Last week I shared the story of my first ever flight on Spirit. The flight itself was fine, but the check-in process took over an hour and concluded with the agents disregarding the line and instead calling passengers up in the order their flight was departing.
Continue reading: Review: Frontier Airlines A319 Denver To Philadelphia
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Haha What do I think of Frontier? Your description is totally spot on.
I flew them 5 years ago and had the exact experience and haven't gone near them since. A joke of an airline. Only Trumpsters fly them I hope.
So I'm not sure if I should book the Orlando New Orleans trip with them - but then they are the only one with a direct flight (together with Spirt) and its just a 2 hour flight.
Do you not get Group 1 if you book a carry on piece?
"Frontier used to be Denver’s hometown airline, and they still have a huge presence." Aren't they still based in DEN?
Travis, now that you mentioned it, I hope you can post a review of a Hyatt House. We don't get those here in Asia, so I'm curious about it. Thanks!
Awesome photos! Scrolling quickly through the article one might also possibly conclude this was week one of The Walking Dead, except no blood.
So what compensation did you get in the end for the delay ? A $10 food voucher is a disgrace in an airport, that hardly gets you anything, let alone food and a drink.
Either way..Nice report on it and sorry for your long delay.
@Jason: Thanks! Just checked them and they are 120 $ more but is it true that they don't charge for the check in bag and carry on?
@Tina - southwest does not charge for your checked luggage or your carry on luggage. so factor that in. They also, on average, run a more reliable operation.
DCA -- A few years ago, pretty much every Frontier flight either originated or terminated in Denver, their hub. But nowadays they are like Spirit, where they'll just start up point-to-point routes wherever they think they can make a buck. So I guess that's what I mean by they "used to be Denver's hometown airline." But of course, they still have HQ in Denver.
Sounds par for the course. I don't fly Frontier that often for this very reason. A majority of the flights I've ever taken with them have been significantly delayed. I've missed several connections due to these delays. I only consider them now when they're selling a nonstop flight to my final destination at a significantly cheaper price than anyone else.
I live in Denver and will try to avoid Frontier the same as you. Sometimes though it is a few hundred dollars different and then I will. But only if I feel the weather is going to be reasonably predictable. When a Frontier flight is cancelled it can be a week before you get back to home around the holidays. The flights are at off hours which do not usually work for my schedule. The planes used to be nice, but now bare bones paper thin seats. All Airbuses and I prefer Boeing. It costs more to take a carry on than to check and neither are free.
Isbluffs. It was actually about $11 total. I always make sure I get maximum value out of the vouchers, so don't mind paying a bit on my own.
Thanks for giving away the Bridge secret -- I loved that thing before CLEAR/PreCheck made lines irrelevant. And I've always found Denver's TSA people to be friendlier than many other airports.
Out of curiosity, if you have to sleep in an airport, where do you choose to sleep?
I flew Frontier in their previous iteration in 2008. From Denver to Milwaukee. The flight was comfortable, every flight had a TV in the back, etc. That seems a lot better than this.
I love your polite tone. Most other bloggers would be screaming bloody murder after a delay like that.
How did they board the plane with a pilot? I thought you can't board passengers until both pilots are there.
FWIW - I was delayed by three hours under the exact same scenario as you described above except it was on the Qantas A380 from Melbourne to Los Angeles. The pilot called in a sickie and the whole A380 were given a $10 voucher.
Ok my first flight with frontier. Everything went well. The flight were ok. The only thing I had a problem with were the seat were not comfortable at all but I guess you cannot have everything. Yes I would fly frontier again but only short distance. This were about a 900 miles flight. However you cannot beat the airfare. The only other things I ask is why we military retired cannot check ours bags free. I had to to pay good amount for ways. Why
I fly Trenton NJ (suburb of Philadelphia) to Detroit about 6 times a year for work.
My last ticket cost was $19, plus $60 each way for seat selection and carry-on.
Parking is like $5 a day, and TTN is closer to my house than PHL.
