No Business Traveler Should Choose to Fly Frontier (or Spirit or Allegiant)
Aug 20, 2015, 6:10 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Santa Cruz, CA USA
Programs: AA, UA, WN, HH, Marriott
Posts: 7,290
No Business Traveler Should Choose to Fly Frontier (or Spirit or Allegiant)
In a recent thread about whether someone should switch to from DL to F9, there were a number of comments about what happens during irreg ops. To me, as a business traveler who needs to get to a meeting or conference, the idea of not having a decent alternative (other than just buying a walkup ticket on another airline) is just not acceptable.
On many routes, F9 has only one flight per day, on routes less than one. They have no spare aircraft, no spare crew, and no agreements to honor a rule 240 transfer to another carrier.
With the frequency of late flights, missed connections, bad weather, and crew issues, the only thing a business traveler would get booking F9 is high blood pressure.
Tell me why I am wrong.
On many routes, F9 has only one flight per day, on routes less than one. They have no spare aircraft, no spare crew, and no agreements to honor a rule 240 transfer to another carrier.
With the frequency of late flights, missed connections, bad weather, and crew issues, the only thing a business traveler would get booking F9 is high blood pressure.
Tell me why I am wrong.
Aug 20, 2015, 7:23 pm
#2
Join Date: May 2004
Location: HYI/AUS/SAT originally TTN/EWR/PHL
Programs: Southwest Rapid Rewards, Jetblue TrueBlue, American Advantage
Posts: 1,190
Your not a business traveler should not fly F9. Also anyone who is going on a cruise even the next day. But even on all airlines, you should never book an arrival for the same day as your cruise departure.
Aug 21, 2015, 7:27 am
#3
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 5,813
Using Frontier is a tradeoff between cost and the potential for IROPS, leading to cancellation. Some IROPS like weather affect all carriers similarly others like Mechanical problems affect only one. In the latter case Frontier is far less likely to recover or provide an alternative.
Aug 21, 2015, 11:41 am
#4
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: SMF
Posts: 1,251
I'm a fan of ULCCs. They've opened up opportunities to travel to many places I would never go otherwise. That being said, I agree with your conclusion but would take it one step farther. Nobody should(would?) ever fly a ULCC who doesn't have to pay for their own ticket. The only benefit to flying a ULCC is their low price, take that away and there's no advantage.
The one exception I would potentially add to your rule is when a direct is available that isn't offered by the legacies. This doesn't exist much with F9 and NK, since they often go after flights dominated by the legacies, but I have flown G4 for business a few times when they offered a direct 1.5 hour flight where the only other alternative was a 4.5 hour flight with a connection.
The one exception I would potentially add to your rule is when a direct is available that isn't offered by the legacies. This doesn't exist much with F9 and NK, since they often go after flights dominated by the legacies, but I have flown G4 for business a few times when they offered a direct 1.5 hour flight where the only other alternative was a 4.5 hour flight with a connection.
Aug 21, 2015, 3:38 pm
#5
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Indianapolis, IN USA
Posts: 2,065
So true: I flew one-way ticket on F9 two weeks ago: IND - DEN - SEA and was just so nervous after reading some of the reports (but of course many times only people who have had cancelled flights, etc. post). Leisure travel in no rush (retirees!) maybe would recommend but would have to be very very very flexible.