How to check in online for a Frontier Airlines flight

If you fly with Frontier Airlines, you can check in for free through the Frontier mobile app. On most flights, check-in opens 24 hours before departure, and you'll get a mobile boarding pass to scan at the gate. Counter check-in is also available at every airport, but an additional fee applies.

This guide goes through Frontier Airlines check-in step by step: when check-in opens and closes, how the mobile boarding pass works, and which airport deadlines to keep in mind.

Getting help from an airport agent can cost extra on Frontier Airlines. Counter check-in is available everywhere, but having a boarding pass printed for you falls under Airport Agent Assistance, which costs $25 per passenger, per direction, and is not refundable. Frontier Airlines publishes a list of exceptions to the fee.

Three things can help you avoid that charge:

• check in on the Frontier mobile app before you get to the airport;

• have your boarding pass ready on your phone or printed before you arrive;

• tag your own checked bag, at airports where self-tagging is available.

On most flights, check-in opens 24 hours before departure. It closes 60 minutes before departure, and checked bag acceptance closes at the same moment. The same deadline applies to both domestic and international flights.

Frontier Airlines recommends arriving at the airport at least 2 hours before departure, and the ticket counters generally open around that point.

What happens after check-in closes

Boarding usually starts 45 minutes before departure, so you should be at the gate by then. Boarding itself ends 20 minutes before departure.

If you fail to check in by the deadline, Frontier says your ticket will be treated as a No-Show Cancellation and canceled. Any subsequent flights on the same itinerary, including a return flight, will also be canceled.

Check-in happens in the Frontier mobile app, which is free and runs on iOS and Android. The app issues your boarding pass at the end of the process and keeps it on your phone.

How to check in with Frontier Airlines:

1. Download the Frontier mobile app on iOS or Android.

2. Open the app and start check-in.

3. Follow the steps through to the end.

4. Keep your mobile boarding pass on your phone to scan at the gate.

If you're not checking a bag and your carry-on has already been paid for, you can usually go straight to security and then to the gate without stopping at the counter.

If you would rather check in at the airport

You can also check in at the airport, but an additional fee applies. Frontier publishes a list of exceptions to this fee.

You checked in on time, your booking was confirmed, and you were at the gate when you were meant to be. A delay, a cancellation or an overbooked flight can still get in the way of your plans.

What you can claim depends on where the flight starts.

Flights within the United States come under Department of Transportation rules. There is no cash compensation for a delay or a cancellation. You are owed a refund if your flight is canceled or changed significantly and you turn down what is offered in its place. There is compensation if you are denied boarding because the flight was overbooked. Our guide to US air passenger rights sets out the detail.

Flights leaving an airport in the European Union are covered by EC 261, whoever operates them. If the airline is responsible, you may be owed up to $650 per passenger, depending on how far you were due to fly. Frontier Airlines Inc. is not a European airline, so the rule runs one way only: Paris to New York is covered, New York to Paris is not.

Keeping track of your Frontier Airlines flight

Check-in is done, but a flight can still change before departure. Frontier Airlines publishes flight status on its own site and in the Frontier mobile app, and you can sign up to receive status updates by email.

For another way to keep an eye on your flight, the free AirHelp app can track it and check whether a delay, cancellation or denied boarding may entitle you to compensation.

With the AirHelp app you can:

• receive real-time notifications about delays, cancellations, gate changes and baggage claim;

• scan your boarding pass to add your flight quickly;

• share your flight status with whoever is picking you up;

• find out automatically when you are owed up to $650 in compensation;

• start your claim straight from the app, with no paperwork.

The app is free and available on iOS and Android.