Flying trouble with airline.. What do you think?

Frontier is terrible. I had an awful customer service experience with them a couple of years ago and vowed to never voluntarily fly with them again. They were able to rebook me for a flight the next day and told me that I was “lucky” that they had even tried. I went to the Southwest counter in tears with two small children in tow and was on a SW flight a couple hours later. Never again.

Having recently spent the night overnight in BWI, I think it's almost the norm these days.

We were trying to get home from vacation in Destin & PCB over the summer and we made it to BWI. We were already running late because the crew was running late making their connection, I guess. Once the crew arrived and got on the plane, it wasn't long after and they cancelled our flight, it was almost midnight. They claimed it was due to the weather in Norfolk, but of course everyone we knew in Norfolk said, "What weather?!" This was on SouthWest, they left us stranded there with nothing, all of the food places were closed EXCEPT the martini bar. My DH was happy but I don't drink martinis and we had our teenage DD with us. They did make us some sandwiches at the bar, that was really nice because the airline took about two hours to drag out a case of warm bottles of water and some pretzels ... people were camped out where ever they could find a cozy nook - some just sprawled out on the floor. You couldn't leave the airport and come back, there wasn't really enough time by then to find a hotel, settle in for a couple of hours and get back for the 6:30 flight. Total misery. I sat in a rocking chair all night, next to an outlet to keep my phone charged.

Our situation was a little different in that we didn't pay for the flights, we used points, and the points got refunded, but nothing on top of that. Flying is not what it used to be, that is for sure.

I think Frontier is notorious for bad or no service.

I also think this is why people use trip insurance. Not sure I would spend extra money on trip insurance for a Vegas trip though.... We get our trip insurance for free thru our credit card. Any chance she has a benefit like that?

I am sorry this happened to her.

Frontier is the worst ever! Co-workers got stuck in Denver and ended up renting a vehicle and driving all night back for work. Frontier gave them nothing on the cancelled flight. Didn't try to re-book them, hotel, nothing.

I know that Las Vegas area is getting hit with snow. The problem is it could only be an inch or two but they aren't equip for it.

This happened twice to my DD and I when we were flying Southwest. First time we were stuck in Baltimore late at night. We stood in line to be rebooked and I got on my phone and had us rebooked the next morning before we got to the front of the line. We were given hotel recommendations at a reduced rate. Some people opted to stay the night at the airport. It was just better for us to get a hotel. They gave us the cost of our one way ticket in a Southwest voucher.

The next time it happened, we weren't able to take off due to mechanical issues. There was weather in the Northeast and many flights were cancelled. We were told they would rebook us in alphabetical order according to destination city. So we calmly sat down. We were going to Boston after all and that is quite at the front of the alphabet. However,they were doing it via boarding order. I never worry about checking us in early due to my DD needing pre-boarding. We were something like B39. Anyway, I got frustrated and noticed they were sending people to another gate agent to help rebook. So I left my DD at that gate and went and stood at the other gate. By the time they got to us, we couldn't get out until the next morning with a 5 hour layover in Denver. They did give us a $200 voucher for Southwest. Since we were at our home city, I had the nerve to ask for my luggage. They were shocked! I made them get my luggage off the plane and we went home. I tried calling and came up with the same problem. I had to call and change our hotel and our rental car and change the dates.

From my experiences, I have learned to call your hotel. Most hotels are nice when things are out of your control - like a weather cancellation. But you need to do that ASAP. Also, the most you can expect from the airline is a travel voucher most likely in the amount of the one-way fare. This is customer service, even though we used the flight. I doubt that Frontier would do that. Also, I learned to ask for a hotel that offers a reduced rate for stranded passengers.

It's going to be a great learning experience for them. This seems to be the norm in flying now, and if they learn how to deal with it and get everything rebooked, etc - it will serve them well down the road.

As a Mom, I always want to 'take care of business' for them, but I realized I need to let them deal with it themselves now. But it sure isn't fun to get that call! LOL

Start posting on social media, including Frontier's Facebook page. It can't hurt!

Also, have they called the 800#? Call Us: 801-401-9000 *Say "feedback and concerns"

Fingers crossed that she might have coverage. 

I agree with the others that said this is a good learning opportunity for her.  But still sorry that she isn’t getting the trio she had planned.:-(

Why couldn't they reach anyone at the hotel?

They cannot do that unless the ticket is changed ahead of time.  If they don’t board the return flight in Las Vegas the ticket will be cancelled and they will NOT be able to board in Denver.  So they HAVE to make sure Fronteir changes the departure city to Denver.

I have no advice, but just generally wanted to gripe about flying. It's such a hassle and is hardly worth it. The amount of stress that goes into packing light, watching liquids like a hawk, long TSA lines, why are we not pre-check when I added the numbers to the itinerary, being bumped because the flight has been oversold... and that doesn't even get us ONTO the airplane. The claustrophobic conditions that we fly in now just about put me over the edge. I'll be glad when DH retires and I only need to fly once or twice a year to go on vacation (vs going to see family.)

  workingclassdog - you need to make sure they know to change their return flight with Frontier, otherwise their entire return ticket will be cancelled when they don't make that LAS>DEN flight.  Airlines are really clamping down on this, in part due to the "hidden city" itineraries.  


Being in Houston you don't have much choice if you want direct flights so I do fly United.  Haven't really had any major problems with them though it was much better when it was Continental.  Other than avoiding all ultra-low cost carriers and Southwest (not a fan of their boarding and no reserved seats), I will fly any of the major airlines.  At the end of the day, flying on any of them can be a pretty miserable experience with the cramped seats, fees for everything and crowds in the airports and planes.  

For the most part, I will also fly any of the major airlines. We fly AA mostly because it's our local carrier. I will say that AA has put us up in a hotel when the plane we were getting on had a mechanical issue and we ended up missing our connecting flight.  But for weather related issues or issues that aren't in their control, it's very unlikely.