In September I had a bad Frontier flying experience. About 25 minutes after take off, the pilot announced that "back up" systems had failed and we were returning. It turned out to be a fairly serious hydraulic failure and, after safely returning, they had to get a tug to tow us off the runway and back to the terminal. Amazingly, Frontier found another aircraft for us and the net result was a 4 hour delay. Soon thereafter, I received a $75 email voucher each for myself and my travelling companion.

The voucher SEEMED like a nice gesture, but the reality is more show than substance. We have 3 months to use it. It's not transferrable to other passengers. It only comes off the base fare -- which all Frontier flyers know is usually very low. The only good news is it's multi-use. For example, I just bought a $97 int'l ticket -- my highest priced Frontier ticket ever (largely because of the int'l taxes) -- and the voucher was still worth less than a dollar. I've also applied the voucher to their famous $19 fares, and saved 7 cents.

Bottom line, if you get "compensated" for irregular ops on a Frontier flight, don't expect "real" compensation.