Frontier and Spirit

[LAS2AMS]

The biggest potential issue is weather related winter cancellations. You might have to cancel a trip.

We are fear mongering here. Only a small percentage of flights (1.5 to 2%) historically have been cancelled by Frontier and Spirit, and the lion’s share of passengers are reaccomodated within 24 hours - often on “rescue” flights, which use operational spare equipment and standby crews to add an extra flight.

Of course, meltdowns happen. Delta and Southwest have recently had one that destroyed vacation plans for thousands of families.

Ultimately, statistically more people have to cancel trips because of accidents on the way to the airport than flights being cancelled.

 

[jimmymc]

This is exactly why I'd never entertain these airlines. As I'm always telling people, my cousins in FL missed a family funeral up here in NY because of Spirit. A barebones flight is one thing, but barebones customer service is something else.

I really feel for folks without a lot of options. But if I lived in place with fewer options for flights, I'd do a connecting one on another airline before rolling the dice with an ULCC after that situation. And I've heard enough similar horror stories to think it's not a one off.

I tend to avoid them for big, expensive vacations. I will use them for visiting friends and family, especially if I have a place to stay if the return flight is delayed 2 days or similar.

 

[EACarlson]

I wouldn’t let the possibly of flight cancellations stop you from booking Spirit or Frontier. Flight cancellations are still somewhat rare, but they happen on all airlines. And if your flight is cancelled, the policy is to book you on the next available flight.

What do you think happens when a flight with 150-200 people going to Orlando on Delta, American l, United or Southwest cancels? Our American flight from Charlotte to Orlando cancelled last summer. People with status got booked on flights later that day. Everyone else, including us, spent 24-48 hours in Charlotte. And of course, since they blanked the cancellation on rain, it was at our own expense.

The only way we got to Orlando the next day was to split our party up and take multiple flights. Very costly experience - had to pay for airport meals and lodging in Charlotte, lost a day at our DVC rental, and had to pay an extra $400 on our car rental ad Fox only guarantees the price if picked up the same day (unlike other rental agencies who will honor it if flight irregularities happened).

When is the next available flight? If it's a route that only flies twice a week, the next available flight with space may be 10 days from now.

When a major airline cancels, the passengers are generally scattered on different routes to get them to their final destinations as expeditiously as possible. Speaking specifically to your situation, there are 11 flights from CLT to MCO daily. What would have happened and how long would it have taken for you to get there if there were 1? I missed four connections last year, one in Orlando, one on my way to Orlando and two other places, with three major airlines, and I made it to my final destination within 16 hours of my original itinerary each time. What are the odds that would have happened with one of the ULCCs?

What was your expectation? That the airline would immediately have space for your entire party? When a flight gets cancelled you have to be flexible in what travel arrangements can be made. Take that same situation and put a ULCC in place of AA, would the situation have been better? I highly doubt it. Yes you lost a day on your DVC, had you been on a ULCC, you would have lost at least that, if not the entire rental. You chose to use a bottom tier rental company and then are surprised that the customer service isn't as good as the majors?

 

[LAS2AMS]

When is the next available flight? If it's a route that only flies twice a week, the next available flight with space may be 10 days from now.

When a major airline cancels, the passengers are generally scattered on different routes to get them to their final destinations as expeditiously as possible. Speaking specifically to your situation, there are 11 flights from CLT to MCO daily. What would have happened and how long would it have taken for you to get there if there were 1? I missed four connections last year, one in Orlando, one on my way to Orlando and two other places, with three major airlines, and I made it to my final destination within 16 hours of my original itinerary each time. What are the odds that would have happened with one of the ULCCs?

What was your expectation? That the airline would immediately have space for your entire party? When a flight gets cancelled you have to be flexible in what travel arrangements can be made. Take that same situation and put a ULCC in place of AA, would the situation have been better? I highly doubt it. Yes you lost a day on your DVC, had you been on a ULCC, you would have lost at least that, if not the entire rental. You chose to use a bottom tier rental company and then are surprised that the customer service isn't as good as the majors?

