Like many carriers, Frontier Airlines likes to promote its website as the best place to book, and it has even gone so far as to claim that it is the only place where consumers can book particular fares.
It turns out that’s not exactly true.
The issue came to a head when Frontier issued a press release telling consumers that the only place they can book an economy-class seat and not have to pay to use overhead bin space and earn a 100% mileage level in Frontier’s EarlyReturns program was on Frontier’s own website.
In fact, agents can book an economy fare for their clients in their GDSs and their clients get all of the benefits, including free use of overhead bin space and the same frequent-flyer mileage accrual that they would get if they were booking that economy ticket on Frontier’s own website.
Frontier made a similar statement last September when it touted FlyFrontier.com as “the only place customers can book Frontier’s popular Classic and Classic Plus fares.”
The travel agent page of Frontier’s website offers instructions — as many airlines and other suppliers do — about how to book its tickets in GDSs.
It gives instructions for booking basic, Classic and Classic Plus fares, but not for economy fares. The basic fare is a GDS-only fare that is 10 cents less than the economy fare — so the GDS defaults to that fare because it is the lowest — and also comes with a penalty: Basic fare buyers have to pay between $25 and $100 to use overhead bin space and earn just 25% of mileage flown instead of the 100% an economy passenger will accrue.
But the website does not tell agents how to book the economy fare in the GDS, although the fare is in there.
Finding that fare can be difficult.
“It takes some effort and is a bit tedious, but a savvy agent can figure out how to book the economy, Classic and Classic Plus fares in a GDS,” said Jacqui Matthews, co-founder of Pyramid Travel, an Andavo Travel affiliate based in Aspen, Colo. She said that if she needed to book an economy fare with Frontier, she would call the airline first for instructions.
And ASTA, which worked with Frontier to give ASTA members instructions for a workaround that would enable agents to book an economy seat for their clients, also advised agents to call Frontier’s agent desk to make sure they were ticketing seats correctly and not running the risk of a debit memo.
“It is the biggest slap in the face to me,” said Donna Evans, another Andavo Travel affiliate based in Denver who booked an economy ticket and selected a seat for a client on Frontier using her GDS this week.
Queried about statements in its press releases that are apparently misleading, Frontier said that its press releases were aimed at the general public, not travel agents.
“The press release last week and the one in September were meant for the general public who book through third-party sites, not for travel agents booking through a GDS,” said Kate O’Malley, manager of corporate communications for Frontier.
One of those agencies is Denver-based Polk Corporate Travel Management, which swiftly took steps last fall to reassure its clients that Polk could indeed still continue to provide them with full service.
Nancy Siebenneicher, senior vice president of client relations for Polk, said that the September press release was “infuriating.”
Polk has long worked with Frontier, which has a very loyal customer base. It has a contract with Frontier, in part to pass on lower fares to its corporate customers who aren’t big enough to have a contract with the airline.
“That memo did not affect us, but we still had to react to it,” Siebenneicher said. Polk sent a memo to all of its customers telling them they could still book economy-class seats through Polk and continue to use overhead bins for free and to earn 100% of mileage.
Follow Kate Rice on Twitter @krtravelweekly.