Problems with Frontier

If you've kept up with my sporadic blog, you know I spend a good year commuting to and from NYC, where my husband was working.  I tried several different types of transportation, as all that travel gets expensive.

I ended up using Frontier, for most of my travel as if I traveled in advance it was dirt cheap... but dirt cheap is well... dirty and cheap. Like that time I took the China bus and spend several hours locked in a frantic gaze with a cockroach.

So anyway, here are the problems I have had, the last one, I am currently still having.

1. Dirty...  The airplane itself could be cleaner.... but when flights are dirt cheap, you are dealing with a population that gives a pass on that, so between the effort to clean and the fact that everyone is getting on with enough food to last on a 3 month Trek to Alaska, then nastiness will happen. Frontier is the MegaBus of the air.

2. A-la-cart.  Sure, you can fly to NYC and back for $$60.00, but that's just for you, your luggage will have to pay extra.  Fortunately for my, I had a closet in NYC, so I carried, my computer, and a few personal items in a backpack that I was not charged for.

3. First class?  My A$$. I paid for first class a few times, usually because when I arrived at the gate, everyone was coughing and hacking (middle of the winter) and my OCD self nearly had a melt down.  First class puts you in the front of the airline, so you're not in the middle of all the germs... that it all...  There are still middle seats.  Extra leg room is barely perceptible.

4. Dark corners, and barren lands. To get to the discount airlines at any airport (Frontier, Spirit, etc) you have to trek to the farthest, darkest corner of the airport.  It is faarrr. You walk a little, you take the air train, Then you walk another mile or two... yes, you end up running.  I have bad knees.  This was not fun.

5. Membership fees/scams: Yes, I said it.  In order to get the best prices, you had to sign up for membership.  $50 a year.  Not a problem because I had a regular commute, but when I got tired of this airline, plus could never log in, because their systems are crap, I called and cancelled.  I was just organizing my papers, and looked through my credit card bills for the year (tax time) and saw that I was charged membership AFTER I cancelled.  I ended up on a conference call with them and my credit card carrier in which they said they had no record of my cancelling and that I had take too long to dispute the charge... Now I have to do paperwork with my credit card company to get my money back.

Do I think you should perhaps not use Frontier?  Shrug... that's up to you... just know what you are dealing with.