FlyFrontier.com and Booking/Awards Changes
 

I wanted to create a new thread since burying this in the "New Frontier Website" thread might hide this from new viewers who don't want to read through all those old posts. Anyway, Frontier has unveiled a new domain and features designed to drive bookings through the website:

http://www.flyfrontier.com/

They've introduced some "penalties" to fliers that book elsewhere, like not being able to choose seats and only earning 50% mileage. Also, they've lowered their award tiers (EarlyReturns makes sense again!) to 10k miles (o/w) and 20k (r/t) but removed the free checked bags. You can see those here:

http://www.flyfrontier.com/frequent-...s/redeem-miles

I might actually consider getting the CC again. Has anyone ever successfully churned this card before? I guess I could always just use a new FF number. The current CC offer is 25,000 after first use and 10,000 after spending 750 within 3 months, seems like a good deal to me

Personally, I don't understand the need for the new URL. The rationale outlined in the Denver Business Journal, as well as F9's own press release states, “Booking at FlyFrontier.com is the best choice as it’s the only place you can book Frontier travel where you’ll get an advanced seat assignment, earn more EarlyReturns® miles, and enjoy more choice in your overall travel experience." Couldn't that ALL have been done within the existing URL?

So, for those of us who already book our travel via the F9 web-site, what are the more choices they are offering today that they didn't offer yesterday?

I'm sure it is more choices (like seating and fare options) than 3rd party sites. If you already booked at the old site, you don't really get any new benefits during the booking process. The new URL is most likely just a marketing decision, as part of a rebranding of the site to drive more traffic through the site so they don't have to pay a % to travelocity.

One is redirected to www.flyfrontier.com automatically from the prior site.

There is a new promo for the F9 MasterCard that awards 5X ER miles on the purchase of tickets, when charged to the card.

http://www.flyfrontier.com/Home/cardmember-terms

There are now four fare options, instead of three.

http://www.flyfrontier.com/plan-book/fare-options

Third party travel sites now display seat maps with open seats blocked as preferred, while occupied seats are obviously also blocked. I can see complaints from customers about not being able to sit with others in their travel party, since they were not given the option of selecting seats at time of booking, and limited seat selection at time of check-in; this will only create more work for Frontier agents, trying to deal with disgruntled customers. Minor children will be separated from families on the aircraft, which happens now, but to a lesser degree than will happen with this change.

This is unbelievable!
 

I have to book all my business travel on my company's travel agent website, and I can't understand why they would implement these changes and screw over their shrinking business traveler base. I've got over 20K miles on them this year and was planning on getting up to 25K and Summit status, but it looks like they just shut me down! Is this any way to treat your best customers? They are going to penalize me because I can't book with them directly? I was just on a F9 flight yesterday and it was really obvious that the leisure traveler was the bulk of the load. What a shame this is. I've got four F9 trips in Oct and Nov, but unless that changes, I guess I'm gone and I'm taking my 25 segments and $6,000 in ticket revenue somewhere else - probably Southwest, as much as I hate to say that. What lame brain at Frontier was behind this?

Probably the same one that took away my chocolate chip cookies!

FlyFrontier.com is *not* a new domain name
 

FWIW, FlyFrontier.com was Frontier's original domain name. They changed it to FrontierAirlines.com about (guessing) 10-12 years ago when they rolled out a new website design. FlyFrontier.com was never discontinued, it just redirected to the new (now old) domain. I've been using it all along because it was fewer letters to type. Back to the future.

Frontier is a leisure airline.

I really think all of the airlines are going to start following this trend. Southwest really has a huge advantage over every airlines because they do not show up on expedia, orbitz, etc and they are saving a lot of money. I thought American wanted to do something similar.

I remember southwest use to run ads telling people the only place to book SW fares was on SW.com

The only thing that bothers me about this is that their website is so unreliable. FlyFrontier.com works better only than southwest.com.

Will F9 elites be exempted from the 'penalties'? I work with a bunch of guys who actually prefer F9, but we have to book through the corporate travel website. I can't wait to see the reaction when they get half miles and no seats till check-in!

Heck, they even comp us low-level status to win our business. Surely they are going to exempt us from this policy, right? (Note: I don't care personally -- I don't fly them.)

Is your corp site able to book on WN? The one I use is based on Travelocity and shows them all less WN.

Have Summit members lost the ability to choose stretch seats at booking? The new Fare Options page (http://www.flyfrontier.com/plan-book/fare-options) shows only "Select Seating" next to the Summit member column for "Free advanced seating options".

However the Seating Options page (http://www.flyfrontier.com/flight-info/seating-options) still says Stretch seating at time of purchase.

Is this a downgrade for Summit or just an error on the new page?

The sane one that expects this move to generate an additional $20 million in annual revenue. @:-)@:-)@:-)