Frontier Airlines Rant - What a mess!

To be fair alot of Airlines have this issue. The problem is that once you're International all "employees" except the flight crew are contractors. Even in the US all mechanics are contractors except for Denver and Phoenix. Id call Frontiers customer service number. I worked there for seven months until covid hit.
Frontier, along with the other LCCs, like Spirit, have this happen a lot more often.

Your generalization about international employees applies to Frontier.

Not the majors.

Frontier merging with Spirit will, no doubt, make this worse in the short term.
 
Your generalization about international employees applies to Frontier.

Not the majors.
From what I recall reading, didn’t United have a base in Tokyo or Beijing for their transpacific flights and NWA also did the same pre-Delta?
 
It's odd that the op had such an issue. I usually stay away from Southwest airlines as it seem like any time I do use them there's a huge issue. I fly down to Phoenix to visit my parents. The last four times i used Southwest airlines there were problems. One time when I asked the gate attendant if the flight was on time, I was told word-for-word "we don't know where the plane is" . Really? A Boeing 737-9 is an extremely expensive item to lose track of. Now I just fly American Airlines.
 
From what I recall reading, didn’t United have a base in Tokyo or Beijing for their transpacific flights and NWA also did the same pre-Delta?
United employees in places like London, Paris, Tokyo, or Hong Kong are just that: United employees. Customer Service, Ramp, Mechanics, etc. United has flight attendant bases overseas as well. London, for example.

In some smaller stations/places, like Keflavik, we use contract services for things like ramp and maintenance.
 
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As of late I've booked Allegiant the most due to being able to get to various markets where my relatives are with direct flights...worth its weight in gold with a 2 year old. Haven't had any issues and now that they ditched the mad dogs that were held together with glue and prayers the fleet is much more reliable.
 
now that they ditched the mad dogs that were held together with glue and prayers the fleet is much more reliable.
The biggest thing that helped enable the LCC/ULCC - the 737/A320. Especially the latter. They strike the right balance between economics, passenger capacity and ease of operation/maintenance.
 
Had fantastic experiences between Thailand and Laos.. Lao Air, Nok Air. Guess we were lucky. But I know from other experiences Frontier is terrible. Had to ship my wife's aunt back to California I was really tempted to knock that ticket agent out... and I never go that low. It was bad.


In general, when flying anywhere and particularly international, the legacy carriers will help you when things happen. If you fly often enough they will happen.

Several years ago we got interrupted by a weather event at our destination. Our layover in Tokyo became overnight. Fortunately the airline we were flying with ( Air Nippon) had everything ready as we got off the plane. Hotel, transportation to and back to the airport, and food.

You will not get that with a low cost carrier.
 
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I make sure I have 163 gallons of 100LL and check the tires and oil and throw my bag in back of the cessna. I make sure both engines and happy and that I have 2 live airspeed indicators. And I go where I want and buy fuel and ride in a very comfy leather chair.

I have not flown commercial in 20 years. I have pilot friends that can get me anywhere.
 
I am not sure it is really specific to Frontier. I had a similar experiences with American and United however the vast majority of time it all works out fine 98.5% of time. I do not condemn those airlines. I have yet to have a bad experience with Frontier or Allegiant and inexpensive local directs from NH and ME.

Sorry man.
 
What concerns me going forward will be the pilots. All the incompetence you mentioned with the other personnel will eventually migrate to the flight deck.
Because?

What is certain: airlines are competing for pilots.

So, big carriers, who offer the best pay and benefits, are starting recruiting at universities, starting their own flights schools. They will compete very well.

Those pilots who aren’t as competitive, will end up at the discount carriers. Carriers that offer lower pay, lower benefits, less career progression. Carriers that aren’t recruiting hard.

The safety standards are strong in aviation, but there will be noticeable differences in pilots in the future between carriers that offer good jobs.

And those that don’t.
 
I make sure I have 163 gallons of 100LL and check the tires and oil and throw my bag in back of the cessna. I make sure both engines and happy and that I have 2 live airspeed indicators. And I go where I want and buy fuel and ride in a very comfy leather chair.

