Frontier Airlines has transitioned to an ultra low cost carrier (ULCC) following their acquisition from Indigo Partners a few years ago. Frontier Airlines like many other ULCCs offers rock bottom pricing with extra fees for seat selection, bags and even printing boarding passes at the airport. Frontier Airlines latest economy product will be reviewed from Orlando International Airport (MCO) to Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG).
Booking Experience
Booking is accomplished right through Frontier’s website. Base fares for this flight only award passengers a basic ticket. Seat selection, checked bags and carryon bags incur an additional fee. Frontier offers the option to bundle 1 carryon with priority boarding. When selecting seats the prices fluctuated if the page was left. Each time the seat selection page was loaded the prices increase then decrease. Seats towards the front of the aircraft are more expensive than seats towards the rear of the aircraft.
Ground Experience
Orlando International Airport is a fairly busy airport with a heavy amount of leisure travelers and long lines. Todays flight was no exception with a long line for the check in desk. It is worth noting that Frontier Airlines charges a $40 agent assistance fee per segment per person for printing boarding passes and adds this fee on top of buying a bag if done at the airport rather than online. Additionally Frontier Airlines has recently changed the cutoff time for check in to an hour before departure. As no bags were needed to be checked, it was straight over to the TSA line. The standard TSA screening lanes had a large line so its best to award extra time in Orlando.
After clearing security finding the gate became a difficult task. The departure boards did not depict the Cincinnati bound flight. The gate listed on the boarding pass was for a different flight. Eventually the departure boards listed the flight and subsequent gate. Boarding was a slow process with designated boarding groups for those who prepaid for carryon’s followed by all boarding groups. Boarding commenced an hour behind schedule with little explanation as to why.
First Impressions
First impressions boarding the 4 year old Airbus A321 was not good to put things mildly. The aircraft had stained carpet and gum stuck to the side of the seats which can be noticed during boarding. A unique feature with Frontier is the naming of their aircraft. By the boarding door there is a placard denoting the animal on the aircrafts tail. Seats are arranged in a 3 on 3 configuration in a grey pattern. Immediately after sitting down it becomes apparent how stiff and tight the seats are. Seats lack much padding and feature a small sized tray table no larger than a cell phone. As with surrounding seats this seat had gum attached to the seatback as well as stains around the carpeting area.
Inflight Experience
After departure the inflight crew began the buy on board service. In the seatback pocket is a menu outlining snacks and beverages for purchase. Frontier offers special trading cards with animals from various aircraft free of charge. Pricing for buy on board items ranges from $5 to $28 bundles. A snack box was purchased for $8.99 containing cheese spread, wafer cookies, almonds, almonds and wheat thins. Similar to Spirit Airlines snack box, a sanitizing wipe is included as well.
Final Approach
Frontier Airlines has some shortcomings with the overall experience. The booking process is far less transparent when compared to Spirit or Allegiant. The seat selection price changes made the booking process rather confusing and borderline costly. Having no departure gate listed prior to boarding made the process finding the assigned gate a confusing and hectic task. Frontiers onboard product has hard uncomfortable seating even for Ultra Low Cost Carrier standards. The thin padding made the seat unbearable after sitting in it for over an hour. A very small tray table barely fits a can of soda and makes using a computer impossible. One area where Frontier excels though is their cabin crew. Each crewmember was l personable interacting with each passenger. They were constantly in the isle removing trash and doing multiple runs for the buy on board service.
Overall, Frontier Airlines has a cheap bare bones product. A word of caution however, the extra fees can get costly bringing the total spend closer to that of a full service mainline airline. For the same price one can enjoy a much more comfortable product in a standard economy seat on other air carriers. Frontier Airlines leaves much to be desired but offers a cheap bare bones options as long as one does not add on pricey extra fees.