It used to be that Frontier was great helping a member of my family with wheelchair assistance. She can walk, but not the long distances of an airport. It used to be very simple in Denver -- they got her at the ticket counter and pushed her out to the gate.

NOT ANYMORE! Now, they take a long time getting someone to the ticket counter. They push as far as the A-bridge security then let the passenger go through security on their own. On the other side of security, the passenger then has to wait (and wait and wait) for the golf cart to take them to the gate. They are severely understaffed and each time it requires a long wait. This can be very distressing to the passenger who must wait for Frontier because they cannot walk the distance and they have no other choice but to wait -- even though departure time keeps getting closer and closer.

When arriving in Denver, it is even worse. While they had someone just off the plane to get her and roll her up to the concourse, they then put all the passengers in a holding area. Again, it is wait-wait-wait for the golf cart. If traveling with a spouse, the spouse cannot ride the golf cart because they don't have the capacity. Spouses are now separated. The golf cart takes them only as far as A-bridge security. They have to get off there and again wait-wait-wait for a pusher to take them to baggage claim.

We mentioned this to a customer service supervisor who said "we do the wheelchair assist as a courtesy." She wasn't very courteous when she said that. What courtesy is it if they make people wait 30-60 minutes to get from the plane to baggage claim?

Clearly people who need this assistance are an expense to the airline and as we all know, the airlines are trying to get rid of the passengers cost them money, or charge them. This is what they did with baggage -- either travel with no bags or pay for your checked bags directly or indirectly. Is the next step to charge passengers for wheelchair assist? Or would that violate ADA? Frontier would rather just make the experience a negative one with the hopes that they would fly with United or Southwest and thus not cost them the money of this "courtesy."

Frontier's position on the A-concourse is a DISADVANTAGE because they have dreamed up this crazy system of passing off the wheelchair assist passengers so that their pushers do not have to go through security. That would work great if they had enough pushers and enough golf carts. However, they cut the number of pushers and golf carts so much that now the wait time is unbearable. It would appear better to fly on United or Southwest, on the B and C concourses, where the pushers still have to stay with the passenger through security, and then onto the train.

Note that the wheelchair assist at the other end (in our case, St. Louis) was very good. It is only because of this crazy "pass off" system that Denver completely fails. However, as their home airport, you'd think they would want to make things better for wheelchair assist passengers -- not let the outstations be the shining stars!