Frontier Airlines?

[Ariel484]

Helloooooo

Frontier Airlines recently started flying out of our airport...curious to know if anyone has used them and what your experiences have been. There is a flight I'm looking at for January that is scheduled to arrive in Orlando at 8:50AM (perfect time in my opinion) and it costs $92. I'm unfamiliar with this airline and did a quick Google search. Looks like it doesn't get great reviews.

What say you, WDWMagic friends?

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

Frontier started flying out of our local airport last year. They are pretty popular here. They pulled their Philadelphia and Delaware flights and have increased flights out of our local airport.

We flew them last year to MCO for $62 from NJ.
It was fine. They don't give drinks for free but do give water for free. It took about 30 minutes longer than our other flights (we took a weird route.) The flight attendants were just nasty and rude. But I had an okay experience. Under those conditions, I would easily fly again, especially for the price.

But they recently made some changes to their baggage policy. They charge for carry-ons and the fee is higher if you book through third party websites vs their own. They also began charging to pick your seat, I believe too.

They have a strict check-in policy that you must have your luggage and yourself checked in 45 minutes before your flight or you will not be allowed on the flight regardless of whether the flight has started boarding or not.
(This happened to my sister, flying frontier from ATL to NJ and she was in line about an hour before her flight, by the time she got through the check in line it was 40 minutes before her flight and they wouldn't allow her to check in even though she had been in line. They refunded her the ticket to use at a later time but she would be required to pay a $70 fee to use it, so it wasn't worth ever using.)

Some people had reported that planes would go down for maintenance and they would get stuck or have their flight cancelled completely because they were no other planes available. We are lucky that Frontier has quite a few planes at our airport as they fly to over 150 places from my local airport. (Our plane was changed last minute.)

Being that our airport is small, during snow storms they struggle to get planes off the ground because they don't have the heavy duty equipment to keep the runway clear. So that is another thing to keep in mind if your airport is a smaller one.

With all that... if the price is right, I would go for it. But if you can get a flight for a few dollars more on a different airline that doesn't charge for picking seats, carry-ons, and maybe even checked baggage then I would pick them over Frontier.

 

[Ariel484]

Yikes! Thanks @PrincessNelly_NJ...I guess I'll wait awhile and see what else is released before I book. Thanks again!

 

[rwilliam4700]

Helloooooo

Frontier Airlines recently started flying out of our airport...curious to know if anyone has used them and what your experiences have been. There is a flight I'm looking at for January that is scheduled to arrive in Orlando at 8:50AM (perfect time in my opinion) and it costs $92. I'm unfamiliar with this airline and did a quick Google search. Looks like it doesn't get great reviews.

What say you, WDWMagic friends?

Frontier is a great airline! We basically only fly Frontier and its cheap and convenient. They also have a tv for each seat, but you have to pay for it. it only costs like 1$ though. Id recommend flying with them.

 

[plaz10]

A coworker of mine just flew Frontier to Orlando a few weeks ago - her flight was delayed over 5 hours but she did get a voucher towards her next flight!

 

[Victoria]

I'll be flying Frontier for the first time on Saturday. I paid an absoutely obscene amount of money ($485) for this flight because I needed specific flight times. JetBlue is always my preferred airline for NJ to MCO. Their price was even more obscene. Even when I gave up on specific flight times I didn't save much more than about $80 round trip.

I am not a fan of all the various fees but I really had no choice. The seat selection fee, baggage fee, carry on fee, etc is the precise reason why I stopped flying Spirit years ago. I'd much rather pay one slightly higher price and be done with it. I sincerely hope I don't have any issues with this trip. I am already annoyed with how much I had to pay so my tolerance for nonsense is already lowered. Crossing my fingers...

 

[rwilliam4700]

You're going on vacation. Just relax and take a deep breath. If you're nice to them then they will be nice to you. And honestly I prefer Frontier over United, delta, and southwest

 

[Hakunamatata]

I have flown Frontier a couple of times. $5 granola and bag fees didn't impress me much. Can't beat Southwest in my opinion.

 

[Ariel484]

OP here. I should have updated last week (but didn't because I didn't think anyone was reading this thread)...I ended up booking United flights. The time it's arriving in Orlando isn't quite as perfect as the Frontier option, but after factoring in all of the extra fees the price was almost exactly the same.

What scared me away from booking a Frontier flight is what happened to @plaz10 co-worker - the only other Frontier flights (2 of them) leaving my airport that day layover in DENVER - so Cleveland to Denver to Orlando. 9 hours+ of travel time. This is a January flight I'm looking at...January weather in Cleveland is dicey, so if my flight gets delayed or canceled would I be going to Denver? Or get delayed until the next day? That was really my biggest hold-up. Plus, I'll be heading down for Marathon Weekend and I NEED to arrive in Orlando that day to go to the expo in time for the first race the next morning. Couldn't take any chances. Maybe I will try them in the future, but not for this trip.

