Folks, let's review the posting rules here as there seems to be some confusion.

Members have the right to post nearly any opinion they please as long as it doesn't attack a fellow FT'er or otherwise violate the TOS. Sarcasm and even a fair bit of spleen venting is acceptable so long as you limit your comments to the topic at hand and not take aim at your fellow FT'er in any way, shape or form. Posts that refer to another FT'er in a derogatory or personalizing manner will be removed and the poster may receive some sidelines time.

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essxjay
F9 moderator

Yes. All of them.

Not true. Run it professionally and not as an extension of a church and I'm on board. Cut out the boarding shenanigans, recognize frequent flyers as your bread and butter, get technology that's 1995 in every airport where you fly at least 3 times a day, keep the IFE working, on days when the entire cabin gets free IFE due to screw up, give Classic tickets and Ascent's free drinks and give Summit and Plus tickets 2 free drinks. If the leadership of the company has deep religious beliefs, keep them out of the business. If a headphone jack or IFE doesn't work and has been paid for give a refund and miles. If they don't work and the flyer is Ascent/Summit, give more miles. I don't think any of these needs are particularly radical or needy.

Well the religion part is really only in your opinion. I work here and BB says God bless and I pray. Okay so what. He and the rest of the Executive management are very professional. I guess you have the same problem flying on UAX/DLC/FLX operated by SkyWest for the same reason. Jerry Atkin is a devote Mormon and makes it very well known. Of course we have already talked about that. The engines aren’t going to fall off the plane because BB is Catholic.

Every flight I have worked on the Frontier operation Summit and Ascents boarded first even before those in wheelchairs and those that needed assistance.

You are correct about the kiosks. However they weren't there before the acquisition and are being added now. I have no idea about the website if you have issues maybe send a note to IT. I have issues with CO website (yes I do buy tickets) and I have had to work with their IT and found it was a problem with my computer. I don't know if that is similar but hey it is worth a shot to ask.

If your IFE doesn't work then yes you will get a refund but you do need to tell the F/A's and then send a note to CS. Have you asked the F/A's for something when things go wrong or you have been inconvenienced? Summits already get unlimited free premium beverages. As for what you’re asking for I don't know if they are in line with what other airlines offer but I will offer a caveat that UA is notorious for over compensating.
God Bless

Thanks for bringing that information back to the forefront, blue. Lots going on at work which just keeps me behind on what I’d like to post.

Good to see that it is a priority, and looking for a “global” partner is encouraging. Hooking up with someone like Alaska or Virgin America has benefit, but neither opens up many more domestic destinations and offers nothing overseas. Ideally Frontier joins with someone who gives us access to earn and/or spend miles to places like Jacksonville, Reno, and Albany, but also London, Hong Kong and Auckland.

One wonders how much “organic growth” potential there is within the existing Frontier system. Certainly DEN and MKE have some spokes to add, and there are some reasonable possible additions at MCI and OMA. I wonder if that’s what he’s alluding to, or if there are plans for more.

Very eager to see what this is. Although they have advertised a reasonable amount, there hasn’t been much buzz (since the name-the-badger things) nor has there been a lot which would identify or endear Frontier to Milwaukee. March would also be a great time to unveil some summer expansion, including MKE-ANC.

Just so much is unknown about their MKE plans at the moment. On the one end, I could see them keeping the current setup this summer with just some incremental upgrades. Or to go the other direction, I could see them ramping up east-west here as well. I have to wonder if they have a handful of different plans based on the direction and timing of WN/FL actions. I don’t want to beat the same dead horse yet again regarding speculation on the new WN’s plans in Milwaukee, but some of the longer-haul west markets are currently so wrung dry that it only makes sense for Frontier to have limited service. If Frontier puts larger aircraft into places like Pittsburgh, Newark, and Hartford…for which there is realistic potential…they need more spokes to the west. They can’t only fly MKE-west spokes to fill seats in markets like BDL-MKE-xxx. But with MKE-west markets so heavily saturated today it’s seemingly not worth the proposition for Frontier to dedicate equipment to well-timed daytime flights MKE-west to connect to and from east coast destinations. The amount of resources (high or low) Southwest decides to dedicate to MKE-west flying will greatly influence the viability of Frontier’s potential east-west ramp-up in Milwaukee. Frontier still has a bigger network east from which to operate a larger hub, but if they want to get larger aircraft with better CASM in, they need more balance to the west.

I don’t know if Frontier has any such plans or not, but the repeated comments of Bedford about recovering traffic and recapturing share suggest that they are looking beyond the current winter scheduled level. We shall see.

No, absolutely not. They won't buys it.

No, probably not. They won't buy it. They are independent airlines and does not have a real codeshare partnership for this time.

