Review: Frontier Airlines A320neo Stretch Seats (ISP-TPA)

Haven't even read the review yet, but when the header has only 2-stars, I know I'm in for a treat.

I think you had a one off bad experience. I am an AA exec Platinum and regularly fly in first and business class and from Philly to Tampa Frontier was far superior to American in economy. The seats were comfortable for the short flight, the flight attendants were professional, and the passengers were all friendly and clean and the bathroom was not filthy. This was a nighttime flight. My mother who never had flown on Frontier before after the flight said, I'm not sure why we always fly American and pay more since Frontier is much less expensive and offers a better product. She is also a Platinum Pro.

I agree that Frontier is pretty rough; what I cannot understand is your continued near-gushing over Spirit.
Spirit is virtually identical in wretchedness. Including... calibre of passenger.
I just cannot support the notion that Spirit is in any material way superior to Frontier. Both rank one notch below Greyhound, because on a bus, at least you can pull over when the passengers erupt in a fistfight, or start snorting coke off of meal trays.

Lots of complaints for a direct 2.5 hour flight. Frontier ain't that bad, but you get what you pay for. It's not like AA is loads better. A eye mask and Bose headphones would have made this review pretty non existent.

I have always liked Spirit and its clear how much better Spirit is when you are forced to fly frontier. Im going to miss the big front seats, its one of the best deals in travel.

Oof, Long Island to Tampa - might as well call it the Jenna Maroney Express

My first and only flight on Frontier so far was a year ago (in the first week of August 2021) from Miami to Atlanta, and my flight was delayed by an hour, a girl was being dresscoded by the gate agent which turned into an interesting scene (straight out of the news we saw daily that time of last year), and a lady self upgraded herself into an extra legroom seat during boarding without paying which slightly delayed the flight (but she moved back when everyone on the plane complained at her). I had a middle seat in the 20th row and I bought my ticket last minute for $140 (which is expensive for a one hour FR flight). It was an interesting experience, one I will remember for a while.

This was that week when Spirit was having horrible reliability issues with the majority of their flights being canceled, so AA and DL's flights were fully booked on that route.

What Credit Card did you use to pay for your onboard snacks?

I flew Sprit Big Front Seat last weekend and we got a "Share Pair" of two soft drinks and a cheese tray (that looks exactly same as the one on Frontier and we were a little disappointed with) for $14, their prices are nearly but not quite the same on Spirit as Frontier (Soft Drinks and Water are $3.50). I used my AMEX Platinum card assuming I would get 5x the points since it was a purchase through an Airline and it rang up as "SPIRIT AIRLINES ONBOARD RETAIL" only earning 1x point.

I think it's about managing expectations. And, let's be honest....you rarely fly economy on a full service carrier, let alone an ultra LCC.

If the fare is reasonable, the flight is non stop and the airline is generally punctual, I can forgive pretty much everything else on a flight of up to two hours. Which is why I typically use Ryanair out of the city in europe I live in. They are the most punctual. They have the fewest cancellations. And despite the onboard short-comings, I know what i'm going to get. There's no fluff in their advertising - you're paying for a seat to get from A to B in minimal comfort and nothing else.

In terms of wifi and IFE that was absolutely your bad in not downloading content. It is easy to see on the airlines website what they have onboard (or lack thereof).

I've flown Frontier a few times before the pandemic, and I found the seats thin and not very comfortable (harder feel, thin pad). For 2 hr or less, I am okay with that, especially when they are much cheaper than Southwest out of Nashville to Florida. I also noticed that they are not really enforcing the personal item size that much. I've seen plenty of people with backpacks that obviously bigger than their personal item size limit without getting questioned by gate agents or FA's. Since then, I've flown Spirit out of Houston, and the Big Front Seat is significantly better - it is like a sofa...even without the recline, it's still a very good seat. However, Spirit's check-in at the airport usually has very long lines from my experience (mainly for checking bags, the two times that I had to check bags, very long lines).

As bad as the legacies are I would have taken Amtrak before Frontier. I've heard horror stories and some of the passengers from what I'm told must live in a cave.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but as an EXP you get MCE seats, free drinks, a free snack, three checked bags, a carry-on, and priority boarding. The plane also has WiFi and streaming entertainment. I don't really understand how Frontier could be better. Perhaps you really, really like BuzzBalls.

