If you have been waiting to book a cheap flight on a route Spirit Airlines used to serve, the clock runs out tonight. Frontier Airlines’ rescue fares, which cut base prices by as much as 50% on select travel days, expire at the end of May 15, 2026, according to Frontier’s active booking page. After that, travelers shopping routes like Fort Lauderdale to San Juan or Orlando to Los Angeles will lose the deepest discounts available since Spirit stopped flying, and they will do so on corridors where one fewer ultra-low-cost carrier now means less fare competition overall.
How the rescue fares work and what the deadline actually means
Frontier’s rescue-fare program launched after Spirit Airlines filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and ceased all flight operations in early 2025, leaving tens of thousands of ticketed passengers without flights. In response, Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy coordinated with multiple airlines in the weeks following Spirit’s shutdown, including Frontier, to arrange relief pricing so displaced Spirit customers would not be stuck paying full walk-up fares on short notice.
The mechanics are straightforward. Travelers enter the promo code SAVENOW at checkout on Frontier’s website. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, the code takes up to 50% off the base fare when the ticket is booked at least 21 days before departure. On all other days, the discount drops to 10%. Crucially, tickets purchased before tonight’s cutoff remain valid for travel through November 19, 2026, so booking now does not mean flying tomorrow.
A note on the deadline itself: Frontier’s original rescue-fare announcement listed May 10, 2026, as the final booking date. The airline’s current deals page now shows May 15, 2026, with the same SAVENOW code still active. No Frontier spokesperson has confirmed or denied the extension on the record, so this article treats the later date as the operative deadline because it matches the most recent consumer-facing copy on Frontier’s site. If you saw the May 10 date and assumed you had already missed out, check the booking page. You likely still have until the end of today.
Frontier’s broader play for Spirit’s loyal base
The discounted fares are only one piece of a larger recruitment effort. Frontier also rolled out a “Fly One, Get One” bonus miles promotion and temporarily waived the enrollment fee for its Discount Den membership. The intent is not subtle: Frontier wants former Spirit flyers to become repeat customers, not just grab a one-time deal and disappear.
Spirit’s customer base gives Frontier a real prize to chase. The defunct carrier operated dozens of leisure-heavy routes, particularly across Florida, the Caribbean, and between mid-size cities that larger airlines often skip. Other ultra-low-cost carriers, including Allegiant, Avelo, and Breeze, fly some of the same regions, but their route maps only partially overlap with Spirit’s former network. On many city pairs, Spirit and Frontier were the only two airlines offering bare-bones base fares. With Spirit gone, Frontier holds those routes with far less pricing pressure than before.
Consider a traveler who flew Spirit’s nonstop Fort Lauderdale-to-Cartagena route twice a year for family visits. That passenger now finds no ultra-low-cost option on the route at all unless Frontier or another budget carrier picks it up. For that flyer, the rescue fare is not just a discount; it is the difference between a $180 round trip and a $400-plus ticket on a legacy carrier. Multiply that scenario across dozens of similar city pairs, and the scale of the gap Spirit left behind becomes clear.
Your refund rights still stand, regardless of this deadline
Frontier’s promotion is entirely separate from the federal protections covering passengers whose Spirit flights were canceled outright. Under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s airline refund regulations (14 CFR Part 260), those travelers are entitled to a refund to their original form of payment, not just a voucher or airline credit, when the carrier fails to operate the purchased flight. If you paid Spirit directly and have not yet recovered your money, you can still file a refund claim through the DOT regardless of whether you ever used a rescue fare.
One area that remains unresolved: Spirit’s Free Spirit loyalty program. Because Spirit entered bankruptcy proceedings before ceasing operations, accumulated points are treated as an unsecured claim in the bankruptcy estate, making recovery unlikely for most members. As of mid-May 2026, no publicly announced transfer agreement exists that would let former members move their accumulated points to Frontier or any other carrier. Travelers sitting on Free Spirit balances should monitor the DOT’s consumer page and Frontier’s newsroom for updates, but should not count on those points being recoverable.
Why the “15% to 20% higher” figure deserves careful reading
The headline figure of 15% to 20% higher fares on former Spirit routes has circulated widely in travel coverage, but it requires context. No publicly available DOT analysis, Frontier investor filing, or peer-reviewed study has pinned down a precise range. The figure traces back to secondary market commentary and analyst estimates rather than hard data, so it is best understood as directional: fares on affected routes are heading up, but the exact magnitude is not settled. The headline of this article reflects those analyst estimates; it does not reflect a confirmed, locked-in pricing policy from Frontier or any regulatory body.
The underlying logic is not complicated. With Spirit out of the picture, Frontier faces less direct pressure on routes where the two carriers used to undercut each other. Fewer discounters competing for the same seats generally pushes average fares higher. How much higher depends on whether airlines like JetBlue, Southwest, Allegiant, Avelo, or Breeze add capacity on former Spirit routes, how aggressively Frontier prices once the promotional code is gone, and how quickly travelers shift their booking habits. As of mid-May 2026, none of those carriers have publicly announced specific route expansions targeting Spirit’s old network, though JetBlue and Southwest already serve many of the same airports in Florida and the Caribbean.
If competitors move into the gap on high-demand leisure routes, that pressure could limit any long-term fare increase. If Frontier and a handful of larger network airlines remain the only options, they will have considerably more room to push prices up, especially during peak travel windows and on last-minute bookings.
How to use the SAVENOW code on Frontier’s booking page before tonight’s expiration
For anyone still holding a canceled Spirit itinerary, or simply shopping a route that Spirit used to fly, the move today is simple: pull up Frontier’s booking page, enter the SAVENOW promo code, and lock in the discounted fare before it expires. The ticket covers travel through mid-November, so there is room to plan.
After tonight, budget-minded travelers on these routes fall back on the usual playbook: flexible dates, advance booking, and willingness to consider alternate airports. The difference now is that Spirit’s aggressive pricing is no longer setting the floor. On routes where Frontier is the last ultra-low-cost carrier standing, that floor is almost certainly rising, and today’s deadline marks the last easy way to get under it.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
