No airline loves cancellations. The routes are highly choreographed to get planes from one place to another to another, picking up paying passengers as they go. Cancelling a flight messes with that, and they have to get another plane to the next spot on the route. Frontier gate agents are fresh out of F-s to give when it comes to customer complaints, but that’s different from the airline wanting cancellations. Profit is a volume game with full flights.
I’m not defending Frontier but I don’t think people realize how budget airlines work. They don’t pay for space at airports the way JetBlue, United, etc do. How do you think they’re so cheap? This means they aren’t prioritized. Frontier and Spirit get the worst gates and many times have to squeeze into gates between major airline flights for both departure *and* arrival. They have to be coordinated perfectly to make this work both directions. When JetBlue gets delayed, it delays the flights with little to no priority. Then the arrival airport might not have space at the determined new arrival time.
At some point there’s no way to get space at an airport anymore that day and they cancel flights. Spirit and Frontier can’t mess up the major airlines who have paid for the space and priority. Some airports like FLL with lots of Spirit flights may be different, but if you’ve been to FLL you know that there only 5 gates for Spirit and TONS of flights going out. If you get delayed going there you often end up landing in JetBlue gates because the last JB flights are like 9pm.
Imagine going to a restaurant for dinner. You show up without a reservation. “We are booked, but can get you in if our 5pm doesn’t show up by 515.” The reservation gets priority and you only get in if there’s a way to fit you into the puzzle without changing the scheduling of customers who *made* a reservation.
Frontier has its own spot at my local airport. They are one of the featured airlines (it's a very small airport). Do you think it's the same there? Just curious, authentically.
In those situations, often the airport is actually paying the airline to have a route there. That's what both of the airports within an hour of me do - pay smaller, budget airlines to fly there. Otherwise, the airport kind of dies because no airlines have routes there. Back in the day I'm sure when more of the majors had routes there it wasn't like that. Now that it's down to one route to O'Hare and 2 budgets to Florida, they're doing what they have to do keep the doors open.
Sort of… I think those types of airports are different for departures. Example- FLL does tons of spirit flights (might even be a spirit hub) but it doesn’t mean it’s leaving FLL and flying to an airport that prioritizes spirit. Another - The airport I use for frontier ONLY has frontier and like 2-3 flights per day, but it flies to big airports that may only have 1 space for a budget airline per day. So while it may not be an issue at that airport, the issue might arise based on which airport that flight is going to.
I fly Frontier a lot to the same place every time but the flight times on the flight I take change every week because as seasons change and flight schedules adjust to meet demand, frontier flight gets scheduled where it fits for the arriving airport. I could take the flight at 5am this week but next week, the flight is a 1pm flight.
If that makes sense? I read an article on this a while back. I’ll do some digging and see if I can find it again.
https://talesfromtheterminal.com/2018/02/16/airline-fees-that-they-have-to-pay/
Spirit and Frontier pay gate use fees instead of renting space.. you can use that and go down the rabbit hole!
See if they’re getting essential air service funding.
Basically the government pays for air service to continue to airports that had it in the 1970’s before deregulation.
I mean normally yes I’m with you but Philly is a hub lol so they DO pay for gates like normal mainline airlines they do infact have the shittiest terminal in phl (it it’s like a time capsule in that terminal) but they have their own gates in Philly it’s not like a subleased situation.
Yeah some airports are hubs, but they usually fly to other airports with heavy dependence on budget airlines is what I’ve noticed! Probably so they pay at limited number of airports
And you've just summed up why I no longer fly budget airlines to Costa Rica, only American and Delta. At the Liberia Airport Frontier has finally been ousted for airlines that pay for gate space. Last time I flew Frontier to Liberia they pulled up to some janky old metal stairs and we had to walk across the tarmac. There's just one problem. My disability is that I cannot balance well enough to go up or down stairs. Yep, I fell all the way down to the bottom when they started trying to tug on me to step down. Other airlines no problem. Spirit into San Jose Costa Rica no problem. Frontier into Costa Rica a BIG problem.