Say what you will about Frontier, but that's one of the better beer selections I've seen on any of the menus published here.

@Lucky - When I saw ISP I thought “humm, were they in the Hamptons?” And you were. I’d be curious about your take on the Hamptons as a destination. I have a friend in the Amagansett area, and I usually get out there a couple times a year. Personally I really enjoy it. Additionally I’ve been wanting to either try or see a write up on Breeze, and they also fly out of ISP.

BTW if there ever was a flight you should put on your Bose headphones and wait 2.5 hours to use the restroom, that was it. Appreciate you taking one for the team on this review.

100%! I am surprised why most airlines (US or otherwise) never have any decent beer. It's usually some Anheuser-Busch product, and they think Goose Island is premium. Voodoo is a pretty good beer, as is Fat Tire.

Because people who drink reguluarly on a plane dont care about a "craft" beer. Plus its cheaper so higher margins and easier to procure at every airport. No incentive to carry premium beer there arent enough people like you that might buy a nicer beer versus the higher level of margins on the bud lights.

Everything you reported was spot on! Let me add that at some hubs Frontier has no gates so if a bigger airline lands and needs their gate Frontier is pushed out and delayed hours…sometimes 4 hours like in AUS(Tex). Avoid this Airline at all costs.

So Spirit is finally more close to JetBlue then? :-)))

"The agent lifted our bags to “eyeball” the weight, as he explained."

Does this actually violate some safety rule consider weigh & balance issue?

And isn't ancillary revenue, aka bag fees, one of their main source of income?
The penalty of going 2lbs above 40lbs is huge.

Maybe why Spirit couldn't merge with Frontier. As bad as they are trying, Frontier is even worse than what Spirit can handle it.

United (Express) has been serving that same cheese tray as their first class snack.

We fly from Islip and ft Myers. The first time we applied for their credit card. I made a reservation for November and just found out that the flight is cancelled and they will not be flying that way anymore. What do I do with those miles now ??

I am a DL F/J and prem Y kinda guy. My boyfriend loves a deal. Several years ago he decided we were going from TPA to LAS on Frontier. O M G ! yeah. The most uncomfortable experience I have ever had in the air. Around MSY he ( the cheap one ) moaned " Is it over yet ? ". To be fair though, on both flights our crew was a cut above my crew experiences with AA. Never again on Frontier. Life's too short for that.

First class travel has spoiled you. We mortal travelers get to have this fun on the regular

Re the 2 hour luggage check-in policy, I do think its largely because Frontier has issues with getting the right bags on the right planes at certain airports, due to a combination of inexperienced crews and less than helpful Frontier. Notably, the small airports near big cities that had never seen scheduled flights before (so not the Allegiant model of flying to smaller places that have had service, but like using Trenton, or formerly Wilmington, DE instead of PHL).

Anecdotally, I was once flying back to Philly from Chicago into Trenton, NJ on F9 (a little further to Center City, but its a wash with how much longer it takes to get out of PHL) on a Sunday afternoon and I overheard that a lot of the passengers on this flight were dealing with missing luggage issues from their Friday flight into ORD (they do a TTN-ORD service departing from TTN on Friday and returning on Sunday with no flights in between, I had flown to ORD on AA from PHL). Apparently all of the bags from the TTN-ORD flight had been put on the TTN-FLL flight that departed around the same time and vice versa.

I was sort of shocked, but when I landed in Trenton, I could see how that happened. Based on a quick look at F9 schedules, at most of these smaller airports, F9 usually banks all flights for the day out of that airport for a morning and afternoon session to minimize costs. As a result, these airports are very busy at times when F9 is operating, despite maybe having one gate that is basically a door leading to the tarmac where, at most, 3 planes can fit. I think it was either poor communication/nearly identical planes or that Frontier's aging fleet which leads them to cancel flights last minute.

Either way, I agree with you that Frontier is even worse than Spirit. I only fly them if the price is significantly lower (after adding "The Works") than the alternatives.