I’ve racked up more miles in the air than all but a few people on this forum. I was providing illustrations to show that delays and cancellations can and will happen on any airline. Unfortunately, rationality is lacking on these forums and the quality of conversation often rivals that of the office water cooler.

Does anybody truly believe that Spirit and Frontier ‘our flight to Orlando is cancelled today, we have a limited number of seats on the next flight leaving next week - thanks for flying with us.’

Flight cancellations are very rare. Spirit and Frontier regularly schedule rescue flights - that is, extra flights with spare planes and crew - to recover. The lion’s share of complaints against these airlines are because people didn’t understand or thought they could beat the fees.

There’s too much scaremongering on here. There’s no reason to not fly Spirit or Frontier, if you can make their service work for you. Pretending that Delta, American or Southwest provide a cushion against irregularities is just faux hope.

 

[sam_gordon]

I’ve racked up more miles in the air than all but a few people on this forum. I was providing illustrations to show that delays and cancellations can and will happen on any airline. Unfortunately, rationality is lacking on these forums and the quality of conversation often rivals that of the office water cooler.

Does anybody truly believe that Spirit and Frontier ‘our flight to Orlando is cancelled today, we have a limited number of seats on the next flight leaving next week - thanks for flying with us.’

Flight cancellations are very rare. Spirit and Frontier regularly schedule rescue flights - that is, extra flights with spare planes and crew - to recover. The lion’s share of complaints against these airlines are because people didn’t understand or thought they could beat the fees.

There’s too much scaremongering on here. There’s no reason to not fly Spirit or Frontier, if you can make their service work for you. Pretending that Delta, American or Southwest provide a cushion against irregularities is just faux hope.

I had a flight cancelled with Delta with the Crowdstrike issue last July. Fortunately it was returning from vacation. We (party of 8) were able to get a couple of rental cars and drive home. Delta was going to put us on flights the next day (split up). Getting refunds for the flights that were cancelled from Delta was easy. We went through trip insurance to reimburse the rental car & gas.

Have had multiple delays on Delta and American, some causing missed connections. No issues getting on the next flight. That was even with a group of five. I'm not sure how you can say the "big boys", who have more flights, doesn't "provide more of a cushion against irregularities". Granted, having status, or travelling in small groups, is going to help you get where you're going. But having flights every couple of days is just not something I'm willing to take a chance on.

Spirit has historically said "we don't do customer service". Personally, I don't want to do business with a company that says that.

 

[LAS2AMS]

I had a flight cancelled with Delta with the Crowdstrike issue last July. Fortunately it was returning from vacation. We (party of 8) were able to get a couple of rental cars and drive home. Delta was going to put us on flights the next day (split up). Getting refunds for the flights that were cancelled from Delta was easy. We went through trip insurance to reimburse the rental car & gas.

Have had multiple delays on Delta and American, some causing missed connections. No issues getting on the next flight. That was even with a group of five. I'm not sure how you can say the "big boys", who have more flights, doesn't "provide more of a cushion against irregularities". Granted, having status, or travelling in small groups, is going to help you get where you're going. But having flights every couple of days is just not something I'm willing to take a chance on.

Spirit has historically said "we don't do customer service". Personally, I don't want to do business with a company that says that.

Does anybody have a credible source discussing flight cancellations on Spirit or Frontier in which passengers were told they’d have to wait several days before they’d be accommodated? I certainly can’t find any.

Again, most flight cancellations are accommodated onto reduce flights. Most of the year, Delta isn’t going to be able to accommodate 200 passengers when a flight from Atlanta to Orlando cancels, despite 14+ daily flights.

I’m glad the CrowdSource cancellation would’ve worked out for you, but there’s literally thousands of people who had to cancel their summer vacations because of it. There are thousands of people suing Delta at the moment, claiming they haven’t been made whole.

Spirit actually has pretty good customer service. If your party doesn’t purchase seats, and the system doesn’t select seats next to each other, and the airport stents request payment to do so… customer service not making you whole doesn’t equate into poor customer service. As long as you understand what the fees are… you’ll be fine.

 

[sam_gordon]

Does anybody have a credible source discussing flight cancellations on Spirit or Frontier in which passengers were told they’d have to wait several days before they’d be accommodated? I certainly can’t find any.

