dchapm

According to the JD Power 2015 North American Airline Satisfaction Study, mentioned in greater detail in this article here:

http://www.denverpost.com/business/c...ven-by-service

"For low-cost carriers, JetBlue took the top spot for the 11th consecutive year ... Denver-based Frontier Airlines had the lowest score: 659."


Comments in the article allude to the fact that some analysts are questioning the business model of low price over customer satisfaction and loyalty. Apparently customer loyalty is driven more by service than price (which is kind of obvious).

If Frontier had a lot of customer loyalty at one time (which we know they did), they've taken a lot of actions that have (at the very least) caused this to decline. I'm being as kind here as possible one wonders what the limits of the Low-Price-Über-Alles model will be in terms of business success and growth. Is Frontier laughing all the way to the bank here, or is this cause for concern?

Big4Flyer

Only time will tell. Customers appreciate value. Many people are willing to trade $100 for a less comfortable seat for 2.5 hours as long as they get where they want to go when they want to get there. Once you take even that away, then the value proposition isn't there. This is why I continue to use NK, but not F9. My limited experience with F9 has had about half of my flights substantially late as well as a schedule change 2 weeks before scheduled departure from a 9am departure to a 6am departure. With Spirit I know what I'm getting and I know its not much, but with F9 I don't even know if I'm going to get that.

BearX220

Different priorities for different customers on different days. There is no one business model that "works," no matter what the analysts say. Frontier is built on the principle that low price matters most to enough people, enough of the time, to fill Frontier's planes. Chances are a goodly number of the customers who ripped F9 a new one in the JD Power survey will come back and spend more money with 'em next time they're $50 cheaper than AA.

Even the major carriers now subscribe to the idea that price and schedule matter more than service, reliability, or loyalty. We'll see how long that principle survives in the next economic downturn.

rsteinmetz70112

I tend to think of these as artifacts of changing business models. Looking back before Indigo bought Frontier their on time numbers were not very good. They haven't actually dropped by much yet Frontier is getting a lot of bad press on their poor on time performance.

A lot of customer complaints seem to be from people who don't understand the new business model.

But lets be very clear the old model wasn't working they were losing money. Frontier went and into bankruptcy got sold to Republic. Republic was losing money. Indigo bought them and they say they are making money now.