Flight time is about 2 hours, many times the seating is nearly full.
I can not drive to my work site in Toledo from the PA suburbs for that price.
Actually, I'm DEN based and happen to love F9, avoiding UA like the plague.
Truth is, I don't fly internationally much anymore, so global reach and partners aren't that important to me anymore. And domestically, UA have always been my least favorite legacy, with a long history of canceling and delaying flights along with almost universally rude staff.
I don't like Spirit, mostly because they're never enough cheaper on the routes I fly to make putting up with their idiosyncrasies worthwhile.
Frontier, on the other hand, offer a perfectly adequate product at what's usually a very attractive price. From DEN there are a lot of nonstop destinations as well, which helps with reliability too.
And if I'm even considering taking a bag, their "Works" package is often a great deal, netting you a carry-on, a checked bag, an extended legroom seat, and the ability to cancel your flight and get a refund. I've found that many times their base fare plus the works is still cheaper than UA (or other legacies) or even WN for what's usually a better experience.
All of that said, their loyalty program stinks and, as you experienced, they're not terribly resilient when things go wrong, but the only legacy that's consistently better in terms of operations is DL and their network is very weak out of DEN.
Sort of mimics the experience I had with JetBlue. New York was having really horrible weather that day, caused the JFK-IAD flight to be delayed, thus delaying IAD-BOS, then delaying MY flight from BOS-BUF. My 8:55PM flight was first pushed to 10:15PM, then 11:15PM, then 12:00AM. We ended up departing at 12:40 ish, and the flight itself was otherwise perfect. New plane, legroom was great, and the flight attendant was outstanding. She'd been called in to operate the flight as the last leg where the BUF-BOS plane she'd just arrived on would've been her last of the day, and yet her service felt so genuine and sincere, it was better service than what I usually get out of most Singapore Airlines crews.
Great read. Just a note on flight attendants: we don't always know about such situations. If I'm on call, then all I get is a call or text. Just had this happen in Newark and the only reason I found out pax had to stay overnight is because one of them mentioned it. In which case we Included an apology in our PAs.
I burned my 200,000 Elite tier miles and am glad I did because Frontier was fading from a real airline to what it is now. The model is for the once a year family vacationing on the cheap. I don't know of any people who still are in their frequent flyer program.
I flew Frontier once out of necessity, and will never do it again. My scheduled 6:30PM MDW-TTN flight was delayed another hour every hour. They blamed it on the weather, but it was obviously because of poor scheduling and crew timing. Finally, at 12am a plane arrived from the Carribean which was meant to take us to Trenton. However, Midway CBP had closed at that hour, and the plane had to then fly from Midway to Ohare and back to have customers processed by immigration. The plane returned at 2:30am, and upon lining up for boarding (8 hours delayed for a 1.5 hour flight), it was announced that the crew had timed out and the flight was cancelled. To add further frustration, this was on a Sunday, and the next flight would not be until Wednesday. I was able to snag the last seat on the 9am flight that morning to Wilmington DE (by calling rather than waiting in line to be rebooked), which was actually the 8pm Wilmington flight delayed from the night before. After all this, my "compensation" was received months later by e-mail ... a $20 voucher to use on a future Frontier flight. Thanks but no thanks!
I cant help but laugh not to cry and feel sorry for those people sleeping on the ground and as you described it, not even seeming to care that much or complain about it. Makes me sad in a way hahah. I wouldve been pissed. Once I was flying LAX-IAD in First and there was a significant 5 hour delay. They put me up in a hotel and I slept for like 4 hours, it was incredible.
Love your reviews Travis, you should write more!
^^^
I still don't see how Frontier *isn't* Denver's "hometown airline" by any definition. They have reduced their offerings from their height in the late 2000s, sure, but Denver is still Frontier's headquarters and largest base of operations despite doing a lot of point to point elsewhere. The most recent Frontier schedule changes for next spring add a lot of new destinations from Denver too. If you have any doubt, look at how the entire airline melted down after a snowstorm in Denver last winter, while the other airlines (particularly United) were able to recover much better.