Long discussion in Omni about the inappropriateness and possible legal ramifications of your bible thumping CEO. Feel free to join that discussion. For those who don't know about it:

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_13786516

There are other FTers other than me disturbed by this and who also think it's extreme, unwarranted and possible actualized in ways that are illegal since he does not compartmentalize his beliefs the way other religious executives do. Anyway, that's on OMNI.

SkyWest blows by the way so feel free to make that comparison all day long.

If you board elites first you're an outlier. I haven't seen that on one flight in 2010 or 2011. I'm on F9 twice this week and if I witness that I'll update this post.

As for the website, yeah, there's another posting on that to that you can search and read.

You may be the first I've heard accuse UA of overcompensating for problems. Hmm. I bet you're in the minority.

I´m not sure what else they could realistically add from OMA. LAS and PHX are decent size markets but already have LCC competition.

There are still some decent routes that could be added from MCI, especially if it is used as a bridge from MKE and DEN.

As for other growth opportunities, there are still some places to create a another focus city or two. SMF, BDL, PIT, RDU, JAX, or even RSW could all be good candidates.


Are you planning a trip to ANC or something? You´ve mentioned this route more than once :) All kidding aside, I do think MKE-ANC could work. However, March might be a little late to announce service as a lot of cruise bookings have probably already been made.

They do need to add a route that will create some excitement and buzz. Announcing something like MKE-CLT will make people yawn.

Very true. I´m glad to see most of the West Coast service return this summer. It allows Frontier to have non-stop options available during the peak travel periods (when yields will be stronger) plus they can react quickly should Southwest decide to pull-down the East-West flying.

So far AirTran has not added MKE-SAN (or ATL-SAN) back to the schedules so Frontier may have a monopoly of the non-stops this summer.

As a lot of traffic heading to the East Coast flows through MKE, it might be more appropriate to bump-up frequency and/or up-gauge aircraft to better leverage traffic flows. It wouldn´t hurt if more options were available to DEN passengers, especially to places like BDL, EWR, and RDU.

With oil prices on the rise, it´s probably becoming important to get the E145s off of the longer routes as well.

Perhaps you should confine your opinions/comments about Bedford and his religious views to Omni as well.

Folks,

Addendum to an earlier post on the free expression of opinion: Religious and political opining are exceptions to the general rule.

So consider this your final boarding call for OMNI/PR aka OMNI/Religion and Politics. Further initiating *or* responding to posts of a religious or political nature is not only off-topic and unacceptable for this program forum, but members who fail to abide this warning will be subject to FT's guideline on Progressive Discipline and not necessarily beginning with the lightest step.

Let's return to the topic of F9's plans for 2011 and get on with making Monday a good one. Thanks.

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essxjay
F9 moderator

Understood BlkueHorseShoe. That;s why I created the post on OMNI/PR a few weeks ago and directed the off topic discussion to it yesterday.

Being based in Barcelona do you fly F9 frequently?

Not at the moment. I moved to Spain this past fall for a two year work assignment.

United (and now Star Alliance carriers) was always my primary carrier. However, I flew Midwest (now Frontier) on a somewhat regular basis.

Those are all reasonable candidates. Back in the YX days there was a good amount of speculation on them setting up another focus city in places like JAX, SDF, BHM, and BDL, but the business model, of course, needed high fares (meaning strong business traffic.) That has changed, although increasingly there are few places without signifcant LCC service already in place. Two places with little LCC action that come to mind are CVG and GSO, but each have their issues.

LOL...no ANC plans. I just don't remember what I post where, and I still think there's a decent shot they'll fly this. Red-eye 3x/week sould not be a big stretch for the summer peak. I do agree that they can't wait too much longer or they'll miss a booking window.

Oil prices are a big question mark, as always, and they are not trending the right way.

I could see them trying another midwest/great plains focus city (see OMA) if they can find the right opportunity. If they have plans for Caribbean expansion or even more Central America service you have to wonder if it makes sense to have a southern focus city where they could connect passengers heading south. I'm not sure how many people would be willing to connect in MKE to head to Jamaica unless they are already in the north. There is a reason B6 and FL have hubs in MCO/FLL.

Man, either I'm lucky or you're not, but I had 8 separate segments on Frontier during December alone and I, as a lowly Ascent, was the first or second person on the aircraft for every single one of them. Ditto for the other flights I've had this year. I've been very happy with the fact that they call "Ascent, Summit, and Classic Plus" tickets _before_ they say anything about families with children, people needing assistance, people with one bag... well I guess before, I'm just assuming because I never hear any of those other announcements, I'm already in my seat with the headphones in and the TV on.