They used to have a pretty loyal group of business travelers, but their change in strategy has driven many of us into the laps of other airlines.

The DEN Station Manager told me in Sept. '13 that they would have Pre-Check up and running the first of Jan. '14. Obviously, they never had that intention.

I haven't seen or experienced that at all. For the past 6-weeks, on a total of 14 of my DEN outbound flights, TSA A-Concourse has continually sourced flyers from the regular security lines so much so, that they back up Pre-Check all the way to the TSA Agent. As someone who paid the $100 for the privilege of Pre-Check, it's very frustrating to be stuck in a line behind passengers who still try and take out laptops, remove coats and shoes, etc., holding up the line. Makes no sense.

Pre-check was a very expensive program to develop and implement. I'm speaking from an IT perspective. It's come in many phases from the pilot program (FF elites) to GE/Known Traveler to where we are now with the full integration/randomization and printing support (Pre-Check on the boarding pass). Each phase of the program cost the initial adopter in excess of $100k, so you're talking about a half mil investment roughly. F9 does not have that kind of money right now for the customer mix it is targeting.

That being said, the costs should have come down dramatically lately to the point where it should only be a $100k investment or so. Let's hope they get on board soon.

Agree. PreCheck at DEN can be a joke. Here is the South Security late morning last Monday. The only significant line is at PreCheck (far left).



PreCheck aside, I took my first F9 flight in a year last week. Paid $25 for Stretch seating DEN-SFO and it was far more comfortable and cost less than United. The experience was pleasant enough that I just booked DEN-SNA-DEN for Mrs. SFO (aka The Princess) and me for next month. Again, with $25 Stretch Seating, $20 for a carry-on, it still cost less than United, and I get pretty much the same service as United First with more legroom. I'll continue fly F9 (and use CLEAR) on short hauls where AA doesn't fly as long as they offer Stretch Seating.

Frontier is not my only choice to the destinations I fly. I just checked in for a flight tomorrow and discovered the lack of TSA Precheck. I'm really glad our return flight is on a different carrier because this is a dealbreaker for me. Had I known this in advance I would have chosen a different carrier.

I will not choose Frontier again without first verifying that they are supporting TSA Precheck, which I paid for and will not go without. Once a traveller experiences the ease and time savings of the program, he won't want to go back to the long and slow line, the shoes, the laptop hassles, the removed bags of toiletries and having to go early to the airport to compensate for all of that...

2015 starts tonight. What the hell is taking so long?

Frontier simply doesn't want to pay to join or access PreCheck. I can't see that changing any time soon.
Welcome to FT pixeltech.

How much does Frontier or any other airline have to pay for TSA Pre Check?

Just got this response from customer service:

Thank you for contacting Frontier Airlines.

We’re currently evaluating the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Pre-Check program. Many customers have expressed interest in the program, and we are considering incorporating it into our systems.

Thank you for your feedback, we appreciate you taking the time to write us.

Sincerely,

Heidi
Customer Service
Frontier Airlines

In other words, we have absolutely no plans to spend any money to make it happen.

Spirit, on which the current incarnation of Frontier is modeled, doesn't offer it either. Nor does the other Ultra Low Cost carrier, Allegiant. These guys use a number of secondary airports like Latrobe, Trenton, Atlantic City, Goodyear (AZ), Niagara Falls, etc. They market discomfort, as a trade off for cheap fares. Having pre check would be inconsistent. It also requires an expensive rewrite of their IT software. I'm going to guess less than 5% of their customer base would ever pay the fee. As an aside, I had occasion to use Spirit at DTW, a few months ago, and TSA were arbitrarily directing customers (including me) to the less crowded pre check lane. When they first started doing that, the airlines were making those selections, presumably based on FF experience. It now seems anyone can be waivered at the checkpoint, based on physical profile. Among other things, it begs the question, why are we one of the only countries in the world that makes people take their shoes off in an airport?

I was on an F9 flight out of DTW last month. TSA sent me over to pre-check. I remember checking my boarding pass to see if there was any pre-check indicator on there and didn't see one.

Just sent an email requesting TSA pre participation. I was truly surprised they didn't participate. Not looking forward to my return from FLL without it!

One would have to question the judgement of those stubbornly staying in the PRE line with their PRE boarding pass when they could simply go in the regular line and get through much faster....PRE boarding passes are not prohibited in the regular line. Monday morning is the exception however...this is when most of the heavy hitters/consultants who have PRE fly.

As for using F9 at the moment, they can still be a good ride with Stretch. BUT, they have scaled back the DEN flights partly in order to install "slimline" seats in the A319s. The current F9 seat is pretty comfortable, but I shudder to think of what they have planned with the ULCC model. 29 inch pitch and paper thin seats? And they have destroyed their FF plan.

Daze

You convinced me to take F9...this coming May CLE-RDU-CLE. Total cost $160 with paid carryon. It's an hour and a half flight and I found no need to pay for the stretch seating, but just a $3.00 14D aisle seat. I checked Delta and United and they wanted and average of $250.00.

If there is one thing Frontier's Customer Service department does exceptionally well, it is the "Copy & Paste" function in Windows correct SFO777? I'm pretty sure the above response is the same one I received in 2013.

Forget time is money, a large part of the demographic doesn't want to be zapped or groped constantly.