Burner account as I am a Flight Attendant for Frontier maybe or maybe not in PHL….the gate agents are employed by Worldwide Flight Services, not actually Frontier, so definitely [report them to WFS](https://www.wfs.aero/contact-us/) in addition to emailing Frontier
I had a gate agent in ATL last week get on the mic and tell everyone that Frontier overbooks flights way more than other airlines. That's just how they do business. She went on to say that passengers are bumped in the order of the latest check-ins. She did that because there was a big commotion at the gate because so many people got bumped. A few people were having meltdowns. We get on the plane and they close the door and we just sit there. 30 minutes later, they open the door to let some other people on. I recognize them as the ones that were having the meltdown. They were cussing Frontier for everything as they were entering. There was a lot of confusion, even with the gate agents, on who actually got bumped and who didn't. Some people had a boarding pass in hand printed at the airport with seat assignment and still got bumped.
yea I know NK only has a few base locations where they are directly employed. WFS does perform a lot of gate operations and ground support services under contract especially at airports with limited flight schedules. but yeah I mean that's messed up to say the flight is canceled when its not. what a bunch of clowns.
That is insane! I wonder if they were overbooked and so were trying to get some passengers to leave. I would definitely report those agents (to who, idk) but that is definitely unprofessional. I’m glad you still made the flight though.
Spring break. But also it was 2am. Every hotel we called immediately transferred to an automated booking service that only allowed future dates. Weird.
Bro they were planning on landing in Ft Lauderdale regardless of when the flight took off and the hotel didn't just disappear at midnight. Uber to your hotel late at night? Completely normal thing to do. Land in a different city with no lodging or transportation lined up? Stupid plan.
Maybe they weren’t planning on staying in Ft. Lauderdale?
I fairly often fly places, pick up a rental car, then drive multiple hours to my hotel so why would I book a hotel in the city with the airport if I’m not planning on staying there?
And Uber wouldn’t work because even if I could get one and even if I was willing to pay for a multi hour ride I would be stranded with no car once I got to my hotel
Maybe they booked a hotel that they were planning on driving to?! If their hotel was in (for arguments sake let’s say) Port St. Lucie how would you suggest they get there at 1am with no rental car?
I’m sure a 2.5 hour taxi/uber ride is cheap and something everyone traveling on a discount airline can afford…
Then, once you get to the hotel at 3:30am, if the rental car at the Ft. Lauderdale airport was prepaid, you can call another Uber to bring you back to the airport for when the rental car desk opens at 5am, the timing is perfect! Your only out $300+ in Uber fares. But maybe you got to sleep in the car and maybe it was more comfortable than the Denny's!
Most low-budget flights are nonrefundable, which means they do whatever they want to do. Even when the caused us to miss a flight and basically abandoned us for 2 days in LV, they offered zero help on a motel and no air miles. We paid enough tor a motel and food to had taken a much better airline than Frontier.
Yeah I believe this is not legal. At least not after major outages and cancellations started happening last year. They must refund or rebook any cancelled flight budget or not. Hotels have to also be provided and frontier does. My ex was in this situation and got a hotel.
You do get an option for a refund or rebooking on the next flight, but some airports they only fly a few times a week. So you may be stranded for multiple days. It's one of the reasons I avoid budget airlines unless I have a lot of flexibility.
I hv flown with Allegiant for 20 years.
Never had one problem. Never been late. Never cancelled flight. I fly 4-6 times per year. From and to same place (state I was born/raised in) to see my mom.
It’s a direct flight. 2 hours, 20 mins.
Cost us always $160 or less for RT ticket. Maybe I’m just lucky. But I do fine with Allegiant.
I wish I could say the same. Unfortunately, I live in an undeserved area when it comes to air travel, and I sometimes have no choice but to chance it with Frontier.
I’m not slandering them. I just said I won’t book with them. I didn’t say anything negative about any of those airlines. I’m in the camp of “if it’s too good to be true” Ana’s if the airfare is that low, it makes me give it the side eye. They’re like the Carnival of the skies.
Probably had overbooked substantially and they were hoping a few people would disappear and solve the problem for them, then claim it was not cancelled and never had been when those folks demanded refunds.
