[net.consumers] Experience with Frontier Horizon Air Lines

reza@ihuxb.UUCP (Reza Taheri) (11/28/84)

   This article is not just a complaint about Frontier Horizon Air
Lines.  It is also a lesson in "you get what you pay for" and a couple
of pointers on how to choose an air carrier.

   My wife and I planned on going to San Francisco for the Thanksgiving
vacation.  To keep the cost down, we decided to choose a cheap air
line.  Furthermore, the flight had to be non-stop from Chicago to San
Francisco because of our 18 month old monster, I mean daughter.  After
calling a number of air lines, Jane came up with Frontier Horizon as
the cheapest non-stop flight to San Francisco, all other air lines
were either a little (or a lot) more expensive or had stop overs.
She called a second time to make sure of the air fare and that the
flight was a non-stop.

   Problem No. 1: After waiting for two weeks for our tickets to
arrive we called Frontier Horizon.  They said that for some reason
they hadn't mailed the tickets and we had to go to a travel agency to
pay for and pick them up.  Fine, that wasn't a big problem.

   Problem No. 2: The plane was to take off at 6:45 a.m.  Now, waking
up at 4:00 in the morning is not the best way to start a vacation.  As
the commercials for the major air lines say you don't have to
sacrifice you comfort for *their* low prices.  A couple days before the
flight it occurred to me that for about $100 more I could fly a major
air line at a more reasonable hour (especially for my daughter, you
know how kids get when they wake up at unusual hours), but it was too
late by then.

   Problem No. 3: We arrive at the airport and look for the gate. Lo
and behold there is our gate with the sign "Flight xxx: Denver, San
Francisco".  Wait a minute.  We asked them twice for a non-stop
flight.  How could they make a mistake.  I honestly believe that
Frontier Horizon lied to us; but that's another story.

   Problem No. 4: I ask the lady at the gate to give us two seats where
the middle seat is unoccupied, so we can seat our daughter. She says
OK.  Of course some guy ends up sitting between me and my wife and we
have to go back to a different row where there are three unoccupied seats.
You see, ours was the only row in the whole plane where they seated
three people!  What did she think I said?  "Please make sure there are
three people in our row"?  I mean, isn't there a limit to incompetence?

   Problem No. 5: The plane is taking off.  A few seconds before it
leaves the ground, the pilot shuts off the engines and turns around.
"Sorry, we had a little problem, nothing to worry about.  We will try
again".  OK.

   Problem No. 6: The plane lands in Denver.  It doesn't land at a
terminal.  It lands in the middle of the airport.  There is a bus to
and from the terminal.  Basically you can't get out and stretch you
feet.  And you were wondering how they could have a low fare?

   Problem No. 7:  The plane is taking off again.  A couple of seconds
before it actually leaves the ground ... the same problem.  This time
the pilot says: "We have a minor problem that we have to fix before we
can take off.  It'll take about 15 minutes."

   Problem No. 8: TWO hours later the plane is fixed!  During this
time we have to comfort our daughter who is getting restless after
five and a half hours in the plane and I can't go to the terminal to
smoke a cigarette (no flames PLEASE!), we are parked in the middle of
the air port, remember?

   Problem No. 9: The plane was fixed by three 16-year old mechanics.
You know the kind that work in K-Mart and can't tune your car in 6
tries?  That's them.  Makes you feel real good, don't it?

   Problem No. 10:  We finally land in San Francisco after a 7-hour
flight.  First thing I do is try to change my return ticket.  After
finding their booth (not too easy) their guy tells me there are only
two non-stop flights to Chicago at the day and time I want to fly.
United has a flight but it'll cost me about $815.00 where my tickets
were bought for $330; Pan Am has a flight, too, but it is sold out.

   Right there and then I decided I didn't want to deal with Frontier
Horizon Air Lines ever again; not even by letting them exchange my
tickets.  I later went to a travel agency, where they changed my ticket
for the non-stop Pan Am flight (which cost only $60 more).  This is
the same flight that I was told was sold out.

   The morale of this tory is:
   1: Don't let the cheaper air fares fool you, you get what you pay
   for.
   2: Don't fly Frontier Horizon.
   3: Don't try to buy your own tickets.  Go to a travel agency and
   push them to check ALL the available alternatives for you.  If you
   find a major air line (United, American, Eastern, TWA, and maybe
   Delta and Pan Am) that is a few bucks more expensive than a
   cut-rate one, take the major air line.

H. Reza Taheri
...!ihnp4!ihuxb!reza
(312)-979-7473

hania@rabbit.UUCP (Hania Gajewska) (11/28/84)

I agree with most of your morals, except the last one ("Don't
buy your own tickets").  It should read: "Make sure you know
what you're doing before you buy your own tickets".  After
many bad experiences (of the sort you describe) with travel
agents, I ALWAYS make my own travel arrangements.  There are
books that publish all the flights available between any destinations,
including the information on the number of stops en route.
From those books I pick the flights that seem convenient, then
I check with the particular airlines for the lowest rates.
The travel agent has nothing to gain by finding the lowest
rates for you (not even a return customer: chances are you
would never find out there was a lower fare available).
There are also things that you might think of that the travel
agent would never know about ("Wow, there is a flight through
Denver -- if I take it, I would get the chance to see Aunt Mildred").
Maybe an ultra competent travel agent would change my mind, but
for now, I haven't found one that can do for me anything I can't do myself,
and so travel agents head my list of useless professions.

   Hania