And your credible source saying the passengers are accommodated same day or the next day?

Again, most flight cancellations are accommodated onto reduce flights. Most of the year, Delta isn’t going to be able to accommodate 200 passengers when a flight from Atlanta to Orlando cancels, despite 14+ daily flights.

Guessing they get people where they're going within 24-48 hours (barring something widespread like the CrowdStrike).

I’m glad the CrowdSource cancellation would’ve worked out for you, but there’s literally thousands of people who had to cancel their summer vacations because of it. There are thousands of people suing Delta at the moment, claiming they haven’t been made whole.

I'm sure there are. I was agreeing it could happen to any airline. We've seen Delta and Southwest be hit with technology errors causing massive disruption.

Spirit actually has pretty good customer service. If your party doesn’t purchase seats, and the system doesn’t select seats next to each other, and the airport stents request payment to do so… customer service not making you whole doesn’t equate into poor customer service. As long as you understand what the fees are… you’ll be fine.

I thought it was Spirit's CEO who said they don't "do customer service". Maybe I'm getting my airlines confused. And I agree, not purchasing seats next to each other and then complaining is not poor customer service.

It should also be noted that WalletHub recently released rankings of the top 11 airlines in the US.

1. Spirit Airlines
2. Skywest Airlines
3. Delta Air Lines
4. JetBlue Airways
5. Southwest Airlines
6. Alaska Airlines
7. Hawaiian Airlines
8. United Airlines
9. Frontier Airlines
10. American Airlines
11. Envoy Air

https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.co...nes-dominates-ranks-what-we-know/83479681007/

 

[LAS2AMS]

And your credible source saying the passengers are accommodated same day or the next day?

Not sure what you’re playing “whataboutism” but let’s be rational: if Spirit/ Frontier’s regular flight disruptions lead large numbers of people to cancel their vacations, it’d be fairly simple to find a report.. you know why you can’t? Because their spokesperson saying the lion’s share of passengers make it to their final destination within 24 hours… is most likely accurate.

I thought it was Spirit's CEO who said they don't "do customer service". Maybe I'm getting my airlines confused.

The comment was always taken out of context. Spirit has really good customer service, when it’s warranted. Last fall, the gate agents closed the door 26 minutes before departure… I complained to Spirit not expecting much but they looked at my documentation, investigated and reimbursed me for the flight (another airline) I had to pay for. Try getting that level of service on American these days.

 

[EACarlson]

Does anybody truly believe that Spirit and Frontier ‘our flight to Orlando is cancelled today, we have a limited number of seats on the next flight leaving next week - thanks for flying with us.’

Flight cancellations are very rare. Spirit and Frontier regularly schedule rescue flights - that is, extra flights with spare planes and crew - to recover. The lion’s share of complaints against these airlines are because people didn’t understand or thought they could beat the fees.

There’s too much scaremongering on here. There’s no reason to not fly Spirit or Frontier, if you can make their service work for you. Pretending that Delta, American or Southwest provide a cushion against irregularities is just faux hope.

On a flight to Orlando, the next flight isn't going to be next week, but it might be a week before you get on a flight. There are plenty of first hand reports of people being stranded by ULCCs for multiple days. It happened to a colleague of mine a month ago flying LAS-CVG, his flight ended up cancelled for a mechanical and was told they could confirm him on a flight in three days. The new CEO of Spirit famously left 150 passengers stranded in Mexico when he was with Sun Country and their last seasonal flight of the year was cancelled. The passengers had to make their own arrangements to get back to MSP.

Spirit and Frontier operate rescue flights when they are forced to land at places they don't have regular service, like the Spirit plane last week that was forced to land in Bermuda due to a massive fuel leak. They don't have the crews or planes to operate rescue flights when they cancel a flight.

Completely agree that most of the complaints about the ULCCs are people that don't understand what they signed up for. That doesn't change that there is a very real question of what happens when things start going sideways. Just like your car rental with Fox, when things work as expected, they're fine, but when things go sideways, there is little chance for recovery. My personal choice is that I wouldn't use them for anything that I would be horribly disappointed to miss, and I won't use them for business travel. One of the organizations I contract with tried it and it bit them. They saved $100 on the flight initially, then had to pay $400 to get my colleague home the next day.

