Originally Posted by
frugal_flyer
iahphx... I got a good majority of the miles towards Elite using the credit card. But I flew several times as well. Going from Cleveland to Las Vegas a few times a year will rack up the miles quickly. But before last year, I didn't factor any of this into my decision-making. With the decent perks, now I am fully cognizant of what I am doing.
I still fly Spirit a few times a year as well, since I charge and fly enough on Frontier to not really worry about making Elite. I agree with others that flying Frontier is a little better experience than Spirit, though it's not enough to make me pay a lot more for fares in the absence of the Elite perks.
Interesting. The single biggest deterrent to my flying Frontier more are their bag fees. I can get a free full-size carry-on flying any of the major US airlines on even a basic economy fare (I have elite status on UA, otherwise they still charge with basic economy tickets). This means I will only fly Frontier if their fare is absurdly cheap and I "can live" with a big backpack. Otherwise, there's no real cost savings and it's a hassle. BTW, I'm kind of astonished by Frontier's carry-on fee. First, I don't even know what it is! It seems to be variable. Lately, on my reservations, they've said $40 and $45 each way. That's batsh!t crazy! And others seem to agree: on full A321s, I'm seeing maybe 5 or 6 pax with carry-ons -- and some of those pax probably have status that waives the fee. So they're not making any ancillary revenue off this. Something like $20 would seem more logical.