Frontier - kid fly free questions

ClapYourHands

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 2, 2018
Surprisingly, Frontier has flight times that work for this trip, and I'm considering giving them a try. I know they're ultra low cost, no frills, bring your own drink and charged iPad kind of people.

Does anyone know if the "free" kid ticket is applied to the entire cost of the flight (including taxes and fees) or just the airfare itself?

Does anyone know what it costs to buy seat assignments after purchasing tickets? Do the prices go up the way baggage fees do? Obviously the flights will fill up more as we get closer to the trip, but I'm wondering about rolling the dice regarding purchasing seats together. Assuming I monitor the seat availability, at what point would I need to go ahead and purchase them? I have friends who fly Spirit and say they've never been separated, despite not buying the seats.

I know there were some people planning to use the Kids Fly Free promotion this past summer, but I don't know how it turned out.
 
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Surprisingly, Frontier has flight times that work for this trip, and I'm considering giving them a try. I know they're ultra low cost, no frills, bring your own drink and charged iPad kind of people.

Does anyone know if the "free" kid ticket is applied to the entire cost of the flight (including taxes and fees) or just the airfare itself?

Does anyone know what it costs to buy seat assignments after purchasing tickets? Do the prices go up the way baggage fees do? Obviously the flights will fill up more as we get closer to the trip, but I'm wondering about rolling the dice regarding purchasing seats together. Assuming I monitor the seat availability, at what point would I need to go ahead and purchase them? I have friends who fly Spirit and say they've never been separated, despite not buying the seats.

I know there were some people planning to use the Kids Fly Free promotion this past summer, but I don't know how it turned out.

I fly Frontier a lot and have reached Elite Status with them. I used the kid's fly free in October and I didn't pay anything for his ticket it was entirely free. I stopped paying for seating assignments a long time ago and decided to just take a chance. So far so good we have never been separated. But I will at least tell you that you can add seats even after online check in and the price remains the same. As for the actual cost of seats it seems to vary depending on the flight. I've seen it as little as $6-8 each way but it goes up for more desirable seats and if you want an exit row or extra leg room it can be closer to $40.

I would suggest not bothering until after check in as you may be pleasantly surprised at what you get. If not, then go back and add a better option. There has always been a lot still left at that point when I fly. It doesn't seem many people opt to pay for their seat selections.
 
I fly Frontier a lot and have reached Elite Status with them. I used the kid's fly free in October and I didn't pay anything for his ticket it was entirely free. I stopped paying for seating assignments a long time ago and decided to just take a chance. So far so good we have never been separated. But I will at least tell you that you can add seats even after online check in and the price remains the same. As for the actual cost of seats it seems to vary depending on the flight. I've seen it as little as $6-8 each way but it goes up for more desirable seats and if you want an exit row or extra leg room it can be closer to $40.

I would suggest not bothering until after check in as you may be pleasantly surprised at what you get. If not, then go back and add a better option. There has always been a lot still left at that point when I fly. It doesn't seem many people opt to pay for their seat selections.

Thank you! I'm traveling with a 4-year-old, so it really is important we sit together, but the cheapest seats in the back are $15 each, and paying $60 for seat selection when I'm only paying $90 for airfare seems crazy! I really don't care where we sit on the plane, as long as we're on it and together.

I have heard that if you buy your seats at the airport (in advance, not day of), they are cheaper because they knock off one of the fees. Is this correct? If so, how much discount?
 
Another question: how does insurance work for cancelled flights? I'd be flying BDL, which only has 1 flight each way on my flight days (Wednesday) with no flights on Thursday. Assuming the worst and my flight is cancelled, could I try to jump on the next flight a different carrier provides and make a claim to the insurance for the new ticket? When I did the dummy booking, there was an option to add travel insurance for something like $25, but there was so much legal language when I clicked on the policy that it wasn't clear how it works if the issue is the airline delaying/cancelling my flight (rather than if I get sick and choose not to fly)

My primary hesitation at this point is being stranded and missing either my vacation or my next scheduled work shift.
 


Thank you! I'm traveling with a 4-year-old, so it really is important we sit together, but the cheapest seats in the back are $15 each, and paying $60 for seat selection when I'm only paying $90 for airfare seems crazy
Don't look at like that. Look at it as paying $150 total to fly two people found trip to Orlando.
Assuming the worst and my flight is cancelled, could I try to jump on the next flight a different carrier provides and make a claim to the insurance for the new ticket?
You need to read the policy very, very, very carefully. Even call the insurance company with specific questions.
 