If I'm flying Delta DTW-MCO and my flight gets cancelled, there are four other DTW-MCO direct flights and about 15 other options connecting through ATL, MSP, LGA, I think I can even get there through CVG, DCA and probably SLC and still make it the same day or at least within 24 hours. If my Spirit flight gets cancelled, it could be two days until there is another one and there may not be space. If for some reason I can't get on any Delta options, I can push Delta to sign it over to AA or UA, which can route me through ORD, CLT, DFW, EWR, DCA.

 

[LAS2AMS]

On a flight to Orlando, the next flight isn't going to be next week, but it might be a week before you get on a flight. There are plenty of first hand reports of people being stranded by ULCCs for multiple days. It happened to a colleague of mine a month ago flying LAS-CVG, his flight ended up cancelled for a mechanical and was told they could confirm him on a flight in three days. The new CEO of Spirit famously left 150 passengers stranded in Mexico when he was with Sun Country and their last seasonal flight of the year was cancelled. The passengers had to make their own arrangements to get back to MSP.

Spirit and Frontier operate rescue flights when they are forced to land at places they don't have regular service, like the Spirit plane last week that was forced to land in Bermuda due to a massive fuel leak. They don't have the crews or planes to operate rescue flights when they cancel a flight.

Completely agree that most of the complaints about the ULCCs are people that don't understand what they signed up for. That doesn't change that there is a very real question of what happens when things start going sideways. Just like your car rental with Fox, when things work as expected, they're fine, but when things go sideways, there is little chance for recovery. My personal choice is that I wouldn't use them for anything that I would be horribly disappointed to miss, and I won't use them for business travel. One of the organizations I contract with tried it and it bit them. They saved $100 on the flight initially, then had to pay $400 to get my colleague home the next day.

If I'm flying Delta DTW-MCO and my flight gets cancelled, there are four other DTW-MCO direct flights and about 15 other options connecting through ATL, MSP, LGA, I think I can even get there through CVG, DCA and probably SLC and still make it the same day or at least within 24 hours. If my Spirit flight gets cancelled, it could be two days until there is another one and there may not be space. If for some reason I can't get on any Delta options, I can push Delta to sign it over to AA or UA, which can route me through ORD, CLT, DFW, EWR, DCA.

Flight cancellations are rare. Frontier and Spirit have long maintained that the lion’s share of passengers (on cancelled flights) arrive to their destination within 24 hours. I asked for credible reports that contradict this. Social media reports aren’t credible as people tend to turn a 3 hour delay into 3 days. Your coworker flying LAS-CVG is an example… there’s four published connections on Frontier, and many other options that could’ve been utilized. I highly doubt your coworker took three days to get home. BTW- I worked in consumer care for United in the early 2000s and am fully aware of how badly people exaggerate and BS claims.

I have flown Spirit and Frontier dozens of times (probably over 100 flights in each direction) with little incident. I’ve had some painful delays after cancellations as we waited a rescue flight… but I’ve had the same experience on Delta, American and United.

These airlines have bad reputations largely for their fees. Employees get kickbacks from each fee they charge, so many - for example - will look for anyway they can to collect their share of the $100 charged when your personal item doesn’t fit the sized. And understandably, people get upset by this.

But reality is that if you’re aware of the fee structure, it won’t be a problem.

 

[EACarlson]

Your coworker flying LAS-CVG is an example… there’s four published connections on Frontier, and many other options that could’ve been utilized. I highly doubt your coworker took three days to get home.

No, he didn't take three days to get home, Corporate travel put him on a Delta flight the following morning. If the ULCC could have gotten him home within 24 hours of scheduled time, they wouldn't have paid what they did to put him on that Delta flight.

 

[jimmymc]

Does anybody have a credible source discussing flight cancellations on Spirit or Frontier in which passengers were told they’d have to wait several days before they’d be accommodated? I certainly can’t find any.

