In August of 2008, my daughter, wife and I flew from St. Louis to Jackson Hole, WY with Frontier Airlines. We connected through Denver. We planned somewhat poorly, with our last day in Yellowstone being our daughter’s last day of summer vacation. But we did have a great trip… at least until our attempt to return home.
Being conscientious fliers, we arrive for our return flight from Jackson Hole two hours early. We stood in a small line at the Frontier counter, where it was immediately clear our return home would be “eventful.” All of the other passengers at the counter appeared anxious, and we quickly learned our flight had been cancelled due to… no explanation. Weather was fine. No mention of mechanical problems. No air traffic clogs.
We were “checked in” to a United flight which would be leaving an hour or so after our scheduled flight, and we would still be able to make our Denver to St. Louis flight… the last one of the day. After being “checked in” to the United flight by the Frontier counter, we were told that we needed to go stand in line at the United counter.
My wife and I took our six-year-old to the United counter where we stood in line for one hour before being told by a surly older woman that she had no record of us, and we most certainly were not on any United flight to Denver no matter what we had been told by the Frontier people.
We walked back to the Frontier counter, where we waited again. I was irritated by this point, but I did not lose my temper. When we were finally helped, I explained the situation to a diminutive older man. I told him that I was upset, and I gently demanded that we be placed on a flight from Jackson Hole to Denver. I never raised my voice. I used no impolite words.
Whoa! That little guy did not have to take that from me! He yelled full throttle, to both my surprise and the surprise of the nearby likewise frustrated Frontier customers, “I do not have to put you on any damned flight! And I won’t if I don’t want to!”
The Little Napoleon with anger issues was right. He did not have to put us on any damned flight, and my family and I were entirely at his mercy. We could not get out of Jackson Hole without his help. Furthermore, it was peak Yellowstone season, and there were no lodging vacancies and no available rental cars. At any rate, the little charmer decided to get us on the United flight. He stormed over to their counter, stormed back to us and insisted we go back an wait at the United counter.
Unbelieving, we did so. Would we miss the United flight? No worries there, it had become delayed an hour for some inexplicable reason. After another hour in line wondering if our names would show up for the old bag at the United counter, we were relieved to learn that we were in fact on the delayed flight to Denver. Unfortunately, we would definitely miss our Frontier flight to St. Louis… last one of the day. My daughter was going to miss her first day of 1st Grade, and my wife and I were definitely feeling like bad parents at this point.
I called the 800 number for Frontier to see if we could obtain help in finding another route from Denver to St. Louis. No problem said the pleasant Indian gentleman on the other end. It would only cost me three same-day full fares. Would I like to pay with MasterCard or Visa? On principle, I refused to pay. First grade wasn’t worth that much.
Pissed off at Frontier and vowing to never fly them again… and I won’t, even if they are still in business… I made it through security with my family. I walked over to the gate agent counter at Frontier to let them know how much they sucked. Of course there was no one there. They had decided to cancel their flight, so why should anyone man their gate desk? Luckily for us, some industrious Frontier employee had created a list of helpful phone numbers. Among them was a customer service number for the gate agent to call if they needed help.
I copied the number and gave it to my wife to call… better her than me at this point. The fellow at the other end demanded to know how she had come by this special number. She sweetly lied and informed him that she had been given the number by the “non-existent” gate agent. He accepted this and immediately found us tickets for an alternative airline flying out of Denver to St. Louis.
We arrive home very late that night, and my daughter was pretty tired for her first day of 1st grade… but she was there. Thanks to a little forced customer service. 
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Kudos To Frontier Airlines
May 9, 2009
in Flying Hell Commentary
After reading all the horror stories on this site, I just wanted to make a kind comment about one of the BEST customer service experiences I have had in the past few years.
I was flying from Detroit to San Francisco (because flying out of my home city of Toronto was 3 times the price!) and flew with Frontier airlines for the first time. I have never had such helpful, kind flight attendants and customer service staff!
The flights connected in Denver both ways and upon my red-eye return flight, with a Denver layover of several hours, I needed to get my boarding pass for the 2nd leg of the flight. Instead of having to wait in the monstrous check in line for the airline (and in and out of security!), they suggested I just go to the Frontier customer service desk in the terminal I was already in and tell them I lost it. So sure enough I spent 3 minutes at their desk getting them to print out my boarding pass, instead of having to go back out through security and to check-in at their main desk. Thank you to Frontier airlines for being above the crowd! Especially well above the service we get through Air Canada!
Tagged as: air canada, flight attendant, frontier airlines
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