maskedmesothorium

Got a marketing email today: https://www.flyfrontier.com/newfrontier/
* Bundle pricing is offered as part of the initial flight selection page
* Seems like they are retiring "the works" and "the perks" in favor of calling the options "economy, premium, and business bundles"
* flight credits now expire after 12 months (think this is actually the new DOT rule being spun as a new feature)
* phone agents are back for elite members and those traveling in less than 24 hours
* 2,500 bonus if you c an find a lower fare for anything other than the basic (unbundled) fare

Nothing revolutionary, but nice to have the phone agents back. The new flight selection page is kind of ugly but its useful, and I think it's smart from a marketing standpoint. The rules for claiming the 2,500 bonus miles make it seem like it's going to be a pain claiming those... and not very useful for gold+ elite members who get all the benefits of the 'economy bundle' anyway unless they change how buying works such that elites get the bundle at purchase time instead of having to individually add seats and carry on for free.

pretzlaff

Kind of a clunky implementation of transparent pricing that the feds are pushing.

Oddest thing to me is that the "Premium" level of tickets includes NO checked bag. Then the "Business" level includes 2. None of these four fare levels includes just one bag.

edit: doing a dummy booking, I see that you can add additional baggage like the old interface. I also see that as a Diamond, the usual stuff is still $0. We now get 2 checked bags even selecting the lowest "Basic" fare.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/fronti...ing-structure/

asusc

Don't forget about the 5k bonus miles in the link at the end of the email:

https://www.flyfrontier.com/5000-travel-miles/

pretzlaff

Speaking of miles, for the first time I see routes at 12,500 miles. Before sales were 5,000 and regular miles were 10k and 20k.

looks like they are devaluing miles and/ or going more dynamic.

lidosjawn

I saw that but also have seen a lot of 2,500 ones as well. Seems more like they are adding value with lower ones.

mediantraveler

Some people are receiving a link to register for 5000 miles for your next flight, booked and flown between 5/16-5/31. You can register below I believe:

https://www.flyfrontier.com/5000-travel-miles/

Reading the requirements for the For Less Guarantee, it seems almost useless in practice. For example, to use the guarantee for an Economy booking, the competing flight must be on the same dates/similar times, include a carry-on, seat selection, zone 1 boarding, and no change/cancel fee.

asusc

They are certainly making them harder to earn.

Just a few months ago there was a similar 5k bonus miles promo that was both travel miles and status miles for every segment if they were booked separately.

This new 5k bonus miles offer appears to be travel miles only, no status miles, one bonus per account.

iahphx

Is there an obvious way to book a Discount Den ticket on the new interface? Using my phone, it seemed impossible. And the app says I have an invalid frequent flyer number (I'm diamond and also have a legacy frequent flyer number) so it won't allow me to book that way. Typical Frontier IT chaos.

asusc

On desktop, you have to select the type of fare you want in the middle row first, before the fare changes:



However, that being said, I was still having errors yesterday trying to book. I was able to book the first half of a trip yesterday using the above method to get Discount Den pricing, but was not able to book the return leg home yet. I was able to select Discount Den, the fare showed at the low Discount Den price for the return trip, but I was getting the full, standard fare price once it was added to the cart. So it's for sure not working 100% yet.

I am very sad they have taken away the ability to search/view an entire month of fares on a route for one way trips. That's how I was able to scope out cheap flights. Hopefully that returns or there is a work around found for it.

frugal_flyer

Yes, I agree 100 % about not being able to search by month to find low fares; in fairness, Spirit has been doing this awhile now. So both airlines now make you search every date you might be thinking of flying. Yes, you can see a couple of days before or after, but seeing a whole month at once really was nice.

I likewise got a full standard fare trying to do a booking yesterday, instead of the Discount Den fare. Something else I've noticed that has been going on awhile, not just since this new thing launched, was that the now-retired monthly calendar would ostensibly show you the lowest available mileage award available on each day. But if you actually clicked on a date where, say, only 20,000 mile awards were available, there would actually be 10,000 mile awards available. I guess it was just more of the 5 star Frontier IT rearing its ugly head...

One thing I do think they will fix is that if you are trying to scroll down on the list of flights --the usually poorly timed connections mainly-- it is hard to actually do this. I keep "highlighting" the whole set of flight listings, before I am able to just perfectly place the cursor on the right spot to actually scroll down.

I am giving credit where credit is due, though: I think for the vast majority of people who don't fly regularly --and certainly not Frontier-- I think this new search results thing is a nice feature. At the very least, it makes it easier to search by what fare mechanism you are trying to use. Even if this is a result of the FAA/government regulations, I still think it was pretty well done. This is coming from someone who is no longer the biggest fan of Frontier, but who is fair and willing to allow the airline to "reprove" itself to me. Although it's not perfect, going back to live phone agents for Elite members and people who are taking or have taken flights within 24 hours is certainly an improvement. At least the airline seems to be trying, so I can respect and appreciate that.

rashodw

i agree. I just booked flight from cleveland to los angeles for 2500 miles per person. Couldnt believe it. Since it am platinum its a great deal.

maskedmesothorium

Also booked a 2,500 redemption a few days ago. Great value when the fare was going for $169 one way. That said, looks like maybe they raised the threshold back to 10k?

rashodw

Seems like it the same flights I booked are back to10k cause I tried to book for a few other people.

iahphx

Yeah, I did not have Wi-Fi available for my laptop, so I was trying to book a discount den fare on my phone with the new setup. After a few failures, I figured that I had to click the right boxes, and be patient. As you noted, after a few days, it seemed to be possible to do this. On the plus side, the delay enabled me to sign up for the 5000 point New Frontier bonus. Hope I get it. 🙄 Meanwhile, I figured out that the app isn't a bad interface to book tickets. Of course, I can't do that, because the app (but not the website), thinks my frequent flyer number is invalid. Is there a semi easy way to get someone at Frontier to fix this error?

RustyC

I have no inside information on this but would be willing to bet you'll only see the 2.5Ks at the really low-demand times like April/May or the month or so after school has started or maybe the first two weeks of December. And probably with not a huge amount of lead time to book. Seems like a last-resort way to fill seats. Though I blame GoWild for some of that.

I had noticed a few 2.5Ks even on high-demand routes like ATL-LAS, but rarely on the non-stop. Usually it's some connection, often an ugly one.