If you haven't paid for a Frontier seat assignment, you might not want to rush to check-in, as they seem to assign the worst free seats to the early check-ins. But I encountered a weird contra-situation last week. If Frontier needs to reduce the number of passengers on the flight -- like for strong headwinds -- they bump based on check-in time. It doesn't seem to matter if you have status or any other factor. I was flying with the Bundle (on my 2022 status) and I DID have a seat assignment, but didn't rush to check-in (did so 5 hours before the flight). I got very close to getting thrown off the aircraft. So definitely check in early if you already have a seat assignment.

So you would've scored an IDB compensation. Isn't that 10 grand in the US?

No, or at least I don't think so. At the gate, Frontier was offering a $500 voucher to switch to a later flight. The problem, of course, is that with Frontier, there really isn't a plausible "later flight." It was a once a day route and they did tell people (who asked) that there were no seats on the next day's flight. Understandably, I saw only 2 people voluntarily accept this payment.

Beyond that, the rules seem to get murky. I do think this qualifies for IDB, but I'm not entirely sure. Even if it does, Frontier can limit the compensation to "4x one way fare." Is that the average fare or YOUR fare? On Frontier, I would expect the average fare could be less than $100. I have no idea how all their incidentals are treated. This does not seem like a good deal for most folks, especially when Frontier does not have a reasonable alternative flight.

https://www.transportation.gov/indiv...ping-oversales

It's your own one-way ticket price. Luckily, the one time ended up with an IDB on Frontier the ticket wasn't crazy cheap, and they even had a flight with open seats later in the day. So I ended up with a $600-something check for taking a flight 6 hours later.

If you paid in miles and end up with an IDB, you're due 4x the lowest paid ticket in the same class. That could potentially be a pittance on Frontier, so make sure to check-in early on award tickets in the off chance it happens.

I was travelling on a $19 fare, so I would have suffered great inconvenience and expense and gotten back virtually nothing. Glad that didn't happen to me, and I'm glad I now understand more about IDB -- even though I've never been subject to it in well over 1000 flights. You never know what crazy thing you'll run into.