Originally Posted by
DenverBrian
I don't think it's been as "very clear" as you make it out to be. Certainly there are not a lot of precedents in the US, other than Spirit, for ULCCs, and F9 did have this base of frequent flyers that I thought they might try to keep, even while moving to an ULCC model. Removing free TV for elites was a too-strong indication, to me, that they are going to abandon frequent flyers completely.
If Spirit wasn't a big enough clue there isn't much I can say, nor am I sure what you mean by abandoning frequent fliers. If Spirit is the model, it has a FF program - "Free Spirit." It may not be a great FF program, but it's there. And as I've said before, the tv was doomed whatever happened.
The point remains - old Frontier was continuously unprofitable. It either charts its course as ULCC and makes money or it disappears from the skies and that possibility, surely, was not unknown to the FF's and elites a few short years ago?
No one really thought it would ever come out of Chapter 11 and - realistically - it should not have. I could scarcely believe how ineptly Southwest played the auction and but for that - and the somewhat eccentric behaviour of CEO Bedford at Republic - Frontier would be long gone, swallowed up by Southwest.
Ultimately, it was Bedford, again, who brought us to this, because after the financial disaster that was MKE, the Republic Board of Directors just wanted rid of Frontier whatever the consequences. But Bedford believed there was another way - this way - and persuaded the BOD to let him try.
If you say that none of this has any meaning for you, that as an elite you just want the goodies, I won't argue. I am fully sympathetic to any elite who feels the airline is no longer for them but - again - they do have choices.