Frontier Airlines EarlyReturns - DEN WX advisory/cancellations

Just a heads up....

F9 weather advisory (http://www.frontierairlines.com/frontier/flight-info/weather.do)

looks like another bad one...and I know WX has been posted in the West and UA forums. This has F9 specifics.

good luck and godspeed to those traveling to or thru DEN. :)

What a huge financial blow to F9! I imagine they refunded 1000s of tickets. F9 couldn't get us out of DEN for 6 days...ouch! We were originally ticketed 12/21-12/28, rescheduled 12/27-1/1, but later had them refunded after using a combination of WN and AS for our travels.

For me, it was Frontier's own failures, and efforts to be greedy that ending up costing them money in terms of having to give me a refund. To me, that is a management failure.

When I saw the storm coming on 19-Dec, I called Frontier. I told them that United had already started giving free changes to anyone that wanted to fly out early. I had tickets for 21-Dec. I was told by a Frontier agent "we aren't United." Yeah, no kidding. And you are not Southwest either!

I called again, this time from my cell phone, on the way to the airport. Again, Frontier would have been happy to rip me off for a change fee and a fare difference that, together would have been equal to the original price of my 21-Dec ticket. No thank you.

Arriving at the hotel (which, like many, had free Internet service), I started researching fares. Frontier, there is a new kid in Denver and his name is SOUTHWEST. Colleen Barrett and company knew how to steal some business from Frontier. Even though it was only one day before the flight, when Southwest generally charges their maximum fare, somebody at Southwest said "lets put DEN-MCI-STL up on the Internet for $134 per person, instead of $215 per person. We will still be able to get out at 6:50 AM. We know Frontier will be trying to rip off their customers. We will make it practical for Frontier's customers to switch to Southwest." And, so I did.

My compliments to the entire Southwest staff -- pilots, flight attendents, ground crew, de-icing crew and anyone else that had a hand in getting the 6:50 AM flight out of Denver on 20-Dec. Safety first, as always, but with the knowledge that that flight needed to fly to help 100+ people from being stranded in Denver.

The net result? Frontier could have kept my business simply by offering no change fees and no fare differences, the same as United. Instead, Frontier took the greedy route and ending up having to give me a refund. There is certainly some poetic justice in that.

Speed and flexibility. Its what separates the profitable airlines from those with their airplanes parked in the desert and their management appearing in bankruptcy court.

Next time, instead of telling me "We aren't United" perhaps Frontier could say, "Gee, we've got a big storm coming. Helping our customers, not trying to rip them off, will help our bottom line the most. Thank you Mr. FCfree for coming to the airport early. We don't want any more of your money, we've already taken enough. We just want to make sure you get where you are going. Keeping your business helps us more than giving you a refund. We are sorry we have change fees in the first place and we really should think about getting rid of them after this storm is over. Right now, we'll just waive them."

For me... I hope F9 feels the full pain of their greed.

to further praise southwest in this situation, they added flights in at least one market (den-phx) to get people where they needed to be. frontier seemed rather reactive, thus causing huge problems. frontier is still my carrier of choice from denver, but our experience with southwest made a lasting impression.