@Victoria - good luck with your flight and have a fabulous trip!

 

[Victoria]

OP here. I should have updated last week (but didn't because I didn't think anyone was reading this thread)...I ended up booking United flights. The time it's arriving in Orlando isn't quite as perfect as the Frontier option, but after factoring in all of the extra fees the price was almost exactly the same.

What scared me away from booking a Frontier flight is what happened to @plaz10 co-worker - the only other Frontier flights (2 of them) leaving my airport that day layover in DENVER - so Cleveland to Denver to Orlando. 9 hours+ of travel time. This is a January flight I'm looking at...January weather in Cleveland is dicey, so if my flight gets delayed or canceled would I be going to Denver? Or get delayed until the next day? That was really my biggest hold-up. Plus, I'll be heading down for Marathon Weekend and I NEED to arrive in Orlando that day to go to the expo in time for the first race the next morning. Couldn't take any chances. Maybe I will try them in the future, but not for this trip.

@Victoria - good luck with your flight and have a fabulous trip!

I have a similar concern with my return trip to NJ. There is only one flight from MCO to NJ the entire day. I shudder to think what would happen if that flight home got delayed or worse cancelled. At least it's on the way home.

 

[journ116]

I've flown with Frontier for 2 RT flights thus far, and both were good onboard experiences. However, I do not store anything in the overhead bins (even before they started charging), and like my items within arms reach (except for my checked bag stuff, obviously). I also buy or bring my own snacks and purchase bottled beverages prior to boarding.

My only gripe with Frontier is the lack of varied flight times: typically only 1 non-stop flight available and only on specific days of the week. IF for any reason my flight would be delayed or canceled, I couldn't just hop on another flight with them that day because there are no other flights…whereas bigger airlines with multiple flight times would be better apt to handle those issues and rebook quickly. For example, we happened to be flying the day after Hurricane Sandy hit the Northeast, but BWI was inundated with re-bookings from cancelled flights, which meant that our flight with AirTran got bumped…so, I called AirTran directly and was able to cancel and re-book with the same airline out of another airport for the same day we were to start our travels! You would not be able to do that with Frontier due to the nature of their operations. Lastly, Frontier is notorious for re-scheduling flight times! Each time I flew with them, our flights were rescheduled…one was even pushed back a day. However, Frontier gave proper notice via e-mail asking me if this was OK or did I want a refund?

I will be flying with them again in November for sake of convenience and price…fingers crossed!

 

[Ariel484]

I have a similar concern with my return trip to NJ. There is only one flight from MCO to NJ the entire day. I shudder to think what would happen if that flight home got delayed or worse cancelled. At least it's on the way home.

I hope it works out for you!!

My only gripe with Frontier is the lack of varied flight times: typically only 1 non-stop flight available and only on specific days of the week. IF for any reason my flight would be delayed or canceled, I couldn't just hop on another flight with them that day because there are no other flights…whereas bigger airlines with multiple flight times would be better apt to handle those issues and rebook quickly.

That's what scared me away from booking with them in January. Plus, I'd like to wait and hear more reviews from people flying them out of my airport. They're still very new here.

 

[LarryBass]

If you go to Flightaware.com, you can check the history of the flight you are concerned about. It not only tells you whether it was late or not, it tells you the exact minute that it landed. I work with airlines for a living, and with the latest drop in reliability, I would recommend DRIVING, unless it is over 12 hours away! LOL

 

[216bruce]

As a fellow Cleveland/Hopkins flyer, I've compared and found that the price after a few upcharges/fees/add-ons is pretty similar to United from Hopkins to MCO. I've read enough about Frontier out of Cleveland Hopkins that was negative about delays and cancellations that I stuck with United.

 

[pug]

Helloooooo

Frontier Airlines recently started flying out of our airport...curious to know if anyone has used them and what your experiences have been. There is a flight I'm looking at for January that is scheduled to arrive in Orlando at 8:50AM (perfect time in my opinion) and it costs $92. I'm unfamiliar with this airline and did a quick Google search. Looks like it doesn't get great reviews.

What say you, WDWMagic friends?

Try southwest! I love them!

 

[LarryBass]

Out of curiosity I just checked the following dates for each.... Depart CLE 1/27 returning 2/11:
Southwest was $240.20 when I picked the lowest fare for those days.
Frontier was $127.99 for the same

Southwest includes 2 free bags but has a layover in BWI
Frontier charges $20 per bag each way (so if you needed the 2 bags each way that WN allows, add $80)

Frontier is still cheaper and gets you there in 2 hrs 10 minutes versus 5 hrs 30 minutes...

I am not recommending either one, but if cost is the main factor... Frontier with 1 bag is the way to go