ewoo

I've flown Spirit and I've flown Frontier and I can't say I've noticed a real big difference in the "raucousness" of the atmosphere.

willy702

Agreed. Basically the crowd and its behavior are a reflection on the destination, not the airline. I have flown both a lot, there really is very little to differentiate the brands so I get this merger making sense. I'm a bit skeptical this will turn out well for elites of either airline, but the elite and FF programs are very similar.

GW McLintock

Even if Frontier is the surviving brand, they will either need to come up with a lot more animals very quickly or create a new generic design.

Perhaps a good compromise would be Tweety or Big Bird.

-J.

ladybugflyhome

I feel as if Hustler and Penthouse just merged.

Tino

As if on queue, on the day of the merger announcement, Frontier is being hit with a systemwide issue that is causing half of its flights to be cancelled or delayed. (source: CNBC)

This merger will be fun to watch from the sidelines.

Orange County Commuter

The race to the bottom continues for Frontier!

Visconti

LMAO...While this may be a tad presumptuous, but I have a feeling this is gonna turn out to be one of my all time favorite FT threads!

By the way, Frontier stock's up around 3.5%, as of now. So, at least for today, the snap reaction of those with skin in the game appear favorable on what F9's agreed to pay.

willy702

Miles for both are pretty worthless for most airports. When an RT costs under $200 cash in most cases and for free flights you still have to pay fees for everything (including redemption if you arent Elite), miles just don't have much value. I have tried to use some of my F9 miles and it just seemed wasteful so I have held onto them wondering if the perfect storm comes when they have a flight for over $300 that I can use miles on.

I don't fly Spirit much these days, but I still get in a dining purchase or a cheap flight every six months to keep the miles active. But Spirit is much more difficult for me to justify because I don't have status, not fond of getting everything into the small backpack again and dealing with a bad seat. For both of these, elite status really is worth a lot while the miles are just meh.

rsteinmetz70112

I'm not sure of that I think it depends on where you are in the country.

beyondhere

Even having Spirit credit can be hard to use. I had $70 in Flight Flex credit for a round-trip I didn't want to go on just as of end of last year. I wanted to use that credit for a 1-way ticket that was about $70. Nope, not really possible through their site, as I had to make an existing round-trip another round-trip. I paid extra for that Flight Flex unaware that it had those conditions, and it ended up being wasteful when I wanted to use it. When, I called the Spirit agent, at first agent said Flight Flex had to be online, and then all they could do is cancel the second leg of my existing round-trip but I would lose value.

Super Mario

I don't get the hate. I have flown both a bunch of times (more so Spirit). The worst that happened to me was a 2 hour delay. I will admit, no one rolled out a red carpet, and water bottles weren't free. Worth the many sub $160 RTs (with baggage) I've flown.

The crowd on these planes has definitely been rough. It has also been completely normal. The same can be said for any airline.

It seems like it's a cool status piece to hate on them. Some person on social media will dog them because they just showed up with luggage, thinking their $20 flight included everything. Next time, they will be smarter about it, and just purchase the $400 flight elsewhere. Rather than be nickle and dimed $26 for luggage.

This has the potential to become good or bad. Frankly, the larger network should only help. The effects of a cancelled flight hurt a lot more when you only have few options to begin with.

wolfpacktrojan

I think the merged entity will need a new name and total rebrand. There's no benefit to picking between Spirit and Frontier, imo. It's an opportunity for a clean slate, at least from a marketing perspective.

The Situation

It's an interesting calculation. I would be willing to bet most travelers on these airlines don't follow M&A news so a new name could cause issues if PAX want to book a flight and have never heard of the new airline. If you are concerned about brand recognition, keeping the "Spirit" name would be the way to go, since more people have heard of Spirit. All publicity is good publicity, right? If that isn't right, and you are concerned about brand reputation, the "Frontier" name would be the way to go. Probably best to look at what the long term outlook is post-merger. I would bet the merged companies will have more pricing power and be able to raise fares, but the cost structure of the company will all move closer towards that of a legacy carrier. The larger company will mean that legacy carriers will face stronger competition and have to lower fares which will take away some of the value proposition to customers. I would keep the Frontier name and move towards a Jetblue model for onboard services and fees given the way costs will rise and competitors fares will decrease - its the only way the new entity can survive.

PilgrimsProgress

New airline should be called Spit, catchy and appropriate!

willy702

Why? For a long time Spirit almost took pride in being horrible from the CEO on down. I remember those times about 10 years ago when without fail I would hear at least one person on every Spirit flight loudly proclaim they would never fly on Spirit again, was like that should be their motto. Spirit cleaned up their act after that and became respectable in part because Frontier was going to the same model. Changing the branding but still being an ULCC gets them nowhere. Just the same I don't see them ever trying to change the minds of those who rather bad mouth the ULCC experience. That's like someone at Walmart saying we should be going after Whole Foods for market share. It just doesn't make sense.