Frontier Airlines

Tygerlilly

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 30, 2009
So, found some amazing flight prices for frontier. And as a bonus, it's the only non-stop flights I've ever seen from Tulsa to Orlando. I know there's extra fees for carry on bags and checked bags. Since it's a quick trip with my toddler, I think we can manage just one checked bag, which I believe gets us zone 1 boarding? Are there fees for gate checking a stroller (I may just rent one instead if that's the case)? Any other fees I need to be aware of?
 
You don’t get zone 1 boarding for purchasing a checked bag. Frontier has special boarding between zone 1 and I think zone 2 or it’s between zone 2 and 3. You get assigned a seat when you check in and you can checkin online 24 hrs in advance (so hop on ASAP to check in). If you want a preassigned seat that you choose then there’s a fee. Everyone gets a free personal item within the stated demensions and I suggest pack 2 days of clothes in there in case your luggage doesn’t make it. There are no fees for a gate check stroller but you may need to let them know about the gate check so they give you the gate check pass. Sometimes they’ll have the strollers or car seats lined up on the bridge when you get off and sometimes you’ll have to ask at the gate when you get off. If you bring an umbrella stroller they may take the umbrella part off the stroller.
 
Those amazing flight prices aren't so amazing when you start adding on the fees. Look at Southwest and compare once you've added the fees.
 
Those amazing flight prices aren't so amazing when you start adding on the fees. Look at Southwest and compare once you've added the fees.

The only fee I see is for our carry on or checked luggage. It's a short trip so I think we can manage with one carry on and our 2 personal items. Are there more fees I'm not seeing? Southwest was 2x as much and was a connecting flight instead of direct.
 


The only fee I see is for our carry on or checked luggage. It's a short trip so I think we can manage with one carry on and our 2 personal items. Are there more fees I'm not seeing? Southwest was 2x as much and was a connecting flight instead of direct.
The only other fee I can think of is the fee to pick your seats. (It is not like Southwest- you get assigned seats.) I didn’t want to risk not being seated next to my kids.
 
The only fee I see is for our carry on or checked luggage. It's a short trip so I think we can manage with one carry on and our 2 personal items. Are there more fees I'm not seeing? Southwest was 2x as much and was a connecting flight instead of direct.
Carry on fee, checked bags fee, choose your seat fee, drinks/snacks fee. I'm sure I'm missing some!
 
Frontier is always cheaper for us than Southwest even with fees. I don't get the cheap fares for Southwest like everyone else does and I have 4 airports to choose from :laughing: I've flown RT with DH SNA-DEN $150 with seats and a checked bag. And for whatever reason it's more expensive to carry-on than check o_O We've flown them other times and all fees added in it's at least 20% less than Southwest. I haven't flown Southwest in YEARS - their fares out of So Cal are not what I consider a low cost carrier :confused3 OP, make sure you have all costs accounted for. Drink and snack? I usually bring my own anyway.
 


We are in Denver and Frontier is based here. Our flights are ALWAYS cheaper on Frontier, even with all fees included, than SWA. However, we will only fly Frontier in certain circumstances. We've flown Frontier a lot and I'd say 50% of the time, we've had some significant delays, especially in more recent years. Once 9+ hours, once 3+ hours...I can really only think of one RT flight with them where we were only delayed 30'ish mins.

SO, Frontier is fine when we are flying to visit family in TX but for us, Frontier is NOT ok if we are flying to MCO. Disney vacations cost too much for our family to experience those sort of delays. The flight we were delayed 9+ hours, there was an Orlando flight going out next to us. They were delayed about 7 hours by the time we finally boarded. And it was almost 10pm at that point and they still had not received a time they would leave. All I kept thinking was these poor people who thought they would be there by now and would have caught the DME and have a park day tomorrow, will now arrive in the middle of the night, no DME to grab their bags and they will be too tired to do much tomorrow :(

I know you can have delays on any carrier but I've been flying SWA since I was 7yo and just never had the type of bad experiences I've had on Frontier. I'm sure someone has though!
 
Frontier is always cheaper for us than Southwest even with fees. I don't get the cheap fares for Southwest like everyone else does and I have 4 airports to choose from :laughing: I've flown RT with DH SNA-DEN $150 with seats and a checked bag. And for whatever reason it's more expensive to carry-on than check o_O We've flown them other times and all fees added in it's at least 20% less than Southwest. I haven't flown Southwest in YEARS - their fares out of So Cal are not what I consider a low cost carrier :confused3 OP, make sure you have all costs accounted for. Drink and snack? I usually bring my own anyway.

