Thanks for the clarification Dan, and welcome to Flyertalk!

I would like to be the second to welcome you to being an active participant in the F9 forum...Mike beat me to it!

As you know, we are certainly not reserved here expressing our viewpoints about the shortcomings and strengths of Frontier, as well as offering our unsolicited advice as to how the airline can improve its product.

We appreciate your ear to our sounding board and look forward to your continued contributions.

Thank you Dan, for clearing up the speculation as well as your presence here representing Frontier. I can confirm that I just booked a flight for myself and my girlfriend last night, and was able to choose SELECT seats at the time of booking for both of us (although it indicated that these would cost $5, we were not charged).

Great hearing from you Dan. It's good to know someone in the "know" is listening.

It appears that Classic is no longer a flat $25 surcharge over Economy; it apparently depends on the route. The fare difference does not appear to be linked to availability, nor distance.

Many routes now have a $30 increase over Economy, some have a $10-$20 difference, and a few still have the $25 additional cost above Economy.

All routes checked are direct flights.

Is this somehow related to the introduction of SELECT seating or just another way to increase revenue?

I would bet that like STRETCH, it is tied to the historical uptake on a given route. A route that has a lot of Classic demand might be higher while a route with little demand might be skewed lower. Definitely just another way to earn more revenue if they can get more people buying Classic. They might lose a little upfront versus someone who gets economy and checks bags, but if they can introduce them to Classic for only $10 and they like it next time it might be $15. It also forces the person to buy on the website which saves them money versus a listing on GDS.

I don't understand why someone would spend $5.00 on a Select Seat. Just purchase a Classic fare, get the Select seat and the checked bags with the 25% mileage bonus.

Huh. Just looked at ABQ-DEN. $10. For that price, I'll buy Classic just on the chance I might need to check a bag. Before a $25 increase for a 60 minute flight wasn't worth it. I'm afraid people will find it confusing because Classic fares are tied to Select seats and Economy fares tied to standard seats. I think one all encompassing term for fare and seat wound be beneficial.

That's part of the idea with Select I believe. They might not expect to get a whole lot of $5 seat assignments, but it bundles in a perceived $5 benefit to Classic, whereas before you got the seating benefit but there was no "value" tied to it. You're right, you'd be stupid not to get a classic fare, especially if you check bags. I think they are really focused on driving people to book through the website and buy the higher fares, even if they might take a hit on them in the short term.

Hopefully one day you'll be able to buy "upgrades" on the website before your flight. Maybe someone booked on Travelocity, it would be cool if F9 sent them an email with an offer to upgrade to Classic for $20. Or even better, offered a free upgrade in exchange for joining EarlyReturns.

Actually I like that you can be flexible. You can buy the package, or you can choose to buy each perk separately. Its the best of both worlds, but they could do a better job of selling it.