Never, ever, EVER fly Frontier
I had a HELLish travel trip this weekend by flying Frontier…
For context, I was supposed to attend a World Cup match on Saturday, July 4, and I desperately needed to be on time because those tickets are NOT cheap. I had also booked a hotel for two nights, July 3 & 4, because I was supposed to fly in Friday night, according to my itinerary.
I booked a $500 flight with Frontier (round trip), and paid an additional $120 for a carry on. I was from flying from STL to HOU, and had a layover in ATL. My flight was supposed to depart at 5 PM, and my connecting flight was an hour and a half later.
Problem 1: We departed 1.5 hours late from STL. I thought I would miss my connecting flight, but I talked to the flight attendant, and he said the same aircraft was going to be used to go to HOU. Whew, crisis averted! (Not)
Problem 2: We landed in ATL at 9:20 PM, and they began boarding for the HOU flight at 9:50. Everyone boarded the plane, and we were all good to go, until the pilots announced they could no longer take off because they had exceeded their federal flying mandate. Everyone was forced to deplane.
Problem 3: Frontier had no replacement pilots, and my flight was cancelled. The next flight out was at 6 AM. Mind you, at this point, I just lost out on one night of my hotel reservation. Well, as it turns out, their 6 AM flight was sold out. So, the next flight they could get me on was something in the PM, well past my World Cup match time.
Problem 4: So, I TRIED asking them for a refund. Apparently, they don’t do refunds at the gate, and I had to call customer service. They said that they could only give me a partial refund, because apparently, the plane had boarded and I was marked as a no-show. I tried explaining that there was NO way I could be marked as a no-show for a flight that didn’t even leave the airport, but to no avail.
Problem 5: I had to book a 6 AM $500 Southwest flight (one-way) because Frontier failed to do anything. Side note: they also don’t price match, so I was out an extra $250. I spent the entire night at the ATL airport (I’m a STL native), and finally made it to HOU, and checked in to my hotel at 8 AM. (The game was SO GOOD!)
Problem 6: After the match, I tried checking in to my return flight with Frontier, which was supposed to depart tomorrow. Their app wouldn’t let me check in because apparently my flight was cancelled???? So, I called customer service AGAIN (this is like the fourth time at this point), and thankfully, she was able to fully refund my return flight, and said I would receive an email confirmation within the next 15 minutes.
Problem 7: Turns out, I never received the email confirmation, so I called them AGAIN to make sure. And then I booked another Southwest flight to get me out of this Frontier hellhole.
TLDR; (1) don’t ever book with Frontier and (2) I would advise against late flights because of the federal mandate. Thanks for letting me vent! It has been a STRESSFUL travel weekend.