Frontier Airlines EarlyReturns - Best Fare Guarantee Rage

This post is going to be nothing but venting. If you don't like venting, you can stop reading now.

As many of you know, I'm an Ascent on my way to becoming Summit this summer. For business travel, I tend to purchase a Classic Plus fare in order to get my preferred Stretch seat.

Yesterday, while booking 3 different business trips, I also had a personal trip to book for three travelers. After making the personal reservation, I started over and started to reserve a business trip. Not paying any attention, I accidentally entered the same city pair and date and up popped the fares. When I realized what I did, I noticed that the fare was $30/pp lower than what I just booked 2 minutes earlier. Ticked off, I filled out a Best Fare Guarantee claim form in order to get the $90 savings, as well as the $100 electronic travel certificate, and then finished the rest of my business travel bookings.

This morning, I received the following response from Frontier:

"Thank you for submitting a Best Fare Guarantee claim.

We're sorry, we are not able to honor your claim as the Best Fare Guarantee does not cover changes in fares on the Frontier Airlines website. Our fares are subject to change at any time (even multiple times throughout the day) due to availability, demand, sales, etc. You may view the complete Terms and Conditions of the Best Fare Guarantee by visiting http://www.frontierairlines.com/frontier/plan-book/low-fare-guarantee/terms-and-conditions.do.

We look forward to welcoming you onboard your future Frontier Airlines flights.

Sincerely,

XXX
Customer Relations Specialist
Frontier Airlines


Now, I'm even madder, so I go read the rules and find this:

This guarantee is not valid for flights purchased through... Frontier Group Travel websites and/or programs.

What? Are you kidding me Frontier? You want me to purchase the ticket through your website, then you expect me to go and see if I can find a lower fare on a 3rd party website before you'll honor your guarantee? Why, when I find a lower fare on your own website, for the EXACT same itinerary would you not honor your guarantee? Your policy shows absolutely NO common sense what so ever. It would be like going into a grocery store, purchasing a product, and just after checking out, the grocery store starts a sale and doesn't refund the new sale price. They'd go out of business pretty quick behaving like that.

I cannot think of any other business that can get away with behavior like this. So, why should Frontier? I have supported this airline for years and continue to do so. Is it too much to expect that they do the right thing and take care of their customer?

Ugh... why does Frontier, "A Whole Different Animal", look like, act like, and write like a typical customer service department that could be found on any other airline?

So disappointed.

Okay... venting is over. I now return you to your regular forum matters.

I flew F9 for a long ski weekend around Christmas and they sucked. My flight out was cancelled because of a mechanical failure and even though they swapped planes, they still couldn't fly it because they didn't have a crew. What should have been a 2 hour flight, ended up being 14. No compensation, even though I lost a whole day of vacation because of their failure. Bedford should can his little airline wet dream and hit the road. I have flown Frontier numerous times and do not enjoy spending nights in the Denver terminal due to their employees' lack of mental capability. Not to mention I now have nearly 400,000 F9 miles that are virtually useless with all the cuts that have taken place.

I presume that the 24 hr cancellation option was available, but that you wanted the $100 electronic travel certificate.

It is so pain-free to receive fare adjustments with WN and FL at any time, prior to departure.

At least it was a prompt reply. :D

I presume that the 24 cancellation option was available, but that you wanted the $100 electronic travel certificate.

It is so pain-free to receive fare adjustments with WN and FL at any time, prior to departure.

At least it was a prompt reply. :DAfter you file the claim online, the screen refreshes with a message that says it can take between 3 - 5 days (I believe that's what it said, but not for sure exactly since it didn't come in an email message) for a response. So, you are right, the reply was indeed prompt and I'm thankful for that.

Since I had a screen shot of the reduced fare on Frontier's website (and provided that to Frontier), I just assumed it would all be taken care of. Clearly, I didn't read the fine print that the reduced fare had to be from a 3rd Party website.

In hindsight, I guess I should have just booked the same itinerary at the new fare and then called a reservation agent to cancellation the original itinerary and issue a refund. I could still do the same now, but unfortunately, today, the fare is now $43/pp higher.

In all honesty, while the additional $100 ETC would be nice, I'm really just looking to get reimbursed for the fare difference. To me, that's what just seems fair. Hopefully, that's the conclusion the Frontier customer service agent will come to as well and I can give them some kudos on here, as well as Facebook and Twitter.

Thank you for going through the pain so we can learn to look for that better fare on a third party site.

Sorry you're getting so frustrated by it.

Doesn't one of the third party sites have a price drop guarantee where if someone else books the same itinerary for a lower price(on their site), they'll refund the difference to you?

I flew F9 for a long ski weekend around Christmas and they sucked. My flight out was cancelled because of a mechanical failure and even though they swapped planes, they still couldn't fly it because they didn't have a crew. What should have been a 2 hour flight, ended up being 14. No compensation, even though I lost a whole day of vacation because of their failure. Bedford should can his little airline wet dream and hit the road. I have flown Frontier numerous times and do not enjoy spending nights in the Denver terminal due to their employees' lack of mental capability. Not to mention I now have nearly 400,000 F9 miles that are virtually useless with all the cuts that have taken place.

IllinoisMan we have already heard your sob story. I'm sure you had quite a few good experiences getting those 400,000 miles. Long term memory loss perhaps...

After you file the claim online, the screen refreshes with a message that says it can take between 3 - 5 days (I believe that's what it said, but not for sure exactly since it didn't come in an email message) for a response. So, you are right, the reply was indeed prompt and I'm thankful for that.

Since I had a screen shot of the reduced fare on Frontier's website (and provided that to Frontier), I just assumed it would all be taken care of. Clearly, I didn't read the fine print that the reduced fare had to be from a 3rd Party website.

In hindsight, I guess I should have just booked the same itinerary at the new fare and then called a reservation agent to cancellation the original itinerary and issue a refund. I could still do the same now, but unfortunately, today, the fare is now $43/pp higher.

In all honesty, while the additional $100 ETC would be nice, I'm really just looking to get reimbursed for the fare difference. To me, that's what just seems fair. Hopefully, that's the conclusion the Frontier customer service agent will come to as well and I can give them some kudos on here, as well as Facebook and Twitter.

Technically by F9's rules they are in the right. However, you would think a little common sense from customer service would have gone a long ways.
Credit back the $100 and inform you of the correct protocol for the future. Problem solved, customer is happy and keeps using F9

OP answered his own question. He thought he was entitled to the compensation, but when he checked it out, he figured out that he wasn't.

Not sure what he's upset about or why any carrier would, as a matter of CS, do that which its own t&c expressly prohibit.

What? Are you kidding me Frontier? You want me to purchase the ticket through your website, then you expect me to go and see if I can find a lower fare on a 3rd party website before you'll honor your guarantee?

Isn't that pretty standard for what 'best fare guarantee' means in the travel industry? Without reading the T&C's, that would have been my assumption of what was being said.

On May 9, I was contacted by a new customer service agent who had re-opened my case. She asked for some additional information and my screen shot.

I am happy to report that on June 15, Frontier agreed with my fare difference claim. And, due to the length of time it took to resolve my claim, Frontier went one step further... they issued an electronic travel certificate for $150.

Needless to say, I was very satisfied with the outcome and thankful for the persistence of the new customer service agent to solve the problem.

I'm also happy to report that I attained Summit status this summer!

Congrats on Summit and the cert! That is good news.

I realize this thread's a bit dated but just wanted to bump the positivity and keep the F9 threads somewhat active. Not everyone's a fan but I havent' had a bad experience w/ them yet. Oh wait.... just jinxed myself.