Denied boarding isn't a material risk. A cancelled flight on Frontier -- with usually bad alternatives -- is.

Because they're not pleasant to fly comes to mind. The fact that no on board service is free, including water, plus the horrible seats with no padding and faux tray tables except in the exit row make it uncomfortable and gives a F9 flight the feel of riding a bus.

That said if they're on time and you can get a nonstop on the route you want for cheap it works. It's just not going to be a comfortable flight.

FWIW, they will give you free water if you ask.

But I agree -- if you know how to play it (basically, try never to pay for bags), Frontier can be a good value. But it is rarely a good experience, and almost nobody would say they "enjoy" flying Frontier. For that reason, I don't like their long term business prospects.

I have had flight cancel and no help getting to my final destination. Jan 2023 I was flying CLE LAS and we encountered weather at CLE diverted to BUF for fuel. Landed and the windshield cracked, at that point they cancelled the flight and left 180 people to find their own way to CLE. I rented from Hertz and drove back to CLE. The flight crew and ground crew offered no suggestions, advice, or real help. This lack of help made my mind up to NEVER fly F9 again. F9 did reimburse $200 to get for my trip to CLE, after I contacted F9 via email, they never contacted me proactively to offer compensation or apologize. I reported this to DOT, doubt I will hear back. In additional to stranding 180 people a number of passengers were air sick due to turbulence and no air sickness bags on the plane. Passengers were using garbage bags or their own bags for air sickness. Frontier is awful. I've built up over 200K miles in my FF account, and I have no desire to use those miles. I cancelled all future travel as well. Never again, buyer beware.

If you want to gift those miles instead of letting them go to waste, I'll be glad to take them.

Eh. It's pretty cheap out of DEN with lots of nonstops. I don't choose to fly them all the time by any means, but hopping back to MCI to visit family, they do the trick. I've luckily never had issues with them other than cancelling a flight several weeks out.

Bah. I fly out of MCO, so the options are pretty much limitless. Sure, they may be delayed or cancelled (and that becomes very inconvenient) but I've had every bit as many delays and cancelations on other carriers as I have on F9. For the price tag, I don't have a problem with them at all.

But maybe my perspective is skewed. The only direct flight between MCO/SFB and the little Tennessee town where I grew up is on Allegiant. After more than a decade of flying Allegiant on that route, F9 feels downright luxurious. Newer planes, friendly FAs that don't actively hate their pax, reasonable on-time performance (as opposed to just automatically assuming the flight will be delayed by at least a few hours), an actual loyalty program with status tiers, and other passengers who aren't wearing their unwashed hunting gear that they used out in the woods for the last week straight... all that combines to make F9 a relatively pleasant experience.

You are the first person ever on Flyertalk to sing the praises of your fellow Frontier passengers. In December, a guy in the middle seat next to me heading to Florida had gotten out of jail the day before and live-streamed the takeoff to the guys he left behind in prison (I will admit he seemed like an OK guy and didn't bother me on the flight).

Years and years of flying Allegiant between FL and TN set my bar pretty low. The stories I could tell about those flights (especially in the early days) are beyond cringe-worthy, and make F9 look like we should all be wearing top hats and monocles.

That is why I always aim for 1C. Most of what I see is the FA. Sometimes that is good.