Frontier Airlines Baggage Allowance: Personal Item, Carry-On & Checked Bags
So you have found a Frontier fare that looks almost suspiciously cheap, and now a little voice in your head is asking where the catch is hiding. The catch is the bags. That is the whole game with Frontier, and once it clicks, those low fares actually stay low instead of quietly doubling at the gate.
This guide runs through the three bag types, what each one costs, the size traps that catch people out, and the handful of moves that keep more cash in your pocket. Personal item, carry-on, checked bags, the overweight and oversize stuff, bundles, all of it in plain English.
I have flown my share of ultra low cost hops, and Frontier runs one of the tightest bag operations going. I have stood at a boarding gate and watched a cabin bag get wedged into a metal sizing frame while the queue behind quietly lost the will to live. You do not want to be that person, kneeling on the floor shifting trainers into a coat pocket at final call. Frontier is a Denver based ultra low cost carrier that flies all over the US, plus a good chunk of Mexico and the Caribbean, and it plays the fee game harder than the big legacy airlines. The upside? The rules are genuinely simple once someone lays them out without the small print voice.
This article may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps fund the site and keeps our guides free. See our full affiliate disclosure for details.
Frontier Airlines: Quick Facts
One free personal item, every fare. Max 14 x 18 x 8 in (about 36 x 46 x 20 cm), up to 35 lb (16 kg). It has to slide under the seat in front of you.
Carry-on bags cost extra. Nothing overhead is free on the basic fare. Max 24 x 16 x 10 in (about 61 x 41 x 25 cm), up to 35 lb (16 kg).
Checked bags start from around $39 (£29 / €34) each way. Standard limit is 62 linear inches (158 cm) and 40 lb (18 kg).
Fees are charged per direction. A one-way price on the screen doubles for a return trip. Easy to forget, expensive to ignore.
Buy bags early, not at the airport. Prices climb the closer you get to departure. The gate is always the worst place to pay.
Good to know: All the dollar figures below are guides, not gospel. Frontier prices bags dynamically, so the exact number shifts by route, date and how busy the flight is. Treat them as a ballpark and check the real price on your own booking.
Official Website: flyfrontier.com/travel/travel-info/bag-options
The three bag types, sorted in a minute
Every Frontier bag falls into one of three buckets, and the price gap between them is huge. Get the categories straight and half the confusion disappears.
- Personal item. The small one that lives under the seat. Free on every ticket. This is your golden ticket, and I will bang on about it later.
- Carry-on. The proper cabin bag that goes in the overhead bin. Not free. Costs real money unless a bundle or elite status covers it.
- Checked bag. The big one that disappears into the hold. Paid, priced by route, and oddly enough sometimes cheaper than the carry-on.
Here is the quick comparison so you can see the sizes side by side:
← Swipe to scroll on mobile
| Bag type | Max size | Max weight | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal item | 14 x 18 x 8 in (36 x 46 x 20 cm) | 35 lb (16 kg) | Free |
| Carry-on | 24 x 16 x 10 in (61 x 41 x 25 cm) | 35 lb (16 kg) | Paid add-on |
| Checked bag | 62 linear in (158 cm) total | 40 lb (18 kg) | From about $39 (£29 / €34) |
Tinker’s Tip: Linear inches means length plus width plus depth added together, not any single side. A 28 x 20 x 14 in suitcase is 62 linear inches on the nose, so measure all three and add them up before you assume you are fine.
Your free personal item is the whole strategy
If you take one thing from this article, take this. The personal item is the only bag Frontier gives you for nothing, and a surprising number of trips fit inside it. Weekend break? Easy. Three or four days if you pack like a grown-up and do a bit of laundry? Very doable.
The limit is 14 in high, 18 in wide, 8 in deep, and that includes handles, wheels and straps. Think a decent backpack, a holdall, a laptop bag, a roomy tote. It has to fit under the seat in front, and Frontier does check at boarding. A soft bag you can squish plays the game better than a rigid case that refuses to compress.