I don't feel like our SW flights are that cheap either. They did use to be but SW has really marketed the whole 'bags fly free' thing and kind of quietly raised prices along the way. A lot of other carriers are cheaper for us than SW and even with adding in bags, they are still less or about the same. What I love about SW is, well, besides the greatness of the flight attendants, the ease of booking and cancelling, etc...I love that we can get points so easily using their cc's. We almost never pay for more than 1-2 tickets and since we are a fam of 6, that's pretty good :)
 
I don't feel like our SW flights are that cheap either. They did use to be but SW has really marketed the whole 'bags fly free' thing and kind of quietly raised prices along the way. A lot of other carriers are cheaper for us than SW and even with adding in bags, they are still less or about the same. What I love about SW is, well, besides the greatness of the flight attendants, the ease of booking and cancelling, etc...I love that we can get points so easily using their cc's. We almost never pay for more than 1-2 tickets and since we are a fam of 6, that's pretty good :)

I really want to do the whole credit card/companion fare thing but I'm afraid I won't get enough use out of it. Other than Denver once a year or so I don't see us using Southwest because their flights to/from the East Coast are not ideal (no directs to MCO, no red eyes at all etc.). Now, if they get the ball rolling with Hawaii I may change my mind :rolleyes:
 
I really want to do the whole credit card/companion fare thing but I'm afraid I won't get enough use out of it. Other than Denver once a year or so I don't see us using Southwest because their flights to/from the East Coast are not ideal (no directs to MCO, no red eyes at all etc.). Now, if they get the ball rolling with Hawaii I may change my mind :rolleyes:
We’ve never had a companion pass either. We only fly once maybe twice a year and if it’s to TX to see fam, we do take frontier sometimes. I just collect the SW points to cover our FL flights. I can understand though if the flights are poor for you guys from SoCal. I read Hawaii will be bookable in October!!!!
 
And be prepared for flight delay's. Lately they have had 5 -6 hour flight delays with Frontier. I know of two different people who one had a 6 hour delay got on the plane and then they were told the flight has now been canceled. Someone else had their MCO flight canceled on a Friday and was told the next available flight would be on Monday . Read the Frontier FB page about the long list of folks complaining. Oh and another person got to the gate and was handed a printed piece of paper telling them their flight was canceled. It was addressed to him so Frontier had the time to type up a personal letter to him when they should have called to tell him his flight was canceled. So beware!
 
And be prepared for flight delay's. Lately they have had 5 -6 hour flight delays with Frontier. I know of two different people who one had a 6 hour delay got on the plane and then they were told the flight has now been canceled. Someone else had their MCO flight canceled on a Friday and was told the next available flight would be on Monday . Read the Frontier FB page about the long list of folks complaining. Oh and another person got to the gate and was handed a printed piece of paper telling them their flight was canceled. It was addressed to him so Frontier had the time to type up a personal letter to him when they should have called to tell him his flight was canceled. So beware!

The lack of communication from them was a big problem for us as well. As I posted earlier, we had a 9+ hour delay. They didn't let people know!! We got to the gate and the flight was delayed like 5 hours at that point. None of the passengers knew and there was no frontier staff at the gate to ask. We went to a general info desk for Frontier and they had no idea why/when/anything and just kind of shrugged at us like it was no big deal. The flight kept getting pushed back and pushed back and then after 9+ hours, we finally got to leave (we'd shown up at the airport 2 hours before our flight time so we'd been there over 11 hours!). The 'icing on the cake'...we get on the plane and none of the flight attendants say anything about it...they completely didn't acknowledge that they had a plane full of people who had been sitting at the airport for 10-11 hours. Just tried to sell their snacks as usual! I've been on a SW flight that was delayed 45 mins and they offered a free alcoholic beverage to people!

Another thing, OP, we have had Frontier change our flight time WITHOUT telling us! We flew Frontier to Houston last summer, and they changed our departure to two hours earlier and did not contact us. So, if you do take Frontier, just keep checking everything cause had we not checked, we'd have missed our flight! And since we were in Houston, we'd planned the flight time around traffic but moving it two hours earlier put us smack in traffic so we had to leave extra early.
 
