sciconf

I found a night owl trip from SFO.
Even with the carry on fee its much cheaper.
Five hrs on a night owl trip
My folks don't like it - what is wrong with it?

socal77

I've done many red-eye Frontier flights from Ontario CA (ONT) to Orlando FL (MCO). Nothing wrong with them at all. Nice to get a non-stop back east overnight. That way you don't lose a day traveling.

Cbrosius

What do you mean? Is the flight taking you where you want to go? What concerns your parents, the number of hours it takes to get there?

guv1976

For one thing, Frontier no longer offers telephone customer support:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/benbald...about-nothing/

(That will matter more to some people than others.)

Cbrosius

You are saying that your parents dislike the airline. I initially took it to mean they don't like the itinerary. Well whether it is an airline or a casino, or hotel chain, you don't acquire perks and status unless you are loyal and travel a fair amount, and the more perks and status you attain, the more comfortable you will travel. The entire industry is in a chaotic uncertainty for the last couple years, I see a lot of travelers screaming and fighting and getting banged for extra fees at the gate and the more you see the better you will get at staying out of trouble. You are only flying the flight, you aren't getting married to the company. If you don't like how it goes, try a different airline . I like them for the price and they go where I need to go and I got the status to pick my seats, but I remember the days of always flying in First Class on the bigger airlines and flying Frontier is not first class but I paid a lot more back then. You'll get through the flight.

sciconf

Telephone support is virtually non-existent with most US businesses,
I called Delta today and it said 1hr and no call back option.
Called WN and busy signal. Oh crazy!
At least Frontier being upfront and offering 50% off.

Cbrosius

You had me baffled by the WN airline designation, and learning that it is the notorious South West took me on a trip down memory lane as the story involved another now defunct South West that operated in Okinawa during the time I was a young Marine stationed there.

TBD

I don't mind Frontier for short hops up and down the east coast and when it doesn't really matter if I make it on time. And, for those trips, I've used Frontier without issue.

But I will not fly Frontier if I (a) need to be somewhere on time because I don't trust that Frontier will have any way to recover from IROPS, or (b) am flying longer than 1.5-2h due to the tiny seats/pitch.

Most of my flights these days fall in those later buckets.

kd2330

This is why after last night I will never fly Frontier again. We flew to TPA with no issues. We had a 10pm flight home. At 3pm it was cancelled. We had the option of getting a new flight on Friday with a total duration time of 24hrs or Saturday with no direct flight options and duration times over 8hrs. Being as it was a Wednesday night, that meant an extra three days in Tampa. This was not an option as we both needed to be back for work. We ended up getting a refund, from which they took all their significant fees, etc. You do not get what you actually paid for the flight We paid $400+ round-trip and they refunded us back $75 ( It should have been closer to $130 for the flight back). Frontier did not care at all about the predicament we were in. Just a sad sorry not sorry. The cheapest flight home was a Southwest flight with a connection for a total of $600. So we ended up paying a fortune to get home. And this is why people do not want to fly Frontier. Everyone I mentioned we were suppose to fly with them gave us the " and you expected better" look or just flat out said so. It is fine if it works out, but if it doesn't you better have the luxury of time and a place to stay. We kept saying, imagine if you were a family of four with small children? Cheaper is not always better. They lost a customer with us. I'd rather pay more and know I will be able to get home.

jjbiv

Why was the flight from TPA cancelled? Did they not refund the return flight correctly or was the return flight much less extensive than the outbound flight?

kd2330

It was less coming back. The issue is when they cancelled other flight, options were significantly more money since it was a last minute flight. I had a $75 return flight but to actually get back had to pay $300. Not what was planned. No reliability. This is the second time in two trips this happened. First time they put us on another carrier. This time they said sorry , you’re out of luck. Nothing we can do. So only fly if getting back on time is not a big deal and you have a place to stay or else you will pay a fortune to get home.

iahphx

Yes, you have stated the absolute best reason to not fly Frontier. If you absolutely have to be someplace quickly, it''s not a good choice. And I NEVER recommend the airline to friend and colleagues, especially those who aren't frequent flyers. In general, I'd only recommend the airline for people who have some time flexibility and can make their trip with only a backpack and aren't too picky about seat assignments. That said, I made good use of my free 100K elite status match (and am still using it with tickets I bought before Jan 1), and have yet to have a serious problem.

Frankly, I am surprised they don't do more for people in your situation because, obviously, you're not likely to fly Frontier again, and you'll probably tell friends and family about what happened to you and many of them will avoid Frontier as well. I will say that, these days, they are reasonably reliable, but obviously bad things will happen to some people and there's often no good way to fix these problems of cancelled flights.

jebr

To add to this, Frontier is far worse per 10,000 passengers in terms of involuntarily bumping passengers. From January to September 2022 (page 50, pdf,) their IDB rate was 2.99/10,000, nearly six times higher than the next highest airline. Even Spirit and Allegiant are far better in this respect, despite also being ultra-low-cost carriers.

I won't completely swear off Frontier, but it has to be the only reasonable option these days for me to consider it - even the other ULCCs don't have near as many issues as Frontier seems to.

iahphx

Just got a call from a family member who wants to fly to LAS from DC for a long weekend. $318 on the majors, $130 on Frontier (assuming you don't buy bags or seat assignments). Personally, I might go with Frontier (almost $400 a couple in savings), but I couldn't recommend it. As long as you know what your're getting into, you've got to make a personal decision on what it's worth.

jjbiv

3/10000 = 0.03%
I would take those odds but everyone's risk tolerance is different. If you absolutely, positively have to be somewhere, Frontier might not be the best option.