Thank you! I'm traveling with a 4-year-old, so it really is important we sit together, but the cheapest seats in the back are $15 each, and paying $60 for seat selection when I'm only paying $90 for airfare seems crazy! I really don't care where we sit on the plane, as long as we're on it and together.

I have heard that if you buy your seats at the airport (in advance, not day of), they are cheaper because they knock off one of the fees. Is this correct? If so, how much discount?

I've heard something about that as well, but the airports are not close enough to me to try and find out if it really works.
 
Thank you! I'm traveling with a 4-year-old, so it really is important we sit together, but the cheapest seats in the back are $15 each, and paying $60 for seat selection when I'm only paying $90 for airfare seems crazy! I really don't care where we sit on the plane, as long as we're on it and together.

I have heard that if you buy your seats at the airport (in advance, not day of), they are cheaper because they knock off one of the fees. Is this correct? If so, how much discount?

If you want to guarantee you sit with your child pay for seats ahead of time. Don't cheap out and hope there are seats together the day you fly out or check in. Most flights to MCO are families. People who purchased seats together aren't going to move. There is no law saying you can't be separated from your child. Airline can't force people to move. As other poster stated figure seat assignment into fare total! I'm not trying to be nesb- just because others had luck not purchasing doesn't guarantee you will. People have posted here being separated from kids. Now some say they won't buy seats and will use the nobody will want to sit by my child entitlement attitude. Not a good thing. I am not suggesting you plan any of that just stating facts.

Have a good time
 


If you want to guarantee you sit with your child pay for seats ahead of time. Don't cheap out and hope there are seats together the day you fly out or check in. Most flights to MCO are families. People who purchased seats together aren't going to move. There is no law saying you can't be separated from your child. Airline can't force people to move. As other poster stated figure seat assignment into fare total! I'm not trying to be nesb- just because others had luck not purchasing doesn't guarantee you will. People have posted here being separated from kids. Now some say they won't buy seats and will use the nobody will want to sit by my child entitlement attitude. Not a good thing. I am not suggesting you plan any of that just stating facts.

Have a good time

I'm aware that the only guarantee is to buy the seats. I've done enough of these threads to know what the possibilities are. That's why I plan to monitor the seat situation if I use Frontier. I also know that it's not always necessary to pay extra, and I'm trying to gauge what the likelihood is that we'll get seats together without paying. If the seats now are the same prices as the seat assignments will be later, I'd rather wait and see.
 
My wife and myself have flown frontier 30+ times with our sons who are 5 and 2. We have never been seperated. The one time they had to change our seats at the gate ,I was alone with both of them. They moved a couple who had paid to sit up front. They gave us their seats. The couple threw a fit, but the flight attendants kept us together and were not going to budge to the complaints.
 
My wife and myself have flown frontier 30+ times with our sons who are 5 and 2. We have never been seperated. The one time they had to change our seats at the gate ,I was alone with both of them. They moved a couple who had paid to sit up front. They gave us their seats. The couple threw a fit, but the flight attendants kept us together and were not going to budge to the complaints.

I feel for the couple that paid for a seat assignment, but were moved to accommodate YOUR lack of planning. In their shoes, I would have "thrown a fit" as well. If you were flying alone with a toddler and a preschooler, why would you have not paid for seats to ensure you were seated together? I would have been mortified to know I messed up someone's trip plans due to my failure to plan properly for my own kids.
 
If you read the fine print you would know that the flight attendant was in the right. Also, this was probably the 25th time we had done this and they could always just put us together at check in. This was the first time I was told to ask a gate agent. Also, I had no idea what the gate agent had done to seat us together until after we had already boarded. The inconsiderate thing would be to have made my 5yo sit alone to be potentially traumatized. We ate not rich and we fly den>Knoxville to see family and that flight is very expensive. If we had to pay for seat assignments my kids would have seen a whole lot less of their grandfather before he passed away last year. I was not mortified, I was flying on frontier and understand what that entails. It's obviously not the airline for you.
 