Again, most flight cancellations are accommodated onto reduce flights. Most of the year, Delta isn’t going to be able to accommodate 200 passengers when a flight from Atlanta to Orlando cancels, despite 14+ daily flights.

I’m glad the CrowdSource cancellation would’ve worked out for you, but there’s literally thousands of people who had to cancel their summer vacations because of it. There are thousands of people suing Delta at the moment, claiming they haven’t been made whole.

Spirit actually has pretty good customer service. If your party doesn’t purchase seats, and the system doesn’t select seats next to each other, and the airport stents request payment to do so… customer service not making you whole doesn’t equate into poor customer service. As long as you understand what the fees are… you’ll be fine.

When my flight from Raleigh to Detroit on Spirit was cancelled, my choices were to wait two days or get a refund. I was able to book a flight on United that evening for a reasonable price (still more than the round trip spirit flight), so I took the money and did that. But if not for that one flight being available, my options were wait 2 days or be out another $600 for a last-minute Delta flight.

While Delta might not be able to accommodate everyone on a direct flight that day, they also have 9 US hubs and dozens of connecting options between major cities each day. Legacy airlines have more established options that the point-to-point model budget airlines use. I did once have to wait a night for a missed connection on Delta, but that's only because Westjet mechanics were on strike and most of the connections to Calgary were cancelled.

 

[LAS2AMS]

When my flight from Raleigh to Detroit on Spirit was cancelled, my choices were to wait two days or get a refund. I was able to book a flight on United that evening for a reasonable price (still more than the round trip spirit flight), so I took the money and did that. But if not for that one flight being available, my options were wait 2 days or be out another $600 for a last-minute Delta flight.

While Delta might not be able to accommodate everyone on a direct flight that day, they also have 9 US hubs and dozens of connecting options between major cities each day. Legacy airlines have more established options that the point-to-point model budget airlines use. I did once have to wait a night for a missed connection on Delta, but that's only because Westjet mechanics were on strike and most of the connections to Calgary were cancelled.

Last summer, my Delta flight from Europe to USA cancelled. Delta has tons of Europe to USA flights, but they couldn’t absorb the nearly 300 passengers from the cancelled flight and it took three days before we arrived stateside at JFK. The JFK gate agents refused to let us board the flight that would bring us home — although we had been reserved space on the flight, the ticket had not been reissued (this is usually automatic) and they were unable to complete the task in time for us to get on the plane. So four days to get home, and the latter was completely avoidable - they could’ve let us board and reissued later. Instead they inconvenienced us and Delta paid up the wazoo for a hotel in NYC.

Point is, when Delta cancels a flight to Orlando, it’s a false sense of security they’ll get you there quickly, since typically flights to Orlando run nearly full and there isn’t space to accommodate a cancellation, just as I found on AA last year.

 

[jimmymc]

Last summer, my Delta flight from Europe to USA cancelled. Delta has tons of Europe to USA flights, but they couldn’t absorb the nearly 300 passengers from the cancelled flight and it took three days before we arrived stateside at JFK. The JFK gate agents refused to let us board the flight that would bring us home — although we had been reserved space on the flight, the ticket had not been reissued (this is usually automatic) and they were unable to complete the task in time for us to get on the plane. So four days to get home, and the latter was completely avoidable - they could’ve let us board and reissued later. Instead they inconvenienced us and Delta paid up the wazoo for a hotel in NYC.

Point is, when Delta cancels a flight to Orlando, it’s a false sense of security they’ll get you there quickly, since typically flights to Orlando run nearly full and there isn’t space to accommodate a cancellation, just as I found on AA last year.

You're comparing apples to oranges. Yes, a huge transatlantic plane getting completely cancelled would have knock on effects. But Delta does not have "tons" of transatlantic flights a day, especially to your specific city. Planes can run that route once a day and only from major hubs. There are far more options for domestic flights. It doesn't eliminate the possibility of an overnight delay, but a Spirit or Frontier only running a route 4 days a week basically guarantees it if your flight is cancelled.