Spirit's onboard product is owned/controlled/supplied by LSG (the aircraft caterers). So they set the menu, price, when/where aircraft are catered, actually own the point of sale devices the crews use, etc. They collect the money and Spirit makes some sort of revenue share (there are some things built in like comps for UMs and the crew can consume sodas/snacks as long as they log it).

We were told if you had a c.c with frontier ,you didn't pay for suitcase but we did.

Whenever you see those videos of fights at ticket counters & gate counters, it's always Spirit. I love Frontier and fly them often. When you can fly Orlando to San Diego for $17 each way (pre-covid), you go. You spoke of the cost of your F9 tickets with their Bundle but you didn't say what it would have cost on the mainline carriers but I'm guessing, last minute as you booked this, $hundreds more.

I've waited over a decade to finally see a review out of my home airport, and funny enough I was there the same day coming inbound.

Since non stop flights are now a rarity, suck it up and be thankful.

The two hour bag rule may be due to several things such as airport policy (do other airlines have this rule at ISP?), the (assumed) third-party company doing the ground handling , space constraints in the bag room or limited equipment and staff.

Just flew Frontier from Punta Cana. The seats were so tight and packed cushioning that I was in pain for all the next day.

I'd say Frontier's Recaro seats are slightly wore than Spirit's Accro seats.

Ironically, I got pulled into Frontier's Den with the Amex Platinum Card, and for a time, they were they only direct service into my hometown. Admittedly, it's not great but if you need a flight, and they have a flight then it's a closed case. If only every flight could be a QSuite!

Is the green turtle snack package so named because it comes with enough plastic wrapping to kill a dozen turtles!? Seems like a poor choice of name!

It's ironic. Because obviously Ben you rarely fly economy but when you do its always an ULCC/LCC like spirit, easy jet, Ryan air, jet star or frontier. Whereas myself I mostly fly economy and then business at times, but I always try avoid any LCC sometimes I can't but mostly its economy on full service airlines. It would be interesting to see a review of economy on a full service airline like E.G. Qatar just for the fun of the review as one off also will give you a good base which to compare other experiences to.

Frontier flies directly to many destinations from our local airport. From our experience they are typically on time. The personnel are professional & courteous. If you don’t like it, don’t fly it. Think of it like a bus. This is not 1965. Air travel has changed.

Yeah, a few things to unpack (no pun intended) here. @ ⬆️ & Ben.
Ben pays for several upgrades, including bags, than rips on the shaming sign about pax. unwilling to pony up a little xtra $ for bag check to speedily expedite departure ?! Every little tactic as these, ensures one less bug to hold up departure. ZERO problem w shaming. Then he praises F9’s legroom as on par w the major domestics, than dings it in the next paragraph . Which is it ?? F9 has the youngest fleet of American carriers. SWA does NOT have charging ports @ their seats. Spirit seats are manufactured by the same company as Frontier, & both are equally terrible. ZERO difference. Lastly, it’s common knowledge w any frequent flyer (who pays attention) that bag check closes/ends 45 min. prior to departure. Has been w Frontier for decades. And speaking of NK (Spirit) just wait until the JB/NK merger goes through. We pax. will have one less ULCC pricing point to choose from. And you’ll be getting f’D w jacked up JetBlue fare hikes, as they burn the entire NK low cost//no frills model to the ground. Not to mention ALL the NK employees who’ll be bounced out of employment.

No, Spirit’s worse. And just wait until the JetBlue/Spirt merger passes. You’ll have one less ULCC carrier to choose from. Not to mention ALL the NK (Spirit) employees Out O Work ….

Lynne that’s factual INCORRECT.

Hubs, like DEN, Frontier’s main hub/base have dedicated gates that belong STRICTLY to them. The same w United in DEN, their biggest hub, AA @ DFW, DL @ ATL.
Airlines pay airports for slots aka. boarding gates. There called Usery fees & part of the PFC’s (Passenger Facility Charges.) Negotiated, well in advance between airports & airlines. Frontier, like EVERY carrier, DOES NOT get booted off a gate, when a UA, DL, SWA, Spirt, JetBlue, DL Allegiant or ANY carrier for that matter pulls into the airport.

please, don't book with this company I bought two tickets to Philadelphia
from charlotte North Carolina
on 8/12/2002 the flight 2314 from charlotte was delay from 319pm to 7.00 pm we and the rest of the passengers waiting for a resolution, airline customer service non helpful they don't care about customer relationship.
by 7.30 pm they announced that the flight cancellation was due by maintenance issues,
I'm sorry that this happens to us and many of the other passengers please don't
buy from this airline is not fare what they did.