We flew Frontier direct in 2017. It was a pretty painless process. There was no fee to gate check the stroller. Back then they did let families with small children board earlier--not sure about now. We had paid to pick our seats but chose the family area in the back of the plane that was cheaper and closer to the bathroom for the kids. We placed each kid in a window seat and the adults took the middle seat. For a family of 4 we had three personal items and three checked bags for an 8 night stay. On our way to MCO we were delayed an hour will we were already on the plane.

We would fly Frontier again. Where we live it's even cheaper than Spirit and SW is 2 or 3x's the price with no direct return flight.
 
We flew with frontier once and only once, It was a nightmare. We will never fly with them again.

The seat are just a little bit better that the old style lawn chair with the straps that you sit in, absolutely no padding and you will be rubbing shoulders, and legs touching the whole flight so get use to a new best friend, half a tray table, the flight attendants were rude on our flight, one man asked for water and the attendant look at him like he asked for a million dollars.

Flight delays ( 6 hours), over booked seats

Never Again.
 
Frontier is always cheaper for us than Southwest even with fees. I don't get the cheap fares for Southwest like everyone else does and I have 4 airports to choose from :laughing: I've flown RT with DH SNA-DEN $150 with seats and a checked bag. And for whatever reason it's more expensive to carry-on than check o_O We've flown them other times and all fees added in it's at least 20% less than Southwest. I haven't flown Southwest in YEARS - their fares out of So Cal are not what I consider a low cost carrier :confused3 OP, make sure you have all costs accounted for. Drink and snack? I usually bring my own anyway.

I totally agree about SW really not being low cost out of Southern California. The only time I’ve ever found it competitive is when my wife and I both need to check a bag on certain routes, and even then they were a little more expensive per person. However, we had such an abysmal experience with Frontier, we’re willing to pay $20-$30 more per person to avoid that airline.
 
I have flown Frontier several times direct to MCO and will also be flying again tomorrow there. I haven't seen any other fees than what previous posters have mentioned. One of my flights with Frontier was delayed by 6 hours returning home from MCO. There was no communication with passengers even 30 minutes before we were supposed to depart until I told the gate agent that a child (traveling alone) was pacing the halls frantically calling his parents because we hadn't even been assigned a gate at that time. We were told early that it would be a 6 hour delay and it was accurate. We were issued $10 (I think..maybe $20) meal vouchers and a free flight for later and fortunately did not need to spend the night in the airport but I met someone while waiting whose flight had been cancelled and was booked 24 hours later. I didn't find the seats too uncomfortable but they are very basic. Checked luggage is cheaper but a carry-on will insure that if your flight is delayed, your luggage will be with you. Hope it all works out for you!
 
So, found some amazing flight prices for frontier. And as a bonus, it's the only non-stop flights I've ever seen from Tulsa to Orlando. I know there's extra fees for carry on bags and checked bags. Since it's a quick trip with my toddler, I think we can manage just one checked bag, which I believe gets us zone 1 boarding? Are there fees for gate checking a stroller (I may just rent one instead if that's the case)? Any other fees I need to be aware of?

Be aware that they have so few flights that a flight change can totally mess up your plans. We had my nephew set to fly Frontier home from Orlando. His non stop mid day flight was changed to one with a layover. To Denver. With an overnight stay in the airport. We live in Michigan. Luckily we were able to get that flight refunded and find a flight home for him on Southwest.
 
Oh there are fees for a printed boarding pass so just get the app and scan your boarding pass that way.

My sister paid for checked luggage and hers didn’t make it. She was promised it’d arrive on the next flight but they forgot to put it on the plane and then sent her luggage to California, then Colorado and finally New York. She was refused the fee of checked luggage plus a $100 voucher and they delivered it personally at 2 am when it arrived in New York. On the way home her luggage made it with the plane but the wheel was broken and there was an oil stain on it. I don’t think that price of luggage was the best luggage out there (I think it’s a basic one you can find at kohls or something) but she was pissed when Frontier shrugged and said sorry for your luck.

We didn’t have issues with any long delays, there was I think an hr long flight delay and we weren’t warned but I noticed it on our gate tv screen it had been delayed and we were boarded as soon as everyone got off the plane.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top