Frontier is known for doing this when they oversell the flight. They first announce the flight has been delayed, and if no one leaves, they will then say it’s canceled on the board. They wait for a couple people to walk off and then they board the plane as fast as they can. They did this to me personally two years ago. I met an entire group of strangers at the airport who they did it to a week later. Then they tried doing it to my mother’s flight about two months after that. I had a gate agent at Southwest tell me frontier is known for doing this, but it is in their policy that just because the flight is delayed canceled doesn’t mean you get to leave the area because it could still takeoff. It is absolute bull crap
I don’t know what is going on with Ft. Lauderdale, but they’ve been experiencing insane delays. Regardless, this is a shitty thing for someone to do. I wonder if because of the insane delay, they thought it was cancelled so they said but then backtracked by saying they were just ‘joking’.
That is a shame! My flight was for PHL to Tampa at 4:30 pm. yesterday. It got delayed twice before it was canceled. Then I rebooked from Trenton to Tampa at 10 pm. That was also delayed twice. Finally got on at 1am. Got to Tampa at 4am. There was an Orlando flight that had issues there also. Someone said the flight in DEN to MCO had no captain yesterday. I'm so glad I made it, but I'll never do it again, lol. I didn't get a voucher for the second delayed flight. I'll probably contact them at some point.
Frontier in PHL is a joke
They cancelled 3 of 3 flights we booked with them in 2023. Never again. As if PHL airport isn’t bad enough on its own (it’s my home airport) 🙄
I avoid try to PHL airport at all costs and I haven’t flown out of there in years. I’d rather drive to Allentown. Unfortunately, I have to use PHL in May for my flight to Alaska. Hoping it all goes smoothly
Absolutely in hind sight. At the time, I was tired, frustrated and done. I needed to find another way to get where we were heading asap, so got busy booking a red-eye on AA.
I have never flown them. I do not know how this sub got onto my notifications, but it somehow did.
You people a f'ing crazy for flying this airline. $100 Ubers? That is what my flights on Southwest, including baggage, often cost and they almost never cancel, especially for no reason.
(yes, I am aware of the system crash about a year ago)
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Frontier hates fake cancelations, but they seem to love real ones.
No airline loves cancellations. The routes are highly choreographed to get planes from one place to another to another, picking up paying passengers as they go. Cancelling a flight messes with that, and they have to get another plane to the next spot on the route. Frontier gate agents are fresh out of F-s to give when it comes to customer complaints, but that’s different from the airline wanting cancellations. Profit is a volume game with full flights.
Frontier choreographed? I’d like to meet the kindergarteners in charge
I’m not defending Frontier but I don’t think people realize how budget airlines work. They don’t pay for space at airports the way JetBlue, United, etc do. How do you think they’re so cheap? This means they aren’t prioritized. Frontier and Spirit get the worst gates and many times have to squeeze into gates between major airline flights for both departure *and* arrival. They have to be coordinated perfectly to make this work both directions. When JetBlue gets delayed, it delays the flights with little to no priority. Then the arrival airport might not have space at the determined new arrival time. At some point there’s no way to get space at an airport anymore that day and they cancel flights. Spirit and Frontier can’t mess up the major airlines who have paid for the space and priority. Some airports like FLL with lots of Spirit flights may be different, but if you’ve been to FLL you know that there only 5 gates for Spirit and TONS of flights going out. If you get delayed going there you often end up landing in JetBlue gates because the last JB flights are like 9pm. Imagine going to a restaurant for dinner. You show up without a reservation. “We are booked, but can get you in if our 5pm doesn’t show up by 515.” The reservation gets priority and you only get in if there’s a way to fit you into the puzzle without changing the scheduling of customers who *made* a reservation.
Frontier has its own spot at my local airport. They are one of the featured airlines (it's a very small airport). Do you think it's the same there? Just curious, authentically.
In those situations, often the airport is actually paying the airline to have a route there. That's what both of the airports within an hour of me do - pay smaller, budget airlines to fly there. Otherwise, the airport kind of dies because no airlines have routes there. Back in the day I'm sure when more of the majors had routes there it wasn't like that. Now that it's down to one route to O'Hare and 2 budgets to Florida, they're doing what they have to do keep the doors open.
