My list of airlines I would never fly

Reverend Conehead

Reverend Conehead

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Here's my list of airlines that are so bad, if I were on one of their flights, I would ask for a parachute so that I can jump out:

Frontier

Rotten, crappy organization! I found my flight through one of the flight search web pages and Frontier had the best price. Then after I bought the ticket, they charged me for EVERY little thing to make up the difference. I had to pay another $25 to select my seat online. Then anything at all on the plane cost more money, even a small cup of soda, or a small cup of WATER. It cost extra to check even one bag, and even the carry on cost money. Then coming back it was another 25 bucks to select my seat. I'm surprised you didn't have to buy a lavatory pass just to take a whiz.

I don't like this business model! When I pay for a plane ticket, I want to pay everything for the flight up front, except for maybe luxuries. If you have a martini on the flight, then I can see why they charge for that. But not 25 bucks just to select your seat on their web page. Or for a cup of water!

I feel like they played dirty pool to hide the real price of flying with them. If I had known, I definitely would have chosen another airline.

Nix to Frontier. I would take Greyhound all the way across the country before I would fly on Frontier. Worst airline ever. I would hitchhike before I would fly Frontier.
 
Reverend Conehead said:
Here's my list of airlines that are so bad, if I were on one of their flights, I would ask for a parachute so that I can jump out:

Frontier
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We bought our tickets for Thanksgiving family vacation on Frontier two weeks ago. Yesterday they completely changed our first flight so that we would be arriving at 6:00 AM the next day not the afternoon before as originally scheduled. SERIOUSLY??? Our return flight was completely cancelled. Well, we completely cancelled flying with them altogether and got a full refund. We then booked our trip on another airline. So Frontier gets a big thumbs down from me also!
 
big dog cowboy said:
We bought our tickets for Thanksgiving family vacation on Frontier two weeks ago. Yesterday they completely changed our first flight so that we would be arriving at 6:00 AM the next day not the afternoon before as originally scheduled. SERIOUSLY??? Our return flight was completely cancelled. Well, we completely cancelled flying with them altogether and got a full refund. We then booked our trip on another airline. So Frontier gets a big thumbs down from me also!
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Good for you for pulling the plug on them. Maybe if enough people reject them, they'll realize their business model stinks. I'm not sure why they up and changed your flight times without your consent, but I'm sure it was some kind of cost-saving thing.

By contrast, I would like to mention whose service was excellent:

Turkish Airlines

I flew on them when I was going to Switzerland, and I only did so because the ticket was massively cheaper than anyone else. It was Omaha to Chicago (on United) then Chicago to Istanbul (on Turkish) and then Istanbul to Zurich (on Turkish). I even googled them because I didn't know anything about them in case I wanted to pull the plug on them. They checked out fine. Their in-flight service was very good. It included a meal, which was actually pretty good. All non-alcoholic drinks were free. They even included a sleeping mask and slippers to sleep on the plane. Everything was in both Turkish and English. Of course, I'll only fly with them again if I'm going to Europe, since they don't do US domestic flights. But they were great. Frontier could learn a few things from them.
 
Reverend Conehead said:
Here's my list of airlines that are so bad, if I were on one of their flights, I would ask for a parachute so that I can jump out:

Frontier

Rotten, crappy organization! I found my flight through one of the flight search web pages and Frontier had the best price. Then after I bought the ticket, they charged me for EVERY little thing to make up the difference. I had to pay another $25 to select my seat online. Then anything at all on the plane cost more money, even a small cup of soda, or a small cup of WATER. It cost extra to check even one bag, and even the carry on cost money. Then coming back it was another 25 bucks to select my seat. I'm surprised you didn't have to buy a lavatory pass just to take a whiz.

I don't like this business model! When I pay for a plane ticket, I want to pay everything for the flight up front, except for maybe luxuries. If you have a martini on the flight, then I can see why they charge for that. But not 25 bucks just to select your seat on their web page. Or for a cup of water!

