True.

Of course, people generally won't complain to the FAA if they're an hour late.

But they will complain if they're stranded for 24 hours.

And that's the point: Frontier has some pretty good operational statistics. Often better than the bigger carriers. But their one-a-day flight schedules to many markets, combined with a lack of interline agreements, means when they DO have an IRROPS, it can be a nightmare for passengers.

And I'm not sure I agree entirely about reputation. I fly F9 occasionally, and it's been my experience that they have fewer frequent flyers on board than the majors. Most of the people I've sat next to on my DCA-DEN F9 runs are folks who know very little about the airline business or Frontier's reputation.

I will concede, though, that some frequent travelers are wowed by WN's reputation and may cut them some slack and not complain. Of course, the last time I was delayed on a WN flight, the gate attendant played trivia and gave away $25 and $50 flight vouchers to those of us who correctly answered her questions.

So, do we agree on the following?

1) An airline with high operational statistics may still have a high complaint rate.

2) The complaint rate for those airlines with high ops stats may be a function of the degree of inconvenience experienced by passengers when an IRROPS does occur.

3) Those airlines that have less than stellar ops stats may still have very low complaint rates if the degree of inconvenience is minor or moderate, so long as they show concern for their passengers and are able to somehow mitigate the problem. ("Next flight leaves in an hour. Here's a snack, or a voucher, or an upgrade, or some miles", etc )

Do we at least agree on that?