I mentioned yesterday that I took advantage of a cheap ticket on Frontier Airlines for a trip this week to Milwaukee. While my expectations were very low going in, I have to admit not only did Frontier exceed them, but left me with a quite favorable impression of the ultra-low-cost carrier.
A Nice Start To My Frontier Airlines Trip…Maybe Even Spectacular (For The Price)
I set my alarm for 2:45 am, left the house by 3:15 am, and by 4:15 am had pulled into the parking lot in Ontario International Airport in the “Inland Empire” of Southern California. It’s not a highly convenient airport for me (Burbank is seven minutes way from the house we are currently living in and LA is about 40 minutes away), but a $63 fare and the chance to try a new carrier was too good to pass up.
I deliberately chose to travel light, layering myself in clothing and taking only my laptop bag along for the two day trip. With no checked bag, I bypassed the check-in counter and headed right for the security checkpoint.
Thankfully, Ontario has both PreCheck (which Frontier participates in) and Clear. At 4:20 am the security lines were very long, but with these aids I was through in no time and just in time to board.
I knew there would be no wi-fi or plugs onboard. I came prepared with content downloaded and a full battery (though I did not bother to bring by power bank).
The seats are not very well-padded and the tray table is tiny.
But the aircraft was clean, the flight was punctual, the coffee ($4.39) was surprisingly decent, and the flight attendants were quite nice. I had my doubts at first when one seemed to mock a passenger for using the lavatory (“I can’t believe you boarded the plane to use the lavatory. Why didn’t you go outside?”), but it was her style of humor (I guess?) and the ladies working the back were very kind to me.
In fact, once boarding was complete the crew moved me up a few rows such that I had an open middle seat next to me. That was appreciated.
Water, by the way, is free on Frontier. I did not know that and appreciated it.
We landed in Denver 30 minutes early.
I’m going to publish a full review from this flight quickly enough, but that about sums up the ideal Frontier experience: on-time, cheap, and efficient.
Had I flown United on the same route in first class there would have been breakfast, TV screens, a comfortable seat, plugs, and wi-fi. But at 1/7 the cost of United, I think I made the right bet this time with Frontier.
Now let’s see about the connection to Milwaukee…
“I deliberately chose to travel light, layering myself in clothing and taking only my laptop bag along for the two day trip.”
Hopefully you fit in a fresh pair of underwear in there somewhere…
I did! Two in fact.
Why am I picturing this…
https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-1240w,f_auto,q_auto:best/newscms/2018_35/1149886/joey-chandler-clothes-today-160810-tease-02.jpg
Exactly! Too funny…
Do you usually bring water on the plane ?
Nope.
I have been an AA FF for 25 years but decided to try Frontier for my commute from PHL to RSW. I flew 24 legs over the past 18months and only had 1 cancelation. I got the Frontier Barclay’s card and have elite status. The real treat is being able to fly from TTN to RSW and doing so for next to nothing. I figure I’ve saved at least $10,000 over flying AA and didn’t have to endure the AA attitude.
When it works, it is fine. When it doesn’t, you are on your own and your trip is screwed, which can be a costly hassle.
This comment cannot be said loudly enough, because it is the core issue with the likes of Frontier, Allegiant and/or Spirit. If your flight is cancelled, you are truly screwed. They won’t lift a finger to help you and their schedule is usually pretty light on point to point routes. Miss your flight? See you next Wednesday.
And that’s only one of the possible scenarios that can go horribly wrong. If all goes well, it’s fine – the tight pitch not withstanding (though AA isn’t much better). But God help you if it doesn’t/
“At 4:20 am the security lines were very long” Where were all these people going at that time of the day?
Also, do you ver take the cost of your time into consideration when booking travel? I get that you paid $63 for the flight but you had an airport 7 minutes from your house, another one 40 minutes and you chose the one 60 minutes away. This brings back me memories from a long time ago when I used to work for a company that used a stupid travel system to book travel looking to save money. The system did not allow me to book MSP-LGA non stop because it was more expensive than MSP-DFW-LGA and I had to get management approval to buy the more expensive one. They never took into account the amount of time I would spend traveling that I would not be producing any work but focused on the face value of the stupid ticket.
Saved me $380. Flights were $425 one-way from BUR or LAX. But I also wanted to try it. Why not? Something fun.
I dunno, but $425 from Bumthang in Bhutan to LAX sounds like a steal.
Chivas and I decided to make a mileage run out of it.
No fair, you edited the airport code, lol. Well played.
And here I thought you might have been coy earlier and had actually done a status match to get full benefits…seat assignment, bag allowance
Looking forward to your photo of, well, water, in the review.
For domestic legs I like the these seats which I know from Frontier or Hawaiian better than many others. I am very tall and these seats work for me better than e.g. what AA has on their domestic flights. As odd as it may sound.
Does Hawaiian have the same seats as Frontier?!
On their 717 fleet, yes.
I flew Spirit several years ago and the customer service was God Awful.
If I understand correctly, Spirit has since eliminated any phone service and all is done via chatbot.
Good luck getting a refund or any other adjustment unless you have a social media platform to shame them enough to provide assistance.
Frontier SUCKS. You are lucky nothing went wrong.
My nightmare started with a 5 hour delay for a connection, and ended with the plane holding for an hour for a gate once on the ground.
This was nothing compared to what followed. All of the passengers and crew were finally able to get off only to be trapped in the jetway for 45 mins because the ground crew forgot a flight was coming in late. Calling the police and the airport police didn’t help. Add to that an unapologetic, unsympathetic crew who finally did show up to open the door and let us out.
There was still the final indignity of roaming around the terminal trying to find a way out because most doors were locked after midnight amd the shuttle train was only coming once every half hour.
And customer service is a tone deaf chatbot.
Never. Ever. Again. Not even if they pay me.
How is this blog still around? Doing stale posts like this that have been down years ago and over done. Do something interesting/new/hot please!
And yet you’re still clicking and writing…
I did the same thing a few weeks ago, I flew Avelo BUR-COS. One way, including seat choice, checked bag, and taxes was $81. United, where I’m a 1K and 2MM+ was over $400 LAX-COS with a stop in Denver. It was a very pleasant flight and I avoided Denver! Only issue was if something went wrong, it’s a 1x/week flight. But it didn’t and I’ll fly them again.
I didn’t know Avelo did BUR-COS. I will try it!