MouseLover
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 6, 1999
- Messages
- 969
We flew via Frontier last month for the first time so I thought I would post a review to inform others. For perspective, the only other low-cost carrier I've flown was Allegiant.
We flew round trip, departing Tulsa May 29 and returning June 7. The tickets were $170 each, plus seat selections & 2 checked bags. For 3 people, the total was $682, far less than the $465 each out of our home airport. Bonus: Had to stay two extra days to get that price.
Bags: You get only a personal item for free on Frontier. Checked bags were $25 each, each way. Carryon bags were $30 or $35.
Seats: The seats appeared more cheaply made and thinner than other airlines. They seemed to have a padded seat cover. Comfort-wise, they felt no better and no worse than other coach seats to me.
Snacks/Entertainment: Non-existent. You could purchase small snacks or canned drinks. I think for $10 you get 2 snacks/2 drinks. There were no televisions.
Flight: TUL-MCO was bumpy, lots of turbulence. Return flight was much better.
Arrival at MCO: We had to fly around storms. After being in a holding pattern of sorts outside Orlando, the pilot said we were going to have to divert to St. Petersburg to avoid the storms, and we would refuel there. A little while later, the pilot came back on and said we didn't have enough fuel to get to St. Pete and would be landing at Tampa instead. DH said there is no way the plane should have been that close to empty. At TPA, we sat on the tarmac a while, refueled, and waited. One passenger lady got irate and was in the face of a flight attendant and yelling, demanding free food and drinks. She was escorted off the plane by security. I overheard the flight attendant tell another that the lady had grabbed her by the neck. The flight attendants did offer free water after an hour. After a while, the lady was allowed to come back on the plane. I couldn't believe it! Finally we left TPA for Orlando, and arrived around 8pm, far after our original 4pm arrival time. We had a fairly rough landing - can't remember if it was at Tampa or Orlando, but it was still very windy with nearby storms.
RETURN
Long security lines at MCO, but we were way early so not a problem. Check-in was easy. Flight was a little bumpy in the beginning, then turned out to be pretty smooth. Pilot said flight time would be 2 hours, 12 minutes from wheels-up to wheels-down, and it was exactly that. HOWEVER, as soon as we landed, the plane began barely moving to taxi to the gate. Another Frontier plane landed just behind us and was allowed to go in front of us to deplane, as it was a late arrival. So we sat on the tarmac and waited -- almost 2 hours. So very aggravating -- and DH said he didn't care how cheap it was, he would never fly Frontier again.
At Tulsa (and probably many other locations), Frontier only leases one gate from the airport. So even though there were empty gates all around the terminal, there was only one gate designated for Frontier, and there was already a plane there (the one that landed after us).
So there you have it. If you fly Frontier, I hope your experience is better than ours!
We flew round trip, departing Tulsa May 29 and returning June 7. The tickets were $170 each, plus seat selections & 2 checked bags. For 3 people, the total was $682, far less than the $465 each out of our home airport. Bonus: Had to stay two extra days to get that price.
Bags: You get only a personal item for free on Frontier. Checked bags were $25 each, each way. Carryon bags were $30 or $35.
Seats: The seats appeared more cheaply made and thinner than other airlines. They seemed to have a padded seat cover. Comfort-wise, they felt no better and no worse than other coach seats to me.
Snacks/Entertainment: Non-existent. You could purchase small snacks or canned drinks. I think for $10 you get 2 snacks/2 drinks. There were no televisions.
Flight: TUL-MCO was bumpy, lots of turbulence. Return flight was much better.
Arrival at MCO: We had to fly around storms. After being in a holding pattern of sorts outside Orlando, the pilot said we were going to have to divert to St. Petersburg to avoid the storms, and we would refuel there. A little while later, the pilot came back on and said we didn't have enough fuel to get to St. Pete and would be landing at Tampa instead. DH said there is no way the plane should have been that close to empty. At TPA, we sat on the tarmac a while, refueled, and waited. One passenger lady got irate and was in the face of a flight attendant and yelling, demanding free food and drinks. She was escorted off the plane by security. I overheard the flight attendant tell another that the lady had grabbed her by the neck. The flight attendants did offer free water after an hour. After a while, the lady was allowed to come back on the plane. I couldn't believe it! Finally we left TPA for Orlando, and arrived around 8pm, far after our original 4pm arrival time. We had a fairly rough landing - can't remember if it was at Tampa or Orlando, but it was still very windy with nearby storms.
RETURN
Long security lines at MCO, but we were way early so not a problem. Check-in was easy. Flight was a little bumpy in the beginning, then turned out to be pretty smooth. Pilot said flight time would be 2 hours, 12 minutes from wheels-up to wheels-down, and it was exactly that. HOWEVER, as soon as we landed, the plane began barely moving to taxi to the gate. Another Frontier plane landed just behind us and was allowed to go in front of us to deplane, as it was a late arrival. So we sat on the tarmac and waited -- almost 2 hours. So very aggravating -- and DH said he didn't care how cheap it was, he would never fly Frontier again.
At Tulsa (and probably many other locations), Frontier only leases one gate from the airport. So even though there were empty gates all around the terminal, there was only one gate designated for Frontier, and there was already a plane there (the one that landed after us).
So there you have it. If you fly Frontier, I hope your experience is better than ours!