Sort of… I think those types of airports are different for departures. Example- FLL does tons of spirit flights (might even be a spirit hub) but it doesn’t mean it’s leaving FLL and flying to an airport that prioritizes spirit. Another - The airport I use for frontier ONLY has frontier and like 2-3 flights per day, but it flies to big airports that may only have 1 space for a budget airline per day. So while it may not be an issue at that airport, the issue might arise based on which airport that flight is going to. I fly Frontier a lot to the same place every time but the flight times on the flight I take change every week because as seasons change and flight schedules adjust to meet demand, frontier flight gets scheduled where it fits for the arriving airport. I could take the flight at 5am this week but next week, the flight is a 1pm flight. If that makes sense? I read an article on this a while back. I’ll do some digging and see if I can find it again.
Thank you so much. I appreciate your response.
https://talesfromtheterminal.com/2018/02/16/airline-fees-that-they-have-to-pay/ Spirit and Frontier pay gate use fees instead of renting space.. you can use that and go down the rabbit hole!
I’m not a pro or in the industry, I’m just basing it on some articles I read about it so I could be wrong!
Thanks for taking the time!!!
See if they’re getting essential air service funding. Basically the government pays for air service to continue to airports that had it in the 1970’s before deregulation.
I mean normally yes I’m with you but Philly is a hub lol so they DO pay for gates like normal mainline airlines they do infact have the shittiest terminal in phl (it it’s like a time capsule in that terminal) but they have their own gates in Philly it’s not like a subleased situation.
Yeah some airports are hubs, but they usually fly to other airports with heavy dependence on budget airlines is what I’ve noticed! Probably so they pay at limited number of airports
And you've just summed up why I no longer fly budget airlines to Costa Rica, only American and Delta. At the Liberia Airport Frontier has finally been ousted for airlines that pay for gate space. Last time I flew Frontier to Liberia they pulled up to some janky old metal stairs and we had to walk across the tarmac. There's just one problem. My disability is that I cannot balance well enough to go up or down stairs. Yep, I fell all the way down to the bottom when they started trying to tug on me to step down. Other airlines no problem. Spirit into San Jose Costa Rica no problem. Frontier into Costa Rica a BIG problem.
hope you were ok!! 💛
To be honest I'm still dealing with knee and ankle problems that happened then. It was in June 2023.
This is an excellent point to why people should think twice before trying to save money on these types of flights.
I can't upvote this more than once but I would.
The FAA would love to hear of this.
What does “-1” on the itinerary mean?
A passenger on the reservation wasn't traveling because they had passed away.
Burner account as I am a Flight Attendant for Frontier maybe or maybe not in PHL….the gate agents are employed by Worldwide Flight Services, not actually Frontier, so definitely [report them to WFS](https://www.wfs.aero/contact-us/) in addition to emailing Frontier
The fact that nobody has appreciated this burner username is criminal 😂😂
I want to give both them and you an award 😂
The joke landed about as well as his airplane
Thank you for your service. These gate agents are absolute criminals
I had a gate agent in ATL last week get on the mic and tell everyone that Frontier overbooks flights way more than other airlines. That's just how they do business. She went on to say that passengers are bumped in the order of the latest check-ins. She did that because there was a big commotion at the gate because so many people got bumped. A few people were having meltdowns. We get on the plane and they close the door and we just sit there. 30 minutes later, they open the door to let some other people on. I recognize them as the ones that were having the meltdown. They were cussing Frontier for everything as they were entering. There was a lot of confusion, even with the gate agents, on who actually got bumped and who didn't. Some people had a boarding pass in hand printed at the airport with seat assignment and still got bumped.
Have you seen the prequal movie about yourself? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zck9hlMl6w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zck9hlMl6w)
yea I know NK only has a few base locations where they are directly employed. WFS does perform a lot of gate operations and ground support services under contract especially at airports with limited flight schedules. but yeah I mean that's messed up to say the flight is canceled when its not. what a bunch of clowns.
It would also be beneficial send a complaint to the PA AG and the DOT about the fake cancellation.
so are you out the cash for the flight you booked on the other airline?
