OK, I see they have a message now that login doesn't work
 

I see they have a message now that login doesn't work. I'm pretty sure that contradicts the message I got earlier ...

I'm thinking of putting in a wish list, but I want to see what the "my account" section has and how it functions first. That way if there's some significant functional loss that can be stressed more than simple nicities.

When searching for award travel, the search now offers a one-week span of available flights, with each date displaying minimum required miles. ^

Should I have mentioned that award travel booking is now functional on the F9 site? :)

Looking forward to searching award travel when my MMs are consolidated into my ER account. Right now only my ER miles are showing.

I spoke with a rep in ER today. He informed me there will a "major software upgrade" in the next few days.

That said, I have spoken with more than one CSR today, and gotten different answers from each of them, stay tuned.

How about mobile booking?
 

Aside from their website, what I'd like to see from Frontier is an iPhone application which allows me to search and book a flight. Southwest has a great app and I've used it several times.

I guess they should do that for Android, too but I hear that is more complicated because there are so many different mobile devises which use their interface and it causes problems.

It's kind of funny -- just about every airline website has people who say it is great and others who say it is among the worst. Today's rollout of the new AA site got me around to finally post my opinions about the Frontier site.

First, a few items I definitely like over the old Midwest site. Then a number of wish list items -- not specifcally becuase they are a step backwards from the legacy Midwest site (though some are) but things which would improve the usefulness of the site.

THINGS I LIKE

Before I dig in to the wish list, there are some things I definitely like about Frontier’s website.

--Automatically showing seven days of availability is fantastic.
--FF award booking also shows +/- 3 days, a frustrating task on the YX site.
--When shopping FF award, click of a button gives cost for those flights if you instead pay.
--More online check-in options (including FF number, or credit card number).
--More friendly flight status than YX, esp if you don’t know the flight number.
--Better contact information – the “contact us” feature on YX was notoriously buggy and it wasn’t always easy to figure out the best way to contact them.


THINGS TO IMPROVE

High Priority Deficiencies

--Have an online method to request missing FF credit. Having to call or mail in copies of boarding passes is circa 1995 functionality, and further aggravates people already unhappy that Frontier did not correctly give them credit in the first place. This is not insignificant.

--[EDIT: This one appears to be coming from a glitch where I am getting signed out during the booking process, NOT a structural or functionality shortcoming of the website.] Allow Summit to pre-reserve Stretch or exit row online at booking. (I am very much hoping this is a temporary glitch because it is a real pain to have to call.)

--Allow anyone (elite or not) to change their seat assignment online.

--Offer the ability to add reservations booked elsewhere to your F9 online profile. Don't penalize people who cannot book on frontierairlines.com, and for those people who for whatever reason chose to book Frontier travel on another site, this ability encourages them to use the Frontier web site to manage their reservation and may lead them to book directly next time. [EDIT: Since reservations booked elsewhere are at least some (perhaps all?) of the time showing up automatically, the importance of this function is less than originally thought.]



Opportunities for Significant Improvement

--When shopping, have a “Modify Search” option which retains the search options but lets you change them. Currently, if you want to try an alternate week or an alternate airport, you have to start from scratch again and again. And because dates can only be selected from a calendar (not typed in) it is very cumbersome if you’re searching for travel months out.

--Clearly communicate onboard food for purchase at booking and again at check in. Don't make the customer figure out a puzzle to know. Not properly communicating and promoting onboard food sales stunts the potential of the entire program.

--Scrap and start over on the airport terminal maps. The absolute key point of having airport terminal maps is visually assist customers in finding Frontier. None of them do that, and many of them are essentially worthless. How can you tell us Frontier is in terminal 6 at the complex LAX, but then give us a map that doesn’t identify the terminals? Or that Frontier is in the “North Terminal” in Detroit but then give us a map with only terminals labeled Smith, McNamera, and Berry?



Niceties to Wish For

--Bring back the desktop timetable Application! Both F9 and YX had it, and Frontier last updated it in September.

--Put dates on the PDF timetable and keep it up to date. A obsolete timetable can be worse than no timetable.

--Add interactive route map

--Add aircraft information, including seat maps, and not just link to external sites.

--Update the “about us” history section with a much more concise story of the airline, including a sentence or two about Midwest and the merger. (Clearly the Frontier history should be the main story as the surviving brand, of course.) The existing history section is quite a self-indulgent read…interesting for airline geeks but not especially a good image. Excessive detail through late 2008 (including items on just about every route addition…including more than three dozen routes that did not last) and no updates since. Check it out if you have a half hour sometime.