I've flown Frontier on shorter flights and I say the savings are worth the price of a less creature comforts. As for delays, of my 5 most recent trips there was a 40 minute weather delay. Crews were always friendly.
I pay the $30 bag fee to get zone 1.
I booked Frontier roundtrip from ATL to Bozeman since it was hundreds cheaper. About three weeks before the trip I got an email saying that they had moved back the ATL--DEN departure time for the whole schedule, and that it was actually no longer possible to fly from ATL to BZN in one day on Frontier. All they could do was refund me the cost of that one segment, and fortunately I found a Southwest flight that would get to DEN before the BZN flight for about the cost of the refunded segment. Everyone at Frontier was super nice, but I couldn't help but think that with either Southwest or a legacy the larger route network would have made a difference when something goes wrong.
Great review! I've only flown Frontier one time from MIA to ATL and the flight was uneventful and on time. I have to admit that it wasn't a redeye so that could have contributed to the pleasant experience.
Like you, I try to stick to the known but writing a travel blog has opened doors to other airlines, routes and experiences. However, I'm still a loyal AA EP for convenience and comfort.
About 7 years ago I used to fly Frontier a lot as my father in law lived in Denver and they had a favorable schedule to St Louis where my parents live. But then the cuts started, first the cookie, then the free drink for those in stretch seating then more and more cuts. Then the transition period of paying for using the overhead bin was creating delays as people argued that they could shove their huge bags under the seat. After I cashed out all my points I stopped flying them. Reading this, it looks like it has gotten worse.
I really appreciated this review of Frontier. I was looking at their prices a week ago and wondered why they were so much cheaper than United. We have flown at least a couple of times a year (SO want to increase that number!!) but only ever on United. Not surprised about the seats for that price. But for several hundred dollars less in some cases, we may risk it next time, as Denver is often our desired destination (LOVE the Rocky mountains!!). Was amused at your description of the Denver airport at night - we have experienced that on a red eye flight as well.
Frontier just started 3x weekly flights from my hometown RNO airport. They last flew to RNO 10 years ago.
I welcome this as it's another cheap option to get to a hub. Allegiant has 2-3x weekly to LAS and LAX, though haven't flown them because they've never had a flight when I've needed it but eventually I'll fly both Allegiant and Frontier.
Southwest has been my go-to airline to get to a hub from RNO.
Similar kind of delay happened on my last Silkair flight. A crew member called in sick and we had to wait until 1:30PM for a flight crew member to fly in from Kuala Lumpur. We were flying COK-SIN. SQ have us a free night at the crowne plaza because we missed our connection to San Francisco.
Wow
Months later, story keeps repeating for this DEN-PHL flight.
Pix are still right on the money including exactly same gate number.
Great weather, no ATC delays, no equipment issue - just pilot no show.
Several hours delay but offered no meal voucher even after asking and offered only 25 USD voucher with lots of restrictions.
Well, you get what you pay for...(mine was 36 dollar ticket including taxes and their booking fee)
Most likely never fly them again. Just too risky.
Wow, those seats are TINY! Hope you've been keeping in shape if you're planning on flying with Frontier, lol.
Hi eveyone! I had an experience even worse coming over from Greenville SC to Denver. I made a 7:00 trip report video about it if you are interested. The youtube link is this: https://youtu.be/e4NeEdRhbpU. Thanks for taking the time to watch, and have a great day!
My experience with frontier was awful. I booked a flight from Trenton Nj to Tampa fl
July 8. It took me over an hour to get to the airport . My two sisters and I got to the
Airport at 5.40 a.m. for a 7:30 flight. There were about 70 people on line with their luggage waiting to check in. About 40 minutes passed by and the line did not move and there
We’re no announcements made. The woman ahead of me said she just got an e mail
That our flight was cancelled. It took the frontier staff another half hour to hand out the vouchers and finally officially make the anouncement that there was no plane.
I paid 250 for that flight and they hand u a 50 dollar voucher! Awful PR