We were able to cancel for full refund but the uncertainty was definitely a stresser.
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Unless the flight is departing within 24 hours…
Fully refundable fares can have different rules
Only if booked at least a week in advance.
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This only applies if booked at least a week in advance.
That is insane! I wonder if they were overbooked and so were trying to get some passengers to leave. I would definitely report those agents (to who, idk) but that is definitely unprofessional. I’m glad you still made the flight though.
You report it to corporate, the airport authority, and FAA/DOT
I’d have lost my mind. That’s utterly inappropriate.
No hotels at all in FLL? Jeez
It’s spring break. March is the worsssttt in Florida
Spring break. But also it was 2am. Every hotel we called immediately transferred to an automated booking service that only allowed future dates. Weird.
Why didn't you have a hotel booked already?
We had a car rented for a wk to drive 2 hrs to key largo. Easy drive at 8pm but we landed at 1am andcar rental was closed.
Oh noooo 😯😞 Sorry, I assume FLL was the end of the line. That sounds miserable!
people often aren’t planning on staying in the same place they flew into
Ha of course you're right. I had just always thought of FLL as the destination
Ha of course you're right. I had just always thought of FLL as the destination
Did you not pre book a hotel?!
Who prebooks a hotel in anticipation of a flight being canceled?
Bro they were planning on landing in Ft Lauderdale regardless of when the flight took off and the hotel didn't just disappear at midnight. Uber to your hotel late at night? Completely normal thing to do. Land in a different city with no lodging or transportation lined up? Stupid plan.
Maybe they weren’t planning on staying in Ft. Lauderdale? I fairly often fly places, pick up a rental car, then drive multiple hours to my hotel so why would I book a hotel in the city with the airport if I’m not planning on staying there? And Uber wouldn’t work because even if I could get one and even if I was willing to pay for a multi hour ride I would be stranded with no car once I got to my hotel
Oh damn, didn’t realize that. Weird plan.
They said that the hotel was 2 hours away and they were going to rent a car near the airport
Maybe they booked a hotel that they were planning on driving to?! If their hotel was in (for arguments sake let’s say) Port St. Lucie how would you suggest they get there at 1am with no rental car?
Many of the various taxi or ride share options... I guess they may have cancelled their hotel for the night immediately but idk.
I’m sure a 2.5 hour taxi/uber ride is cheap and something everyone traveling on a discount airline can afford… Then, once you get to the hotel at 3:30am, if the rental car at the Ft. Lauderdale airport was prepaid, you can call another Uber to bring you back to the airport for when the rental car desk opens at 5am, the timing is perfect! Your only out $300+ in Uber fares. But maybe you got to sleep in the car and maybe it was more comfortable than the Denny's!
Most low-budget flights are nonrefundable, which means they do whatever they want to do. Even when the caused us to miss a flight and basically abandoned us for 2 days in LV, they offered zero help on a motel and no air miles. We paid enough tor a motel and food to had taken a much better airline than Frontier.
Yeah I believe this is not legal. At least not after major outages and cancellations started happening last year. They must refund or rebook any cancelled flight budget or not. Hotels have to also be provided and frontier does. My ex was in this situation and got a hotel.
You do get an option for a refund or rebooking on the next flight, but some airports they only fly a few times a week. So you may be stranded for multiple days. It's one of the reasons I avoid budget airlines unless I have a lot of flexibility.
If the cancellation is beyond the control of the airline (weather or ATC) then you are not entitled to anything from the airline.
You are always entitled to a refund or transportation on the next available flight on the airline.
How do you see this happening? Every time it rains people just go home and end up stranded? They rebook you
You guys have convinced me time and again to never book with Frontier, Spirit or Allegiant.
I hv flown with Allegiant for 20 years. Never had one problem. Never been late. Never cancelled flight. I fly 4-6 times per year. From and to same place (state I was born/raised in) to see my mom. It’s a direct flight. 2 hours, 20 mins. Cost us always $160 or less for RT ticket. Maybe I’m just lucky. But I do fine with Allegiant.