I feel like they played dirty pool to hide the real price of flying with them. If I had known, I definitely would have chosen another airline.

Nix to Frontier. I would take Greyhound all the way across the country before I would fly on Frontier. Worst airline ever. I would hitchhike before I would fly Frontier.
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Yeah. We are learning that lesson with frontier right now. Unbelievable. I will never buy their tickets again after this upcoming flight.
 
DeathMonkey said:
Delta. I will never fly Delta again. For a 3.5 hour flight, I had water regularly dripping on me from the ceiling....on a freaking plane. That instills confidence....no..wait. What's the opposite of confidence?
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I have inspected parts on almost everything that flies scary huh. Have never been off the ground on anything that flies and will not.
 
Reverend Conehead said:
I don't like this business model! When I pay for a plane ticket, I want to pay everything for the flight up front, except for maybe luxuries. If you have a martini on the flight, then I can see why they charge for that. But not 25 bucks just to select your seat on their web page. Or for a cup of water!

I feel like they played dirty pool to hide the real price of flying with them. If I had known, I definitely would have chosen another airline.
Click to expand...

They disclose everything up front. I just did a search for a flight from DFW to DEN. It is $35. It will cost you more for an Uber to the airport than it will to take that flight.

f2NmLEo.jpg


CalPolyTechnique said:
Would love to hear CyberBob’s take on this subject.
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Ha, I work for Spirit now. Frontier is a competitor. I haven't been on a Frontier flight in a while, but they have the same business model we do. Everything is disclosed up front, many times on the Spirit website when you check in. I don't understand why people pay for a ticket and then get upset when the pricing model is clearly disclosed ahead of time. Some of the third party bookin

I will say that Spirit flight attendants are some of the most friendly in the business. Before I went to Spirit, I would ride on them to work quite a bit when I was based in NYC. AA by far has the worst gate agents and flight attendants.

Ultra Low Cost Carriers like Spirit and Frontier operate on an a la carte business model. You get what you pay for and that's it. Most of the time, you get out ahead, vs legacy carriers like Delta, AA, or United, even when you pay for a carry on and a snack box. If you want extra leg room, pay the extra $30 for an exit row.

I would rather fly on Spirit than Southwest.

CalPolyTechnique said:
Can’t say I’ve flown with them personally, but it seems like every video I see of passengers fist fighting on a plane is with Spirit Airlines.
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It happens at every airline, way more than it should. The FAA is cracking down on these people, as they should.
 
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Frontier did not use to be this bad.
I remember flying with them years ago and always was pretty satisfied based on the cost. My kids always loved the animals on the tail wing...haha.

When companies starting charging for everything separately, they went crazy with it. Haven't flown with them since.
 
It did not disclose the a la carte thing on the 3rd party booking site. Now that I know Frontier and Spirit do it that way, I'm simply going to avoid them. I want the list that you see on the booking site to be accurate. If some people like that a la carte business model, they can choose those airlines. I won't be doing so.
 
Never heard of them before but appreciate the info (just in case)

I liked Jet Blue due to being able to watch Direct TV on the headrest.

I like SW (now that I know the rules of first come, first serve regarding the seating lol) but not if I'm flying with more than one person. I was literally "fake" elbowing my way in to secure places for my family smh...felt like Springer for about 5-10 minutes until people found their places (or lost out on the good places)
 
American would top my list, but there's no way for me to get around flying with them. They've ruined more trips for me than any other entity. I can't fly it often, but I've always enjoyed flying Southwest.
 
I always found it so strange that I would buy a plane ticket and then have to buy the seat. Like... isn't that rolled into the cost of a ticket? When I go to a concert/theater I'm buying my ticket/seat. I never buy a ticket to a theater then turn around and have to buy the seat too. Makes no sense. It's all just a ploy to trick travelers into thinking they have lower prices. Frankly, I think those type of marketing tricks should be illegal
 
United. Lost luggage twice. The only 2 times I’ve flown with them…
 
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