 

[LAS2AMS]

You're comparing apples to oranges. Yes, a huge transatlantic plane getting completely cancelled would have knock on effects. But Delta does not have "tons" of transatlantic flights a day, especially to your specific city. Planes can run that route once a day and only from major hubs. There are far more options for domestic flights. It doesn't eliminate the possibility of an overnight delay, but a Spirit or Frontier only running a route 4 days a week basically guarantees it if your flight is cancelled.

I’m not. There’s literally hundreds of flights they could’ve utilized - not just on their own metal, but other airlines as well. We need up making three connections to get home to Los Angeles.

I had a similar experience on AA. They cancelled the CLT-MCO flight, shortly before the 4th of July weekend, and had we not split our party up, we would’ve waited at least two days to get to Orlando. Again… most airlines don’t have available capacity to places like Orlando.

It’s just a false sense of security.

 

[EACarlson]

Last summer, my Delta flight from Europe to USA cancelled. Delta has tons of Europe to USA flights, but they couldn’t absorb the nearly 300 passengers from the cancelled flight and it took three days before we arrived stateside at JFK. The JFK gate agents refused to let us board the flight that would bring us home — although we had been reserved space on the flight, the ticket had not been reissued (this is usually automatic) and they were unable to complete the task in time for us to get on the plane. So four days to get home, and the latter was completely avoidable - they could’ve let us board and reissued later. Instead they inconvenienced us and Delta paid up the wazoo for a hotel in NYC.

Point is, when Delta cancels a flight to Orlando, it’s a false sense of security they’ll get you there quickly, since typically flights to Orlando run nearly full and there isn’t space to accommodate a cancellation, just as I found on AA last year.

And you believe it would be better on Frontier or Spirit than it would be with Delta? That's pure delusion. And if you were unable to get from Europe to the US for three days, for an EU originating flight, on Delta metal with a 006 ticket, you should have asked for it to be signed over to Air France or KLM. Unless you were in a very small outstation, you should have been able to get somewhere in the US within 24 hours.

Point is, I have a much better chance of getting where I need to be in a reasonable time frame with Delta, or any of the legacies, than I do with a ULCC. I have faith that any of the legacy systems will get the approximately 175 people on a standard narrowbody, where they are trying to get to in a reasonable time frame.

 

[jimmymc]

I’m not. There’s literally hundreds of flights they could’ve utilized - not just on their own metal, but other airlines as well. We need up making three connections to get home to Los Angeles.

I had a similar experience on AA. They cancelled the CLT-MCO flight, shortly before the 4th of July weekend, and had we not split our party up, we would’ve waited at least two days to get to Orlando. Again… most airlines don’t have available capacity to places like Orlando.

It’s just a false sense of security.

So you had a flight cancelled to a major vacation destination on a holiday weekend and still got there? There's no way that happens on Spirit. Maybe a week later. Nothing I'm saying is guaranteed, but when an airline offers 5 direct and 10 indirect flights a day, vs 2-3 on a budget airline, the odds improve.

 

[Lewisc]

Flying Frontier is a game. Buy your tickets at the airport. Buy a bag that exactly fits. Fill your water bottle before you board. Bring snacks. Make sure you have a BP. Don't waste money on assigned seats. Book an early non stop flight. Check and make sure your plane landed the night before.

Understand the airline often sells fare below cost. They price gouge as an offset.
Price gouging means a service is priced way above cost and way above what a normal person thinks is reasonable and expects to pay.

The attitude is screw anyone who doesn't read everything. Disclosure is better then it was a few years ago.

Examples. Lowest fee is to pay to check your bags when you book. Reality after you book dynamic pricing is used to set fees. 2 weeks before my flight $78 for a 40 # bag NY to MCO . I shipped the bag.

A regular pax has a bag that says it meets airline standards. It's too big. A regular person wouldn't expect.a $100 charge for a 15# bag a few inches over.

Read the rules. Play the game and you can win.

FWIW Frontier is transitioning to loading from ground level. Most pax will board by climbing steps.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

FWIW Frontier is transitioning to loading from ground level. Most pax will board by climbing steps.

Not completely true, but I see your point.
AFAIK the external boarding is only in Denver, and even then there is an option for ramp vs stairs.

 

[greeneyedchick]

Did you check Allegiant? They are my preferred discount airline. They fly into both Orlando and Sanford.