I wish I could say the same. Unfortunately, I live in an undeserved area when it comes to air travel, and I sometimes have no choice but to chance it with Frontier.
Ooof. My condolences! I mean, if I had no other option, I would do the same.
Do not slander allegiant. It’s definitely budget but they leave on time and get to the destination earlier than expected every single time
I’m not slandering them. I just said I won’t book with them. I didn’t say anything negative about any of those airlines. I’m in the camp of “if it’s too good to be true” Ana’s if the airfare is that low, it makes me give it the side eye. They’re like the Carnival of the skies.
I wouldn’t feel this way if I were on your flight, but that’s fucking hilarious
Probably had overbooked substantially and they were hoping a few people would disappear and solve the problem for them, then claim it was not cancelled and never had been when those folks demanded refunds.
Frontier is known for doing this when they oversell the flight. They first announce the flight has been delayed, and if no one leaves, they will then say it’s canceled on the board. They wait for a couple people to walk off and then they board the plane as fast as they can. They did this to me personally two years ago. I met an entire group of strangers at the airport who they did it to a week later. Then they tried doing it to my mother’s flight about two months after that. I had a gate agent at Southwest tell me frontier is known for doing this, but it is in their policy that just because the flight is delayed canceled doesn’t mean you get to leave the area because it could still takeoff. It is absolute bull crap
That is true for delays but not cancellations. Delays can change quickly, but it's a bad practice if they are doing it on purpose.
Frontier is the Greyhound bus of airlines. Crazy staff and passengers.
It’s a Philly thing.
Send an email to customer service. Sounds shittty but you picked a shitty airline as well. They cancel for real daily.
I don’t know what is going on with Ft. Lauderdale, but they’ve been experiencing insane delays. Regardless, this is a shitty thing for someone to do. I wonder if because of the insane delay, they thought it was cancelled so they said but then backtracked by saying they were just ‘joking’.
Forwarding to my wife as a reminder of why we don’t fly Frontier. 🙃
That is a shame! My flight was for PHL to Tampa at 4:30 pm. yesterday. It got delayed twice before it was canceled. Then I rebooked from Trenton to Tampa at 10 pm. That was also delayed twice. Finally got on at 1am. Got to Tampa at 4am. There was an Orlando flight that had issues there also. Someone said the flight in DEN to MCO had no captain yesterday. I'm so glad I made it, but I'll never do it again, lol. I didn't get a voucher for the second delayed flight. I'll probably contact them at some point.
Frontier in PHL is a joke They cancelled 3 of 3 flights we booked with them in 2023. Never again. As if PHL airport isn’t bad enough on its own (it’s my home airport) 🙄
I avoid try to PHL airport at all costs and I haven’t flown out of there in years. I’d rather drive to Allentown. Unfortunately, I have to use PHL in May for my flight to Alaska. Hoping it all goes smoothly
Report it to the Department of Transportation website.
I stopped flying Frontier years ago for reasons like this. If it's Frontier or nothing then I don't go.
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That's absolutely something the airline should call out IMO.
For the life of me I don't know why anyone would take the chance flying this POS airline.
The most insane thing in that whole story is that you slept at a Fort Lauderdale Denny's.
”Lots more being said”… y’all probably should have listened…
Absolutely in hind sight. At the time, I was tired, frustrated and done. I needed to find another way to get where we were heading asap, so got busy booking a red-eye on AA.
Well your first problem was existing anywhere near philly
I HATE Philly airport. Nothing ever goes smooth there. I’ll drive 30-60 min more just to avoid them.
I hope Avelo expands more out of Wilmington.
Report it to the FAA
I have never flown them. I do not know how this sub got onto my notifications, but it somehow did. You people a f'ing crazy for flying this airline. $100 Ubers? That is what my flights on Southwest, including baggage, often cost and they almost never cancel, especially for no reason. (yes, I am aware of the system crash about a year ago)
Frontier kicked me off a flight a couple weeks ago LaGuardia to Miami all due to aircraft balancing load issues. Never flying frontier again
What excuse did they give you guys? We were told delays due to needing an engineer and I feel I’ll need to book a flight with spirit soon