What actually fits in a bag that size? More than you would guess:
- Three or four days of clothes if you roll rather than fold
- A slim toiletry bag with your liquids in the clear pouch
- Chargers, a power bank, headphones, a book or tablet
- One spare pair of shoes, worn on the plane if they are the chunky ones
Money saver: Buy a bag that is built to the 14 x 18 x 8 in limit and you can fly a short trip for the base fare and nothing else. On a return that can save you the price of two carry-ons, which is often more than the flight cost in the first place.
Related Article: New to the whole under-seat game? My guide to what you are allowed to take in your hand luggage covers the liquids rule, exemptions and the sneaky items people forget.
The carry-on: the bag that catches everyone out
This is where Frontier surprises people. That cabin bag you would wheel onto any other airline for free? On Frontier it is a paid extra, and it is not cheap. Depending on the route and when you buy, a carry-on runs somewhere from roughly $40 up to $99 (£30 to £73 / €34 to €85) per direction. Leave it until the gate and it can cost more than three times the online price. I have watched people pay it, and their faces do not thank them.
There is a second trap sitting inside the first one. Frontier’s carry-on is 16 inches wide, which is a touch narrower than the industry-standard cabin bag. Plenty of popular 22 inch spinner cases sail onto other airlines and then fail Frontier’s frame once you count the wheels and handles. So measure the actual bag, wheels and all, not the marketing size on the label.
← Swipe to scroll on mobile
| When you buy the carry-on | Rough cost per direction | Return trip |
|---|---|---|
| During booking (cheapest) | From about $40 (£30 / €34) | From about $80 (£59 / €69) |
| After booking, before the airport | Around $60 to $79 (£44 to £58 / €52 to €68) | Roughly $120 to $158 (£89 to £117 / €104 to €136) |
| At the boarding gate (worst) | Up to $99 or more (£73+ / €85+) | $198+ (£146+ / €171+) |
Watch out: Gate agents actively measure bags in the sizing frame, especially on packed flights. If your carry-on does not fit, they will make you check it at the gate at the highest price going. Sort the bag before you leave home, not at the podium.
Related Article: Want to see a US airline that does this the opposite way? My Alaska Airlines baggage allowance guide covers a carrier where the carry-on comes included, which is a useful contrast to Frontier’s paid model.
Checked bags, and the bit that makes no sense
Checked bags on Frontier start from around $39 (£29 / €34) per direction when you add them during booking, climbing as you get closer to the flight. Standard limit is 62 linear inches and 40 lb (18 kg). Go over either and the surcharges land, which we will get to.
Now the genuinely odd part. On Frontier, a checked bag bought early often costs $20 to $30 (£15 to £22 / €17 to €26) less than a carry-on. It is one of the few airlines on earth where paying to put your bag in the hold can be cheaper than keeping it with you. So if you are packing more than an under-seat bag anyway, it is worth pricing the checked bag first and skipping the carry-on entirely. Fewer bags to haul through the cabin, less faff at boarding, smaller bill. I will take that trade most days.
Reality check: Never pack medication, cash, documents, car keys or your tech in a checked bag. If the hold bag goes walkabout, you want the important stuff still on your shoulder. This is exactly where a bit of travel insurance earns its keep, especially on trips with connections.
Overweight and oversize: the expensive surprises
Here is where a cheap flight turns into a not-cheap flight. Frontier’s standard checked bag tops out at 40 lb (18 kg). Nudge past that and the extra fees stack on top of what you already paid for the bag. They are not gentle.
← Swipe to scroll on mobile
| Situation | Extra fee per bag, per direction | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Overweight 41 to 50 lb (19 to 23 kg) | About $75 (£55 / €65) | On top of the standard bag price |
| Overweight 51 to 99.99 lb (23 to 45 kg) | About $129 (£95 / €111) | A recent increase pushed this tier up |
| Oversize 63 to 110 linear in (160 to 279 cm) | About $75 (£55 / €65) | Charged on size, separate from weight |
| Over 100 lb or over 110 linear in | Not accepted | Frontier will refuse it outright |
Read that middle row again. A single suitcase over 50 lb can cost you $129 (£95 / €111) each way on top of the bag fee, so a return with one heavy case can quietly add $258 (£190 / €222) to your trip. That is real money for a few pounds of overpacking.