I have not flown commercial in 20 years. I have pilot friends that can get me anywhere.
That's the most pretentious flex I think I've ever seen on this site, and I've seen some impressive ones over the years.

I don't even know where to begin asking questions.

I'll start with the easiest ones, then:

Do you own your own plane, are you borrowing a friend's plane, or are you renting a plane for your trip?
Do you have your own pilot's license, or are you having other people piloting you around?
How often do you fly, and is it all domestic travel, or are you flying internationally, too?

We can go from there if you're willing to answer.
 
We wanted a direct flight from Boston to Cancun and the only airline that offers this is Frontier. I usually try and fly JetBlue domestically and stick to major carriers for international but we were only going for a week and so didn't want to waste two entire days flying.

The trip down was ok, gorgeous sunny day, plane sitting at gate and we had already watched the luggage be loaded. Take off time comes and goes with no explanation and board still says, "On-time". About 45 mins after our scheduled takeoff time two agents come slowly sauntering down to the gate, they make some announcements and being boarding. We take off about 90 mins late. The flight attendants look like they all had felony convictions. The very first thing said was, "Look people, you all checked off a box on the website stating you agreed to wear a mask so I'm not going to ask you more than once." To this point it appeared to me that everyone was behaving and wearing a mask.

Trip back was a cluster. Cancun airport was packed and we were told we needed to get there 4-hours early - sure, no problem. We get in line and it took about 2 ½ hours to check-in including two checked bags. As we were in line I was getting texts that our plane was delayed 30mins, then 45mins, then 90mins and so from the time we checked our bags until the time we boarded was several hours. As we're in line there's a man from Frontier telling us we needed our passports, VISAs and boarding passes out but 7 feet behind him the agent is only asking for passports and VISA, and he's visibly annoyed everyone is trying to show him their passports. We get on the plane and then they announce someone got on the plane without handing in their VISA and that we can't leave until someone produces that paper. Roughly 15 mins goes by before the captain comes on and says they're already to go but, "We are waiting for headquarters to fax over a piece of paper". Thirty mins later he comes back on and we're still waiting. Another 30 mins later we are still waiting. A full 75 mins after boarding plane we are ready!

We get into Boston at 10:45PM on Sunday, out comes bag #1 but no bag #2. We are the last people there and then the belt stops. There is no one in the airport at this point except for TSA. I file a missing bag online and it says you will be contacted in 4-6 hours. Next day, on Monday we had to drive to CT to get the dog. A full 16 hours after filing we call Frontier at 4PM on Monday where a women with an accent so think she is virtually not understandable tells us our bag is in Orlando and it's not scheduled to come in until 10:30PM on Tuesday and then someone will call us. She takes our original lost bag confirmation # and confirms the telephone number and email address.

Wednesday morning, I get an email confirming the lost luggage claim from Monday night but no call. Thursday we call Frontier, the bag is in Boston but we have to wait for someone from Logan to call us. Friday, no call. There is no way to call Frontier at Boston directly. This morning, Saturday, I call Frontier and express my frustration, I'm again told the bag has been in Boston since Wednesday and I have to wait for a call. I insist this is NOT going to work and the woman puts me on hold and tells me there will only be a crew at the desk until 10:45AM and if I can make it there I can get my bag. It's now 8:30am and Logan is 60 mins away so no problem.

I get to Logan and she looks on the computer and says it here but they didn't call because they didn't have our contact info? They sent me an email confirming my contact info AND it's on the tag including a phone number. She goes in back and comes back to say it's not there. It's a big BRIGHT RED suitcase. She speaks to another person who then goes into the back to confirm it's not there and they don't know where it is. Then a third person comes out and the first two people ask her if she's seen the bag and she says, "Yes, it's right in the back". She goes back for about 8 seconds and returns with the bag.

Frontier is a broken airline, it's personnel and systems in place are inadequate, and I would avoid them at all costs, and yes you get what you pay for in life.

P.S. These tickets were not $79 specials and for a family of 5 we paid several thousand dollars for the direct flight.
Lesson learned. Do not go to anywhere in Mexico.
 
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