Recent Frontier Airlines Elite Experience and Tips
Just got back from a trip flying Frontier SFO-DEN-DCA and back as an F9 Elite with my wife and two kids (3 year old and a lap child). I wanted to post my experience in case it helps others who want to know what to expect.
Check-in Experience
With F9 Elite status you get free seat selection and carry-on (for you only, not for others in your party). You also get priority check-in, priority security, and priority boarding. To avoid paying the $72 it would have cost to pay for seats together I decided to choose my own seat and then avoid assigning the other two seats and waiting to see where they were placed at check-in. I was curious if the seat assignment system would put the seats together with mine since I was the only seat selected in my row at check-in . At check-in around T-24 the two unassigned reservations were assigned seats at 20E, 20F (SFO-DEN) and 20A, 20B (DEN-DCA).
Since my seats were now apart from theirs I went back into my Frontier account and moved my seat to be by theirs. Strangely, even after I did that the Boarding Pass didn't update with the new seat assignment, but when I asked about this at the airport they printed me off a new correct one and said their system did show all the seats together.
It looked like the system tries to keep parties together so learning from this I went in and canceled my assignment for the returning flights and sure enough for the return flight we were all assigned seats together in the same row. Luckily, our seats for the flight into DCA were facing east when we flew the River Visual Approach which was an added bonus.
Airport Experience
Since we typically fly WN just about everywhere I was used to having to go to the check-in desk to show proof of age for the infant as a lap-child. I was able to bypass the regular line and go the the "Ascent and Summit" lane where the agent curtly told me it wasn't necessary. We didn't use the elite security lane at SFO because there was no line at security.
SFO-DEN flight was delayed for 1 hour due to weather with no announcements coming from the gate. I did overhear one disgruntled passenger angrily tell the GA as he showed her one his phone that the weather was perfect in DEN to which the agent firmly replied, "Sir, there is a lot of space between here and Denver, have you checked the weather for those 800 miles?" He grunted and huffed off.
Boarding was done by zone with families with children allowed to board with elites and Zone 1. Boarding started about 40 minutes prior to scheduled departure time, and two of our flights left the gate about 10 minutes early. Since I am not in a rush to sit in a metal tube for 3 hours with 2 kids, we waited to be some of the last to board, and since carry-ons cost more than a checked bag, there was plenty of space in the overhead for carry-ons and personal items.
On Board Experience
All of our flights (1 A319, 3 A320s) all had the new slimline seats. I am 5'10" and had plenty of legroom, I imagine if you are 6' or above you would want to consider opting for the stretch seats but avoid the bulkhead on the ABC side of the aircraft. I thought the slimline seats had adequate padding on the bottom but the back was terrible, you could feel the metal frame if you push against the back. I would never fly a red-eye on one of these aircraft. I think they're fine for up to about 2 hours but after that they get rather uncomfortable. The most annoying thing for me was the positioning of the life vest below the seat. The way the hang from the bottom causes them to hit against the back of the seats.
I noticed that they kept the seat belt light off much more that I'm used to on WN. On all our flights they kept it off even during a bit of jostling and even on the descent up until about 10 minutes before landing.
The cabin crew was upfront about the buy-on-board system although they do offer cups of bottled water for free, which is more than NK and G4 offer. Prices are cheaper than you'd pay in the airport for the same thing, $3 for snacks, $2 for soft drinks, juices.
Overall, I wouldn't hesitate to fly Frontier again for short trips where I can fit everything into a personal item or carry-on (as long as I can get carry-on for free) and for short flights. I also wouldn't recommend paying for seat selections unless you have particular seats that you want.