Small print: A cheap luggage scale costs less than one overweight penalty and pays for itself the first time it saves you. Weigh at home, and if a bag is heavy, move 5 lb into another bag or your coat before you ever reach the desk.
The Travel Tinker Shop
Gear we actually travel with
Passport holders, packing cubes, travel wallets. Stuff that earns its place in the bag.
Browse the shopBundles versus paying for bags one by one
Frontier sells bundles that fold bags, a seat and a few perks into one price, and they can work out cheaper than buying everything separately. The trick is doing the sums for your actual trip, not assuming the bundle is always the deal.
- Economy bundle. Personal item, a carry-on, a standard seat and no change or cancel fees. The sweet spot for most people carrying one cabin bag.
- Premium bundle. Adds a premium seat with more legroom and earlier boarding with guaranteed overhead space.
- Business bundle. Adds two checked bags at up to 50 lb each and a roomier seat with the middle blocked next to you.
Where bundles really shine is longer trips. If you already need a carry-on and a checked bag, the bundle often costs about the same as the two bags alone, and then the seat and the flexibility are basically free. On a quick under-seat-only hop, skip it and keep your money.
← Swipe to scroll on mobile
| Bundle | Bags included | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Economy | Personal item plus one carry-on | One cabin bag, want a seat and flexibility |
| Premium | Personal item plus one carry-on | Legroom and early boarding matter to you |
| Business | Carry-on plus two checked bags (50 lb each) | Longer trips or packing heavy |
Quick win: Before you commit to add-ons, price the bundle for your exact flight. More than once I have found the Economy bundle came out cheaper than a carry-on plus a seat bought on their own. Two minutes of clicking, real savings.
When you pay matters as much as what you pay
Frontier’s bag prices are not fixed. The same bag on the same flight gets more expensive the longer you wait, and the boarding gate is the most costly place on the entire journey to hand over a card. This is the single easiest fee to avoid, and the one people trip over most.
The order of cheapest to most painful goes like this: add bags while you are booking the flight, then in Manage Trip before you travel, then online check-in, and finally, if you have left it too late, the airport and the gate. Same bag, wildly different bills.
Timing tip: Add or lock in bag prices at least 60 minutes before departure. Bag drop and the ticket counter close an hour before domestic flights, so a late arrival can leave you stuck with gate prices or, worse, no time to check the bag at all.
What flies free (that people always ask about)
Not everything counts against your allowance, and this is where families and anyone with medical kit can breathe out a bit. A few things travel free and do not eat into your bags at all:
- Strollers, buggies and car seats, checked at the gate at no charge
- A diaper bag when you are travelling with a child
- Wheelchairs and other assistive or mobility devices
- Coats, canes, crutches and respiratory or oxygen devices
- A sealed duty-free bag bought after security
Kids under two on a lap get the same free personal item as an adult, and if you buy a seat for an infant, they get the standard adult allowance. Handy to know before you start paying for a bag you did not need to.
Good to know: Spare lithium batteries, power banks and vapes are not allowed in checked bags for safety reasons. They have to travel in the cabin with you, so keep them in your personal item or carry-on.
Related Article: Flying another US budget carrier on the same trip? My Allegiant Air baggage allowance guide breaks down the same personal item versus paid carry-on trade-off, since the two airlines play it very similarly.
Other ways to dodge Frontier's bag fees
Beyond packing light and buying early, there are a couple of levers worth knowing about:
- Frontier Miles elite status. Higher tiers unlock a free carry-on, and the top tier throws in a free first checked bag too. Worth it if you fly Frontier regularly.
- Co-branded credit cards. Some travel cards reimburse bag fees as a statement credit, and the Frontier card helps you climb the elite tiers faster.
- Board First add-on. Not a bag saver as such, but it guarantees overhead bin space if you have paid for a carry-on and you are boarding in a late group.