New seat configurations in the "stretch" seating areas also no longer recline; however, their website still advertises them as doing so. After seeing if they moved the lever from the bottom of the seat I asked a FA and he confirmed the new configuration no longer had stretch seating recline. Bummer.

Why did you not do the Status match for F9? Many of your complaints would have been avoided. I fly them every week from MCO as 100K. Point A to Point B.

I am not surprised of the type of passengers on Frontier Air, they are a bit different from Spirit passengers. Frontier is a bit more trailer and Spirit is a bit more public housing/section 8. One offers meth the other offers crack - so you have options!

I flew frontier couples month ago and I’m wasn’t impressed at all, seats is so tight and make your butt in pain all trip long. Next time I will travel with another carrier

Frontier was a great choice a few years ago it is slowly going down hill and now that they no longer have phone staff it's rapidly deteriorating and trying to get help online is a nightmare we have an upcoming flight on Sunday and we have decided with all the extra charges just to select a seat with leg room and 1 checked bag each from Denver to Miami round trip its costing us $880 and we are taking am 11pm flight arriving at 5am so it's not like we are taking prime flights. This will be our last Frontier Airlines flight for sure. So it's not even economical anymore unless everything you are bringing fits in your purse both directions . It's cheaper to mail your stuff and pick it up at a shipping facility than it is to pay $200 + for 1 checked bags each and $245 for stretch seating which is a must for my 6' 2 300 pound husband. Seriously imagine how uncomfortable not only him but the person next to him would be. The cleanliness I think has gotten worse since covid when in reality it should be better. NOT SO MUCH! I am the first person to ask a flight attendant to ask a person with dirty bare feet to get them off my seat period and the loud laughing guy l to please keep his laughs to himself. Disrupting 182 people for your own personal situation is rude and uncalled for. Do better peopke be more respectful of others and the space they also have paid for. Keep your shoes on or at minimum your dang socks clean ones preferably. Unbelievable how rude inconsiderate and annoying some people have become in the last few years. I work in the public and believe me i would have to say 50% of people have changed not for the better. There are the other 50% of us who are still a positive light and a hope that faith in humanity can be restored if we all DO BETTER!

it's a really a choice of money management only time i would and do fly on frontier / spirit is when it's dirt cheap, and i'm going somewhere where more likely will be spending good money.

i perfer to say the extra 200 to 300 on a trip to spend on the vacation / not break the bank kinda thing

I should say anyone doing this should be prepared for a not so comfortable ride but as long its' 1.5 to 5 hours it's possible

make sure download your music/movies/videos and bring your game pack
make sure you got a battery chargers/ and by snacks or bring snacks

one big one for carry on if you can ship them to or from using pirate shipping.
and drop off at ups store.

makes things soooo much easier and cheaper to deal with

also get the aisle seat / for extra leg room if you don't have ask them they will help you out most of the time.

make sure you check the carry on box otherwise they will charge you 100 bucks on the spot.

if this happens excuse your self and put on layers of clothing to downsize the bag once on the plane go to bathroom and put the items back in the bag yes its dumb in logic but it works and they know it . and allow it.

buy snacks prior at airport it's cheaper. and better selection.

Spirit's still got the most dangerous customers. Plenty of vids online. I do like Spirit's Big Front Seat but loathe looking what's behind me onboard and avoid waiting in the waiting area. If anything I sense too many of Spirit's rowdy customers moving to Southwest, not Allegiant or Frontier. That amount of stretch extra legroom isn't available on American, Delta or United and what they offer costs much more.

It seems your major qualms are with the passengers. You get the ultra low cost crowd. It’s like shopping at the dollar store and complaining the folks aren’t “refined” like in Beverly Hills, and even then that isn’t saying poorer folks are any worse as you have nightmare passengers on delta and united etc etc.