My wife and myself have flown frontier 30+ times with our sons who are 5 and 2. We have never been seperated. The one time they had to change our seats at the gate ,I was alone with both of them. They moved a couple who had paid to sit up front. They gave us their seats. The couple threw a fit, but the flight attendants kept us together and were not going to budge to the complaints.

Rude entitled attitude! That couple paid and planned their trip. You chose the entitled parent route and they suffered from your actions. This should not be recommend.
 
My wife and myself have flown frontier 30+ times with our sons who are 5 and 2. We have never been seperated. The one time they had to change our seats at the gate ,I was alone with both of them. They moved a couple who had paid to sit up front. They gave us their seats. The couple threw a fit, but the flight attendants kept us together and were not going to budge to the complaints.
If you read the fine print you would know that the flight attendant was in the right. Also, this was probably the 25th time we had done this and they could always just put us together at check in. This was the first time I was told to ask a gate agent. Also, I had no idea what the gate agent had done to seat us together until after we had already boarded. The inconsiderate thing would be to have made my 5yo sit alone to be potentially traumatized. We ate not rich and we fly den>Knoxville to see family and that flight is very expensive. If we had to pay for seat assignments my kids would have seen a whole lot less of their grandfather before he passed away last year. I was not mortified, I was flying on frontier and understand what that entails. It's obviously not the airline for you.
I cannot believe you don't see anything wrong with this. Maybe you would if you were the paying couple. What you did was extremely rude. I'm gonna check out this fine print you talk about.
 
So literally they said nothing to me about the fact they were going to move these two people. The couple never said anything to me. I simply sat wherebthe flight attendant who was also helping at the gate, assigned us to sit. At that point, those were our assigned seats not theirs and they needed to take that up with the airline not me. I didn't make the switch nor was I aware of the switch until after we were getting off the plane and I heard the people complaining at the gate.
 
My only point was that frontier goes out of their way to seat families together and will not make a 4yo sit alone. I'm not making a judgement about my experience just telling OP what they have done in my experience. Again I didn't make the call and didn't approve the decision. The flight crew did.
 
So literally they said nothing to me about the fact they were going to move these two people. The couple never said anything to me. I simply sat wherebthe flight attendant who was also helping at the gate, assigned us to sit. At that point, those were our assigned seats not theirs and they needed to take that up with the airline not me. I didn't make the switch nor was I aware of the switch until after we were getting off the plane and I heard the people complaining at the gate.
My only point was that frontier goes out of their way to seat families together and will not make a 4yo sit alone. I'm not making a judgement about my experience just telling OP what they have done in my experience. Again I didn't make the call and didn't approve the decision. The flight crew did.
So since you now know this could happen, will you pay ahead of time for seat assignments, or continue to do this to people?
 
Thank you! I'm traveling with a 4-year-old, so it really is important we sit together, but the cheapest seats in the back are $15 each, and paying $60 for seat selection when I'm only paying $90 for airfare seems crazy! I really don't care where we sit on the plane, as long as we're on it and together.

I have heard that if you buy your seats at the airport (in advance, not day of), they are cheaper because they knock off one of the fees. Is this correct? If so, how much discount?

Both Spirit and Frontier have fees that you don't have to pay if you purchase the tickets at the airport. I did this last year, it was a few months in advance but we live close to the airport and it was easy to go in to the Spirit check in counter. Ended up saving me $80 total. However, I don't think you can get the kids fly free or any other promotional rate by doing that. I just booked a kids fly free for June (online), and I'm pretty sure I still paid the taxes and fees, only the actual flight rate was free.
 
My only point was that frontier goes out of their way to seat families together and will not make a 4yo sit alone. I'm not making a judgement about my experience just telling OP what they have done in my experience. Again I didn't make the call and didn't approve the decision. The flight crew did.

This has been my experience as well. The stories of people being separated seem to be far fewer than those who are kept together. We are a family of 5 and we used to pay for seats but after traveling Frontier many times and talking to other families on the flights it seemed like we were the only ones doing so. So we stopped paying for seats as well and have never been separated whether it was 2 of us or 5 of us. We may have just had exceptional luck, but it does seem like Frontier does their absolute best to keep families together. But we do always check in right at the 24 hour mark so we have a better chance and are willing to pay at that time if for some reason we do get separated. IME there have always been plenty of seats available to purchase still the day of the flight.
 

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