Tinker’s Tip: If your carry-on gets tagged for gate check because the bins filled up, that is on the airline, not you, and it should not cost you anything. Do not let anyone charge you a gate fee for a bag you already paid to bring on board.
Packing smart so Frontier's rules work for you
The whole Frontier system rewards people who plan. A few habits that keep me out of the fee trap every time:
- Own one bag built to the exact personal item limit and one that hits the carry-on size. No guessing at the gate.
- Weigh checked bags at home. Forty pounds sounds like a lot until you add shoes and a hairdryer.
- Wear your bulkiest layers and heaviest shoes on the plane. It looks daft, it saves weight, nobody remembers.
- Sort your data before you fly so you are not hunting for wifi on landing. A prepaid eSIM means you step off the plane already connected, which matters when your ride or your hotel is a message away.
And once the bags are sorted, that saved money is better spent on the actual trip. I would rather put it toward a decent room or a good day out than hand it to a gate podium.
Related Article: Connecting onto a bigger airline for the long haul? My American Airlines baggage allowance guide is handy for comparing what is included once you leave the ultra low cost world behind.
The short version
Frontier is cheap if you play it right and pricey if you wing it. Make the free personal item do as much work as possible, buy any carry-on or checked bag while you book instead of at the gate, weigh everything at home, and check the bundle price before you pay for extras one by one. Do that and the low fare you were promised is the fare you actually pay.
Sorted your bags and ready to book the rest? Lock in a place to stay with Booking.com, and once you land, line up the fun bits with a few tours so the money you saved on baggage goes toward something you will actually remember. Safe travels, and may your bag glide through that sizing frame first time.
FAQs
Is a carry-on free on Frontier?
No. Only the personal item is free on every fare. A carry-on for the overhead bin is a paid add-on unless it comes with a bundle or your Frontier Miles elite status.
How strict is Frontier with bag sizes?
Very. Gate agents actively use sizing frames, and the carry-on width is a little narrower than standard, so measure your bag including wheels and handles before you fly rather than hoping it squeaks in.
What is Frontier's free personal item size?
Up to 14 x 18 x 8 in (about 36 x 46 x 20 cm), including handles, wheels and straps, and up to 35 lb (16 kg). It must fit under the seat in front of you.
Is it cheaper to check a bag or bring a carry-on on Frontier?
Often the checked bag wins, oddly. Bought early, a checked bag can cost $20 to $30 (£15 to £22 / €17 to €26) less than a carry-on, which is unusual but genuinely true for Frontier.
Are Frontier bag fees charged each way?
Yes. Fees are per direction, so a return trip means paying twice for the same bag. Always double the one-way price in your head when you budget.
Travel Hubs
Recommended Websites and Resources:
Want to know how to plan or save for a trip? Here are our best:
Ready to book your next trip? These resources have been personally vetted for a smooth travel experience.
- Flights: Find the best deals on Trip.com
- Hotels: Best rates on Booking.com · Best hostels on HostelWorld · Ratings and bargains on TripAdvisor
- Apartments: Affordable rentals on VRBO
- Car hire: Best prices on RentalCars.com
- Travel insurance: EKTA for worldwide cover · AirHelp for flight delay compensation
- Activities: Tours and skip-the-line tickets on GetYourGuide · Instant mobile tickets on Tiqets
- Trains: Most affordable trains on Trainline · Rail passes on Rail Europe
- Travel eSIMs: Use your mobile phone anywhere worldwide with Airalo
- Need more help planning your trip? Visit our Resources Page to see all the companies we trust and use for our travels
You May Also Like
Share this post
On this page
Nick Harvey
Hi, I am Nick! Thank you for reading! The Travel Tinker is a resource designed to help you navigate the beauty of travel! Tinkering your plans as you browse!
All articles on The Travel Tinker are written by humans. Linkedin Profile Read our editorial policy.
Plan your trip
The tools we actually use:
Free Travel Starter Kit
Planners, checklists and the small stuff that stops a trip going sideways. Free, no spam.
