Frontier Airlines EarlyReturns (Pre-Alignment) - Frontier to change everything!

I saw an internal email which talks about a whole new pricing structure. Finally an airline seems to be getting it right. I won't indulge a lot of details since I don't know if the company wants to keep it under wraps....but:

-3 pricing levels.
-Each level caters to a specific traveler.
-Each level offers certain benefits

If they offered first class I'd give them another shot. My DEN-SFO was really unimpressive. Now I'd fly them over United anyday, but give me Delta or NWA any other time.

Sounds interesting. F9 really needs to define itself, because while they have billed themselves as "a whole different animal" all of their actions in the past year have been just like the legacy carriers.

Personally, I'm not interested in more F9 flights until they do something about the almost nonexistent availability of award seats.

These changes have been anticipated for months. Frontier's CEO, Sean Menke, helped Air Canada introduce its tiered pricing structure (go to www.aircanada.com and look up a fare and you'll see what I mean). Apparently the delay in rolling it out at Frontier has been technical issues with the website and Sabre, Frontier's reservations system.

Examples of what we might see: a base fare but you can "a la carte" select a reserved seat, frequent flier miles credit, trip insurance, baggage, etc...each for a fee added at the time of the booking.

Examples of what we might see: a base fare but you can "a la carte" select a reserved seat, frequent flier miles credit, trip insurance, baggage, etc...each for a fee added at the time of the booking.

This doesn't sound good for the business traveler who has to justify anything above the lowest price.

I guess as long as the existing Summit business travelers get the extras for free we will be happy, but will new travelers want to "rough it in the trenches"?

This doesn't sound good for the business traveler who has to justify anything above the lowest price.

I guess as long as the existing Summit business travelers get the extras for free we will be happy, but will new travelers want to "rough it in the trenches"?

Agreed, I as most Biz travelers are to go lowest fare. it used to WN but seems lately F9 wins more often. I like some aspects of F9 over WN, but I like point to point the best and don't have to mess with DEN hub.

If the tiered fares go forward and Summitts aren't grandfathered in I am gone. My company won't even let us do Economy Plus on UA, hell who wants to fly UA anyway.

I took a look at the air-canada and it would seem hard to justify the premium rates. They costs heavily outweigh the benefits.

This doesn't sound good for the business traveler who has to justify anything above the lowest price.

I guess as long as the existing Summit business travelers get the extras for free we will be happy, but will new travelers want to "rough it in the trenches"?

But .... under the unbundled pricing, you may have to buy a higher priced fare if you want to get miles that will allow you to get to Summit. If you have to buy the lowest price (i.e. without miles), then you won't get to Summit.

My other airline (AA) is unfortunately considering the same idea (see below).

Doesn't sound good for business travelers or consumers. I like F9 and want to support them but ...

American Airlines considers a la carte pricing




By David Koenig


Associated Press

Article Launched: 10/03/2008 09:15:19 PM PDT


FORT WORTH, Texas — The idea of paying a single, simple fare to fly on an airliner is becoming as quaint as stewardesses in short skirts.

American Airlines is about to accelerate the trend of breaking the cost of a trip into an airfare plus many smaller fees.

Starting next year, American, which led a stampede by U.S. carriers to charge customers for checking even a single suitcase, plans to imitate the a la carte pricing structure pioneered by Air Canada, airline officials say. There are likely to be a few basic fare plans, and travelers can pick additional services — for a fee.

http://www.mercurynews.com/nationworld/ci_10634039

I just got my plans for a quick trip out west dashed when I found out I was not eligible for a free round trip flight because the reward miles needed for a trip was now 20,000 vs 15,000.

Last spring while flying to Denver I was approached about getting a Frontier MasterCard. After paying the annual fee and using the card once, I would be able to fly round trip for free. This I did.

I am now ready to use my free round trip, but was told I don't have enough miles as the rules were changed in September. I do not remember getting an email to this affect and was told by customer service that there was a glitch and not everyone did. Since I don't fly that often, I have not been to Frontiers website in awhile and didn't see the notices placed on there.

I called the customer complaint center and was told their was nothing they could do and that I would not receive any confirmation or reply to my complaint. Nice customer services.:( The thing that really irritates me :mad: is that if I were to sign up for their card at this time and pay the fee, I would be eligible for 20,000 miles and a free round trip ticket.

I would like to send an email to the CEO, Sean Menke, but I can't find an address anywhere on their web site. Does anyone know what this might be?

Thanks for your time, TC

First of all, no other airline allows free trips for 15,000 miles, so you can't complain that they have raised the limit. Most airlines require 25,000 miles now. I have never had an issue getting an award seat. They are usually very accommodating when trying to obtain award seats. Secondly, the new fare structure allows for refunds and changes without penalty for what, I think, will be a small premium. In many cases Frontiers fares are considerably less than the competition, so the higher fares may be well justified if the flights can be changed without penalty. Let's see what the program is before condemning it.

First of all, no other airline allows free trips for 15,000 miles, so you can't complain that they have raised the limit. Most airlines require 25,000 miles now. I have never had an issue getting an award seat. They are usually very accommodating when trying to obtain award seats. As long as you have an adequate balance. If you're a bit short on miles, there's no way to view award seat availability. Very frustrating.

First of all, no other airline allows free trips for 15,000 miles, so you can't complain that they have raised the limit. Most airlines require 25,000 miles now.

You are wrong and tcguy53 is correct. Frontier used to give a free flight after 15,000 miles. I know because my SO took advantage of the free flight often within the past couple of years racking up miles between FLL-DEN. If I recall correctly, the last time he did it was either late last year or early this year.

As long as you have an adequate balance. If you're a bit short on miles, there's no way to view award seat availability. Very frustrating.
Actually, if it's a round trip you're looking for, and you're only a bit (<5k) short on miles, there's a workaround: If you have enough miles for a one-way trip, you can view award seat availability on each direction independently.

One-way awards are a poor value in most cases (since they are way more than half of a round-trip award in miles needed), but the one-way award search can be useful if used simply as a predictor of round-trip award availability.

Or, you can just use Seatcounter.com for free, and look for "S" class fares.

If its true it reminds me of "value pricing" or somehting AA did in 1992..where they had 4 fare levels..It was a total disaster..read your history books..@:-)

If its true it reminds me of "value pricing" or somehting AA did in 1992..where they had 4 fare levels..It was a total disaster..read your history books..@:-)

Well, WN has had a simplified pricing scheme that has worked well for years. They're finally branching into some real "value pricing" with their Business Select fares.

If you're a bit short on miles, there's no way to view award seat availability. Very frustrating.

Could not agree with you more. You should be able to shop for mileage seats without even logging in. What's the mystery? The more I use airline sites, the more disappointed I am with F9s interface. If there really is positive change on the way, I hope it extends to other areas, not just pricing.

Could not agree with you more. You should be able to shop for mileage seats without even logging in. What's the mystery? The more I use airline sites, the more disappointed I am with F9s interface. If there really is positive change on the way, I hope it extends to other areas, not just pricing.

Seatcounter shows fare classes which correlate very highly with F9's award buckets. I think it's either R or S. Search this forum -- there's a thread about it.

Seatcounter shows fare classes which correlate very highly with F9's award buckets. I think it's either R or S. Search this forum -- there's a thread about it. This is a workaround, not a solution. The complaint is about F9's website.

F9's website has been pretty annoying over the last year. As a seasoned traveler I like to go to a website and type DEN, then IAD and not have to wait for the drop down to populate so I can choose and then tab over.

Not to mention for about a month I was completely unable to view any of my upcoming trips on their website when I'd log in. I get more strange messages on their website than any other.

They need first class.