Questions and Answers

I flew Frontier Airlines earlier today with my family of 4 from PBI-TTN, on one of their newly-configured A319’s, and had a pretty bad experience, and I’m not exactly sure the best way to handle it.

We were sitting right outside the gate in PBI, waiting for people to deplane (the inbound flight was slightly delayed). Once deplaning was finished, the gate agent (clearly a contracted worker, and not part of Frontier) made an announcement along the lines of “Unfortunately there will be a slight delay in boarding, as someone either had a hell of a party or has a thing for getting airsick.” Definitely a TMI situation, we were now concerned that we’d end up in the row with the vomit (it’s been that kind of day…). Finally, after at least a 20-minute “cleaning” delay, we were able to board. We waited until the line shortened and ended up boarding at the very end. Lo and behold, we arrive at our seats near the back of the plane, and find the floor below them an absolute mess, with tons of crumbs and what looked very much like vomit. We quickly notified one of the FA’s, who told us to wait in the back galley. She then proceeded to ask people around our seats if they’d be willing to switch, offering to comp some snacks and drinks for them. 3 people were willing to move, and took our old seats, while we took their seats (just one row behind, diaganolly). A few people commented that we did the right thing, and that they wouldn’t want to sit there either. The FA gave my family, along with the three people who moved, free snacks and drinks, which was nice, but hardly a compensation for the way we were made to feel. (Also, FWIW, the menu with the snack and beverage offerings was glued to the seatback pouch with gum…)

The biggest problem here is the way that Frontier handled the whole situation. They first delayed the flight by 20 minutes to “clean” it, yet didn’t clean up our row. When we get to our seats, and see the mess, we were made to feel as though we were at fault. Yes, the FA was able to make a semi-decent recovery, but didn’t speak about the situation again after-the-fact.

What’s the best course of action now? How would you handle this situation, both in-flight, and after the fact?

Thanks so much.

Welcome [USER=1336]@Bryan[/USER] – ouch, that sounds rough. Not sure what you could have done in-flight. At this point you can send a politely-worded letter to Frontier and ask for what you feel is appropriate compensation. I suspect they’ll be more willing to part with miles than with cash.

You can find company contacts for Frontier here: [URL]http://elliott.org/company-contacts/frontier-airlines/[/URL]

Also, Chris has good suggestions on how to complain effectively. You can find those here: [URL]http://elliott.org/frequently-asked-questions-about-resolving-a-consumer-dispute/[/URL]