Hi guys,

I'm flying from PHL to DEN and I'm thinking whether I should go for Frontier or US Airways. I have never flied neither airlines before and just wondering which one you think is giving better service/less delay. (not to mention that Frontier is $40 cheaper)

Thanks!

If its a one shot thing and you are starting a pattern of lots of flying from PHL, I'd say Frontier is your better choice. No significant difference in the quality of the seats, but Frontier will sell you DirecTV for $5 each way.

If this is going to become a routine thing and you'd make status with United or US Air, you might throw that into the consideration.

If you don't mind connections, you might look at Northwest if you are going to do this trip frequently, as you'd get unlimited free first clas upgrades, provided that you made silver (30 segments or 25k miles). Of course, then you have to connect in either MSP, DTW or CLE.

Also check the option of PHL-MDW-DEN on Southwest. No change fees!

FCfree,

I'm not flying there often, in fact this will be my first time to US (flying UA) and sure will be my first time flying domestic there so I just want to make sure I get everything right. Since there is no significant difference between airlines then I guess I'm going to take Frontier for its lower rate.

Thank you very much for your kind advice!

Well, if you want to make sure everything goes right (more than anything else), how much time do you have between arriving in the US on UA and flying on Frontier, and vice versa in the opposite direction?

If it's days (say, because you're flying UA into another city, then driving around, and doing the same in the reverse direction), then you should be fine, since you'll have plenty of buffer time should any of your flights be delayed.

But if you're flying UA and then CONNECTING to Frontier, that's another issue, especially when UA is a choice to connect. If you fly UA all the way through, and UA is late on the first leg (to the point that you miss your next leg), you're "protected" in that it's UA's responsibility to rebook you on another connection. But if you're connection from UA to Frontier or vice versa, since neither has a partnership with the other, you're up a creek if you miss a connection because of one of them being late, because then NEITHER of them will have any legal responsiblity to rebook you (or even refund the ticket you weren't able to use).

So for "making sure everything goes right" on connecting flights, I would always recommend using either the same airline or one of its official partners. (Then, even if the flights are booked separately, you can usually inform them of the connection and they'll put that in their records.) Otherwise provide enough buffer time between the flights to deal with the worst possibility you can (which, btw, at various times of year can include multi-hour weather-related delays).

I would concur with sdsearch. I did not know you were coming in from out of the country. If you are coming from Europe, to PHL to DEN, without a layover in PHL, then yes, connecting on the Star Alliance makes sense. However, if you are going to be staying in PHL for a few days, or even over night, then Frontier is the better airline overall.

I will be flying UA from Bangkok to PHL and stay a week for a business meeting there. Then I will leave from PHL to DEN - since it's my personal trip so I need to buy this ticket seperately. And after staying another week in DEN - I will fly UA again back to Bangkok. In this case there shouldn't be any problem and Frontier should be a better choice I guess

By the way, after arriving Chicago, do you think 75 mins time is enough considering I have to get through customs as non-citizens, claim luggages and then jump to domestic terminal (which I have no idea how far from my arrival terminal) for my PHL flight?

You may want to address this part of your post to the UA folks, especially if you are talking about ORD. F9 does not fly into ORD so this would not apply here.

LAX Gambit

I will open another thread on UA then - thanks a lot