Will we get bumped if we don't have a seat assignment?
 

I bought tickets on Frontier through JustFly. It said that we couldn't make seat assignments, but I was able to pay for a "please seat us together" option. We did this because my husband was afraid that if we didn't, we might get bumped if they oversell the flight and there are very few flights (Frontier or otherwise) going from Denver to Calgary. I just logged into the Frontier website and it looks like I can choose seats there, but of course I would have to pay again. I don't care about where we sit or if we sit together, my main concern is getting bumped and not getting to Calgary that day. Are we at risk of getting bumped if we don't have seat assignments?

Hey there. I have not seen this before. Interesting option. I know frontier doesn't assign seats until check-in. Honestly that charge looks like a total scam to me.

In the past Frontier made an effort to seat people traveling together together. based on same name and/or same ticket. They would try to make accommodations at the gate. I don't know if they've changed this lately. I doubt they would bump you over failing to pay. I would however make sure you checked in as soon as possible to get a seat assignment that makes it much less likely you will be bumped in an overbooked situation.. They generally assign seats from the back to the front and a surprisingly large number of people don't bother to check in in advance.

Good luck and let us know what happens.

Thanks, I guess I'll stop worrying. Interesting that they don't assign seats until you check in because it looked like I could choose a seat on the website. Maybe if I had gone further, it would have told me I can't until I check in.

You definitely can get an advanced seat assignment if you pay the fee on the Frontier website. I am not familiar with the site you used.

That's good to know. I have found that there are usually still unassigned seats when I arrive at the airport. Seems like there is an unusually high number of travelers on Frontier that don't bother to check in online. YMMV and of course it makes sense to check in ahead of time. Worth also keeping in mind, however, that Frontier fills seats from back to front, so if you care about that you might monitor the available seats throughout the day and check in when you're happy with getting placed in one of the available seats left.

From my experience flying with them, I recommend you set up a frequent flyer number so you can put in a seating preference. They "try" to give you what you prefer (aisle vs window) if they have available what you prefer when they do seat assignments the day of departure. Before I had completed my preference, I was getting random seats, and ever since I put in a preference for aisle, I've always gotten it, and I never pay for a seat.

Maybe I'm just lucky but I'll have to say that I've seen few oversold situations with Frontier where they call for volunteers. Maybe the flights to/from ATL aren't prone or maybe they don't push the envelope like legacies do, but I'm not even sure what their standard offer is for VDBs. Heck, in some situations you've got flights operating only 3x or even 2x a week, so getting IDB'd or taking a VDB might be tougher.

Before getting status my experience with the "random" seats was a lot like that of LovePrunes...if you were the early bird and had a preference in the profile, usually you got it. Whereas with Spirit I had to use a method of pulling the seatmap as if I were buying a seat and then waiting for a favorable situation where it wouldn't assign me a middle seat.

So... this actually happened to me recently. I was traveling with someone, booked on the same reservation but checked in separately. I checked in early, but my travel companion didn't check in because apparently she lost her credit card and wanted to pay for her checked bag in cash. I learned this as we were parking the car at the airport and checked her in using my credit card at ~T-2. She wasn't assigned a seat. Not a good sign.

We dropped bags off at the Frontier counter and asked about her seat. The rep said she couldn't assign a seat and that the gate had already taken control. Weird because we were there pretty early. I refresh my boarding pass and somehow I no longer have a seat. Uh oh.

We get to the gate, the flight is overbooked apparently by 5, they ask for volunteers, only one person volunteers. The gate agent is totally overwhelmed, somehow thinks there are seats open, writes a seat number on our hands and boards us without scanning our boarding passes. And of course, there are people in the seats (and the person behind us actually had the same seat number written on his hand as me, hah!).

In the end, we were the only two IDB'd (I'm even an elite member!) but luckily there was another flight that evening. Spent 10 extra hours in the airport, but received a check for $715 each (standard 400% the airfare, luckily it wasn't a super cheap ticket). They offered us $850 in Frontier credit instead with the caveat we would have to use the vouchers within 90 days. Hah! Yeah right, we took the cash (and $25 in food vouchers).

So I guess, to answer the question, YES you can be bumped if you don't get a seat assignment.

The best option is always to buy airline tickets on the airlines website, if its cheaper on another website there is likely a catch. Many sites charge additional fees to change or cancel your ticket. THIS IS IN ADDITION TO WHATEVER THE AIRLINE CHARGES. I had looked a while back and I believe that JustFly charges fees for those things. I would also steer clear of lesser known websites and if you do use a third party make it, Priceline, Expedia or Travelocity (or any other major company), this is not to say that they won't charge fees or will provide you with excellent service just that they are stable and they probably are more concerned with bad PR.

As for getting bumped, yes check in as soon as you can as the last ones to check-in are the ones who get bumped.

Hmmm...if they have to pay out 4x for IDBs then that might help explain why I see the situation come up so infrequently. They really should give people a year if they want them to take the voucher. I've taken vouchers if there's a wide enough value gap AND no terms on it that are overly restrictive, but in maskedmesothorium's situation I would have taken the $715 as well.

I've kinda wondered how much they overbook. I used to do pretty well taking voluntary bumps some 20 or so years ago, but airline prediction models have improved to where the situation comes up less often. I think some airlines like Delta are also trying to get cheap on how much they offer by taking "bids" ahead of time for possible voluntary bumps, even though it's funny-money (credit toward tickets) anyway.

Too, I'll bet Frontier gets quite a few no-shows compared to others, as so often it's cheaper to just walk away and eat the cost than pay their change fee. That'd be an argument to overbook more aggressively, but they'd need a way to predict which flights would get higher no-show percentages.

One of the nice things about 50K and higher level is you can pick any seat, including the stretch ones, at time of booking. For me, though, requalifying may depend on them bringing back an EQM promo like the one they did in late November and early December last year.