Door was closed early at 3:04pm, and flying time was three hours and two minutes. We pushed back early at 3:06pm and took off from R/W08 at 3:14pm. We also cruised at 37,000feet and the tail wind was very strong today, and we were traveling close to 600mph throughout the flight. We only slowed down as we began our descent towards the “always busy” New York La Guardia Airport.
Winglet shot after takeoff
Service was similar with F/As activating TV first, and then they rolled out the Buy On Board cart, and the service took a bit longer, as there were many takers on the sandwiches, cheese tray and cheeseburgers. Given the amount of close connections, I was not surprised. I was really hungry and had no time to buy food at Denver. So I chose the turkey sandwich and M&M peanut butter.
Here is the “Fresh Creations by Frontier Airlines – Turkey on Cranberry Sunflower Bread with Cranberry Horseradish Mayonnaise” along with M&Ms Peanut Butter flavor.
IZZE’s Blackberry sparkling juice beverage – Premium non-alcoholic beverage – one of the free choices for Classic Plus passengers – Clementine is definitely better and too bad they run out.
For Row 1 to 12, beverage was carried out from the galley but the F/A totally missed our row, until my fellow passengers reminded them. For the aft section, trolley was used. Full cans of beverages were provided too for the first round of beverages, which was nice.
Towards the end of the flight, there was a second beverage service and carts were used on both sections. The service went smoother and the F/As did not miss anyone. However while the final beverage in the aft section began at 5:13pm, the girls up front did not start till 5:40pm, when descent has begun. Thankfully it took a while to land in La Guardia.
As I mentioned earlier, descent began at 7:38pm EST (two hours ahead of Denver), and we landed on R/W4 at 8:16pm, which was not too bad. We did not circle around much this evening and we parked at gate B1 at 8:24pm, twenty-three minutes ahead of schedule, which was impressive.
Festive counter at LGA – I guess Frontier has full time use of Gate B1
As I mentioned earlier, I had a piece of check in bag, while the bags began to come out at 8:43pm, my bag was the last to be unloaded in the belt. Compared to the Southwest Airlines flight, which arrived much later than us but bags came out before us, Frontier was not too great especially we were at Gate B1, literally next to the baggage claim. However, it was average compared to most major airlines.
My Conclusion:
About the stretched seat option, the legroom at the exit row is not significantly different from the non-exit row, but Frontier will most likely put overbook passengers in the first section. If you are traveling solo and want a possible empty middle seat, my recommendation is still going for exit row especially those already filled with one solo passenger in the window or aisle. The front stretched seating zone will allow you to deplane quicker but given the heavy load that Frontier has, you will most likely have someone sitting in the middle, as Frontier will operationally upgrade passengers to the stretched seating zone especially the front non exit row cabin. I got a mother with a lap child from LAX to DEN coming on board in the last minute. She is definitely not an elite or a “Classic Plus” passenger, as she is not offered complimentary TV. If you want to avoid it, exit row will be a better choice unless you have a close connection. If I have to do it over again, I will still select the front section for the short hop to Denver from the West Coast especially I have less than sixty minutes scheduled in between flights. Just a recommendation but I hope it will help future passengers.
Frontier Airlines offers a very pleasant product and is a very well run regional airline. The transit experience at Denver is pleasant and it runs an efficient and smooth operation at its main hub. I have less than thirty minutes in the ground and my bag made it to the plane to LGA with no problem. The Buy On Board program is nice and I like the opportunity to buy something warmed, which is what I look for in a plane. You can buy warmed food in the airport but they most likely will cool down quickly especially on a plane. The beverage services are nice and they definitely work harder than the major airlines. Most F/As from the major will try their best to avoid doing the second service and given our scheduled flying time is two hours and fifty-seven minutes, and I beat most of them will say that it is under three hours and we don’t need to do a second beverage service. Direct TV is a nice plus especially inflight Internet is still rather pricey and unstable especially when many passengers are using them simultaneously. Most importantly, I really like their fare bundles and the Classic Plus offers very good values and is not over-priced like most major airlines in terms of being fully refundable. Yes fares will fluctuate but at least I have the option to buy a fully refundable ticket without breaking the bank. I hope you enjoy this trip report and have a wonderful holiday season!
Carfield