Welcome to my next trip report, chronicling my brief trip this week to Green Lake, Wisconsin. This year I decided to compare Frontier Airlines and United Airlines on the same routing. Are the savings on Frontier Airlines worth the hassle?
Frontier Vs. United + Green Lake Pilgrimage
Each year I travel to Green Lake, Wisconsin (12 years in a row now!). Typically this occurs in September or early October, but this year all sorts of drama got in the way and it was only now that a small window for the trip opened when a trip to Uganda got scrapped.
Even though I’m still about eight segments short on United, I could not resist flying Frontier Airlines one one direction. At $63 from Ontario (ONT) to Milwaukee (MKE) via Denver (DEN) the price was reasonable enough that I viewed it as an appropriate tradeoff to go without the several benefits I typically enjoy on Untied (like first class upgrades, wi-fi, meals, beverages, baggage, carry-on, and more legroom)/
I paid $425 for the return on United tracing the same routing (since I left my car at ONT) and applied Plus Points in an attempt to upgrade both segments to first class. The upgrade cleared from Milwaukee to Denver, but did not clear from Denver to Ontario….I ended up fourth on the list on a Q fare.
On the bright side, this will allow me to do a coach for coach review on the same route. I even booked a “regular” economy class seat on United instead of EconomyPlus to get the full “deep coach” experience.
I’ll also talk about my time in Wisconsin on this trip and how amused I was (in a good way) by General Billy Mitchel International Airport in Milwaukee. Finally, I was able to visit the brand-new Capital One Lounge in Denver which was very nice.
You can look forward to the following segments:
- Frontier Airlines A320 (ONT-DEN)
- Capital One Lounge Denver (DEN)
- Frontier Airlines A321neo (DEN-MKE)
- MKE: The Airport With A Used Book Store
- My Time In Green Lake
- Great Coffee in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin
- United Airlines A319 First Class (MKE-DEN)
- United Airlines 737-900 Economy Class (DEN-ONT)
- Aspire Lounge Ontario (ONT)
- Frontier Vs. United: Economy Class
- The Frontier Airlines Dilemma
Thanks for reading!
$63 versus $425 is enough for me to try Frontier, which I tried several years ago with satisfactory experiences. I haven’t tried Spirit, whose fare was higher after fees
As you alluded to, the value proposition is very different for the occasional traveler than it is for someone with top tier status. As a 1K/EP, it is easy to forget how “budget” the mainline carriers really are. Passengers without status get no checked bags, board late, and in many cases can’t pre-assign seats without paying extra (since 50%+ of the aircraft are “premium” seats of some kind). Why pay hundreds extra then? Obviously when booking the mainline carrier means free bags, priority boarding, extra legroom and a potential upgrade, that is a very different story.
Please finish your reports. You are leaving more teaser episodes than ever. I enjoy reading your articles. Thank you