles using your EarlyReturns account every six months in order to keep the miles that are currently in your account.

The good news, your miles don't need to expire! Just keep earning and you can keep them. Any miles you have earned, or continue to earn, will not expire as long as you continue to earn miles every six months. Unredeemed mileage accumulated in your account will expire at the end of the six-month period after your last activity date. For example, if you don't acquire new miles by September 7, 2015, the miles you've accrued through March 6, 2015 will expire on September 7, 2015 and won't be available for use."

I think your miles are in my account :)

When they switched systems, my YTD segments disappeared too. But since then, they did something which more than restored them. My account now shows about 30 YTD segments and 30,000 YTD miles. The total hasn't changed though. But maybe I've already qualified for Elite status for 2016.

I've tried that number numerous times and never get a human or an option menu. Just a recording that says their call volume is higer than usual and the wait will be longer. I've waited and waited and waited for nothing.

Yes, last September 2014.

I was never able to reach a human nor an option menu every time I called.

That's the exact same email I received. My miles should have remained until Sept. 7, 2015 but as I said, they suddenly vanished last week. Watch your account as yours may vanish too.

When did yours disappear and when did they reappear?

It's hard to tell what comment you were responding to. But if this is the last time you flew Frontier, then your miles may have expired because you did not have any activity on your account for 6 months.

That's not to say that Frontier doesn't have issues with the new system. My last flight was sometime in February. But when the new site went online, it showed me as having not flown this year. Then, a week or so later, my account showed a whole bunch of YTD segments and miles that I didn't actually fly.

i have called that number before and got ahold of someone its probably flooded with all there problems now this airline is so shady these days

Previous mile retention policy?
 

Does anybody know the previous mile retention policy? How long could you go without a flight or miles posted or deducted from an account before the account was emptied of miles?

Previous mile retention was 18 months.

Only works with DeskTop not Laptops?!?
 

I don't see this email as clearly explaining the problem. Nor are your responses to this thread completely clear.

I would try again list your account number, when you flew last and who many miles you had as of March 7, 2015 the conversion date and the last time you observed then miles being present.

Cannot Access Account
 

I also couldn't log in with FF#/email and password. Using the reset feature worked for me.

Turns out you now need uppercase/lowercase/numbers/punctuation/bloodoffirstborn etc.

Seriously this is madness! Club Carlson and Hilton are the same way. There is no logical reason why FF/hotel accounts I don't even use need stronger passwords than all of my bank accounts. I hope they all go out of business from people forgetting their convoluted passwords!

This happened to me yesterday. I had not logged in for months and I know I had earned miles to keep my 40K active in April. Then I went through the password change routine. Was shocked to see that miles showed zero. It was late night so I planned to call this AM. But when I logged in this morning it showed correct miles.

I am finding it difficult to use their miles though, very low flexibility!

Well it looks like my Frontier EarlyReturns account not only had the points expire, but disappear. I was never given an email about the new 6 month policy. I keep track of expiration dates and was going off the old 18 month system still, so I thought I had until the end of this month to earn, but as it turns out they expired months ago. No wonder I haven't been able to log in the past few weeks.

How can any airline have any loyalty to a loyalty program when you aren't even given 1 year to earn/redeem points? 1 year & 18 month expiries are common. 6 months is unheard of. Fortunately I only lost approx. 4,250 miles, but even still I won't be patronizing F9 again any time soon.

These two events may not be related. There have been problems for months with log-in suddenly failing and prompting for a new password.

Thanks for the tip. I have tried password reset repeatedly to no avail. I don't think I'll be riding F9 again any time soon. They're now a 'whole different animal'.

My Early Return miles are about to expire. Since I'm not going to fly Frontier anytime soon is Magsformiles.com my best opportunity for use of these straggler miles (~7,000)?

Frontier is dead to me
 

I just started looking for any miles on this account and find that everything has changed!

Frontier is a "slimiine seat" flyer. Oh, great. That won't hold my wide butt.

Frontier has deleted my hard earned miles by changing the rules from 18 months or so to 6 months? Hell, I have a life and was too busy to watch them.

This was an obvious ploy to dump those of us who weren't flying Frontier constantly. Watch out! The airlines does NOT care about you. They don't care if you've been a good customer but wasn't traveling for a while. Seems like you should be able to reach a certain status and retain your miles forever, if you've been a VERY loyal customer.

Disgusted....:mad::mad::td:

If you haven't flown an airline for 6 months plus, you aren't exactly a "VERY loyal customer". Especially when the 6 month policy has been in place for 14 months.

The six month expiration policy is quite insane in terms of trying to giving anyone a reason to fly with them.

I flew with them in July 2015 and close to the expiration, I was able to get a $25 gift card for Walmart. I lost about 93 miles. Other members of my family have not been so lucky and now all of them have been zeroed out.

So ... with no miles in the bank, what reason do I have to fly with Frontier? I would need to be going to a city they serve but WN/AA/UA does not. Maybe Frontier would have a time that just happened to suit my needs better.

But, if it is heads-up competition against Southwest, how could Frontier possibly make me want to fly with them instead of Southwest? Price? Unlikely. Sure, they could give me a $29 fare, but I'd want "the works" and then the price would likely be at/near Southwest. They certainly can't get me with the promise of a future free flight given how they expire miles.

Now, you might say "all airlines do this." Yes and no. United and American both offer dining for miles. I haven't stepped foot on a UA/AA flight since 2013 / 2006 respectively, yet I have never lost a mile with either of them. Just go dining at one of the locations now and then and my miles stay safe. Same for the rest of my family. There is no option to do this with Frontier. Yes, I could get a credit card, the perks of the card are not as good as the perks of a Southwest card.

Yes, I think they want the "loyal" flyer. But if I was running an airline, I'd want all flyers regardless. I wouldn't put together insane policies that drive away customers.

The comparable fare on Southwest to "The Works" is their Anytime Fare, which would likely be far more expensive.

Another option depending on where you fly from is the "Thanks Again" program. Pretty much any place in ATL will give you credit which can be directed to Early Returns and will keep you miles alive. You can also do rental cars.

I fly frontier every now and again because I live in Denver, and I can do short notice trips to vegas for under $40 round trip.

And if for some reason, I do not go to vegas within 6 months, I just transfer 100 kickback points into 46 frontier miles on points.com and it resets my expiration.

Most of the local conoco stations give kickback points for gas purchases. Actually, a lot of various gas station loyalty programs can be transferred to frontier, so worth looking into if you have tens of thousands of miles about to expire.

Thanks for mentioning that. I'll look into it.

Well, interesting fact, I transferred some kickback points over the other day, and they posted today. They no longer reset my expiration date.

I guess it is flying or emiles only

Where do you see an expiration date?

I use awardwallet pro to track everything.

If you use that to track the dates, where does awardwallet pro get the expiration dates?
As far as I was aware that information was not directly available from Frontier. I'd be happy to be wrong.

The expiration date is at the left panel of your profile page.

The expiration date is not there any more.

I have over 12,000 miles expiring soon, wonder if I should exchange them for
other airline (via points.com to get out), magazine(to extend) or send MRP in.

Never redeem, the ticket is cheap for my route so I guess the mile is not worth much.