Originally Posted by
ISTFlyer
As an update, I was flying another US airline the past week on a domestic route and my intention was to by two domestic F9 tickets without paying the CIC ( they were both connecting itineraries so was going to save $46 per ticket ); the airport that I departed did had a Frontier departure nearby but all employees at the check-in desk were outsourced ( had a polo shirt or sweater of the ground handling company rather than the green polo shirts or light-gray hoodies with the Frontier logo ) and they told me that the system wouldn't let them ticket anything unless departing from that airport. Is this something new as I experienced this for the first time and two employees tried it on two different computers multiple times. Is this a new restriction? I would totally understand if they do have an agreement with the third party ground handling company getting a commission or fixed rates on the tickets sold by their end. Does anyone have more insight or experience with this?
In the end, the arrival airport of my flight had 2 Frontier flights so the desks were open and was manned with proper Frontier employees and a professional agent was able to issue those two tickets within 3-4 minutes.
I don't think any airport stations actually have agents employed by Frontier. Even CSRs at DEN are outsourced to a handling company. The outstation agents likely work flights for multiple airlines so your luck may be better at "major" F9 cities like DEN, LAS, MCO, PHL, ATL, etc.
I've never had an issue purchasing a ticket at an airport to depart from any city Frontier serves (as recently as October 6). If this restriction were true, it would be impossible to book multi-city itineraries or even a one-way ticket to arrive at the airport you are purchasing the ticket at. I find it more likely the agents you encountered at the first airport either didn't know how to change the departure city (which is easy to do) or just didn't want to take the time to sell a ticket. I would report this experience to Frontier so they can reinforce proper procedures to their ground handler at this airport if this is a common issue. Your experience at the second airport is more typical and affirms that nothing has changed, at least in my view.