Functionality Requiring Policy Changes

These are items I'd like to see, but they may involve a change in Frontier policy, not just tehcnical improvements.

--Pay bag fees ahead of time online

--Ability to upgrade to Classic or Classic Plus after booking for an upgrade fee.

--Ability to purchase Stretch ahead of time.

--Ability to purchase segments or miles to qualify or re-qualify for elite status.

-----

I'm reaonabliy satisfied with the Frontier site, and correcting the four top priority items would be a big step in getting Frontier up to par with the competition.

a few major deficiencies
 

I concur with knope on the serious deficiencies. In particular:

1) Allow people who book through other sites to access their reservations online. As a business traveler, I am required to use the corporate travel agency's site to make airline reservations. On some sites (like United), these reservations show up automatically under my FF account shortly after I book. The old Midwest site allowed me to pull up these reservations and associate them to my FF account. Frontier does not show me these reservations. I've got to believe that there are a lot of business travelers out there who are in the same situation as I am and who are required to use a corporate travel site. Not being able to see your reservations is a major deficiency to me.

2) Once you get #1 working, allow people to change their seat assignment online (prior to online check-in). Again, to me this is basic functionality that any airline website should have.

I always thought the Midwest site was rather weak, but both of these functions were things that I could do on the Midwest site. I was pretty shocked to see that the Frontier site does not support these rather basic features.

Knope, some excellent comments.

To add to them, I would like the "My bookings" feature (I believe it is similar to the "Manage reservations" function on the YX site, where you could add a PNR to your account), to actually work, and not time out or display the message Also on my wish list:

• Mobile site (such as YX had, or better)

Coming soon, we are told. Don't ask how soon. :confused:

Out of curiosity, do any of the elite-status legacy Frontier people know if this is the case for you? I'm hoping that maybe even though my profile says Summit that maybe it doesn't recognize my converted YX profile as elite, and thus blocks my choice of Stretch or exit seat.

Is this true of flights originally booked as Midwest, as well as those booked as Frontier, no matter whether under your ER account number or MM number?

FS-Dad has been a Summit since 2003. When making reservations we are able to select stretch just fine..

Today this ability is working.

Here are the steps I was taking previously (when it didn't work) and today (when it now does):

(a) Go into the Frontier site
(b) Log in as my profile (which says Summit)
(c) Search for and select flights
(d) Continue on to where you enter your personal information, and enter it
(e) Click on "select seats"

Until today the seat map has X'd out everything except the last several rows -- the normal avability for the economy fare bucket.

I had this happen every time in the past several of days playing around (maybe four times total), including yesterday as I was writing the posting and decided to go back in just to confirm that I was remembering it correctly.

Today it works, which I am glad to see.

What might be the issue is that it was dropping my "signed in" status, because several times in playing with the site on award seat shopping, the site has made me sign in again even when I've already been signed in during the same session.

Today, when I just tried this and it allowed me to select any seat, when I got to the passenger info section my name and FF number were in the dropdown box. That's the first time I've seen this, and that tells me the other times it had forgotten who I was by that point. And thus...no seat benefits.

So...I'm glad to see that this doesn't seem to be a matter of missing functionality, but instead one of dropping my logged-in-ness. That's not a matter of site design and functionality, but a nagging problem that could be related to my particular browser, how my PC handles cookies, or similar glitches.

This one appears to be at least somewhat less of an issue than I thought it might be. Yesterday I booked travel on Frontier via a different website (the corporate travel tool we are required to use here at work) and the reservation was immedateily available on frontierairlines.com. The old YX website never did that, and so all reservations booked elsewhere had to be manually added if you wanted them to show on your profile.

I do think this is still functionality to add because the "it-automatically-shows-up-on-your-profile" function likely doesn't work in all situatinos. I can't base that assertion on experience with the Frontier site because I'm still pretty new to it. However I have run into this a number of times when I book travel on Delta -- sometimes the itin makes it over to my Delta profile with no issue, and other times I have to go in and manually add it online.

Ideally you should almost never have to manually add an intinerary manually to your profile no matter where or how it is booked. And if that nearly always works, then the ability to add a reservation manually isn't a big deal. However unless this nearly always works, being able to manually add it yourself is a key function which other websites have.

That being said, I am very happy to see that at least some (maybe all?) of the time a reservation booked elsewhere is automatically available on the Frontier website profile. That's something which never happened automatially on the YX site.