I have flown Frontier four times in the past year, round-trips from Denver to Philadelphia and from Denver to Durango, Colorado. Don’t get too excited about flying to Philadelphia on Frontier. Not long after I flew there for Thanksgiving, Frontier discontinued service to Philadelphia directly. Instead, they began service into Wilmington, Delaware and Trenton, NJ. I have yet to fly to these destinations since they started and would probably choose to go with a different airline.

Service with Frontier is somewhat sporadic when it comes to being on-time. The flights over Thanksgiving were good, but the flights too and from Durango were a different story after having issues with the pressurization system before take off and the return trip not leaving until after it was suppose to arrive. Be sure to give yourself extra time when flying Frontier, the best way to describe the service is a no rush, we will get there when we get there mentality. No real rush of urgency to get you boarded and in the air when things are running late already.

Now purchasing tickets is different than any other airline. Frontier has 4 different fare options to choose from with many of them being for the same seat. One fare option is available if you book your ticket anywhere else, Basic, while Economy, Classic and Classic Plus can only be purchased at flyfrontier.com Basic Has the least amount of perks to it resulting in more fees, including for a carry-on, but you do have to pay if you want a soda. The Economy option is usually what I purchase because it includes a carry-on bag, I usually stuff everything into a backpack or small suitcase, is the cheapest option, and lets you pick your seat at the time of booking. A Classic fare will have you board before those with economy tickets and usually has seats available towards the front of the plane. Also with a Classic fare your first checked bag is free, but the ticket is still not refundable. A Classic Plus fare has all the bells and whistles. You get 2 checked bags, more leg room with Frontiers “Stretch” seating, refundable ticket, priority boarding, and free alcoholic and premium beverages on the flight.

Please be sure to double check with Frontier Airlines directly before booking your ticket as perks and options do change. Remember I mentioned they have been making a lot of changes?

I do have to mention Frontier’s frequent Flyer program EarlyReturns. I was able to redeem miles for my trip out to Philadelphia over Thanksgiving. You can start redeeming  miles for a one-way ticket for as low as 10,000 miles. This really did help around the holiday as a buddy and I were trying to visit family and the $400 roundtrip for each of us was certainly not in our budget. We were able to redeem 20,000 miles for the two of us to fly out to Philadelphia and then we purchased tickets for the first flight on Saturday, which helped us save about 60%. The system is really easy to use to redeem you miles and they have several different ways to earn miles, which I have gone into more detail on an earlier post.

Overall Grade: 3.0 out of 5

This is even with all of the changes they have done. In my travels I usually like to pay the least amount for a ticket, don’t check any bags, and want a seat on the plane. If you are the same and don’t need a lot of frills when you fly, then Frontier is a good option for you especially if you live in Denver. Otherwise there might be some better options for you with other airlines.

Note: Frontier’s website appears to prefer Internet Explorer and works sporadically on Firefox

note: not all frequent flier programs are available with every option listed. Check with your individual program to see who they are contracted with.

E-miles.com – I have been using E-Miles on and off for the past few years and it is a very simple way to earn additional miles or to keep your account active with your frequent flier program. They usually have short ads or videos for you to look at, then a short survey afterwards to earn those miles. There are ways to earn additional miles if you actually buy/donate or sign up for the services that are being advertised. Just today I logged in for about 10 minutes and earned 35 miles by just watching a few 30 second videos, closing out the pop ups and then answering the 5 question survey.

E-rewards.com – E-rewards is more survey based than E-miles. You can sign up for how many surveys you want to receive on average and you are rewarded on the avg length of time it takes a participant to complete the survey. Collect you rewards and then you can exchange them for miles with your particular program.

Rental Cars – Many airlines have agreements where you can earn miles with a rental car company that they are contracted with. Many times you can earn double or triple miles by using these. I know not an everyday expense or option but something to keep in mind.

Flowers - Not an everyday purchase, but it should be. Show those who are special in your life that you thinking of them. Again, many airlines are contracted with some of the national floral companies

Shopping - You can earn points by shopping online with select retailers. Usually you just have to log into you rewards account and then go through there to get to your favorite retailers. This is also available to some extent on e-miles.com so you don’t have to memorize as many places to go.

Utilities – I didn’t believe this one either, but with Southwest’s Rapid Rewards you can earn points for just paying your utility bill. There are certain restrictions and it is only offered in certain states so be sure to check this out to see if you are in one of them. What could it hurt??

I had flown on AirTran several years ago before the buy out. At the time almost all flights on AirTran had to go through their hub in Atlanta. The flight was from Philadelphia to Phoenix via Atlanta. My grandmother was also traveling with us and headed to Denver. She was on the same flight from Philadelphia as us but was then catching another AirTran flight in Atlanta that would take her home to Denver.

We were able to get out of Philadelphia on-time before weather hit and get to Atlanta on time. However, the issue with doing that is many of the planes being used by AirTran got caught in the weather in the northeast, thus when we got to Atlanta there were no planes there to connect with.

When you get delayed at airports you certainly try to make the best of it especially when it comes to weather because know one can control and and everyone just wants to get where they are going safely. Walking up and down the terminals checking out some of the little shops and their crap souvenirs can pass some time as well as finding the local bar and hanging out there. Unfortunately when you have a lot of people who are also delayed bar stools become a hot commodity to the extent that a black market starts to develop on who is going to get the next seat.

One of the issues that did arise during this delay is AirTran would constantly be changing which gates are going to have which flights. I understand that in these situations it becomes a free for all as an open gate gets more plans in so people can get on their way. However, it seemed the gates were changing multiple times on different concourses. You would leave one concourse to go to another just to realize upon arrival you needed to go back to where you were. This became very frustrating as we were trying to catch 2 different flights and help my grandmother to get where she needs to go.

There was a very nice gentlemen who was a gate attendant for AirTran that was very helpful in forming us on any possible changes so we didn’t have to keep running all over the airport. This alone, was probably one of the reasons I would fly AirTran again because jumping around to multiple gates an hour trying to find your flight was VERY frustrating and discouraging.

Once airborne again, the flight is fairly standard with nothing too exciting. The usual complementary beverage cart and peanuts/pretzels.

Overall Grade: 2.5 out of 5

Could be lower because no one likes to get stranded and be gate hoping across multiple concourses. However the score is higher because of recent events since this flight. AirTran is one of the only airlines I know that still issues standby tickets. It is only good for students age 18-22, but the offer is still there. Secondly, the recent buy out from Southwest. I enjoy flying Southwest and glad to see that via the buyout they are adding international destinations to their schedule

Update 8/26/2013 It appears AirTran is no longer offering their standby program for students. The program’s Facebook page has not been updated for over a year and the website directs you to the main page of airtran.com

The rest of the journey was simple and painless. Finding security was easy and also finding my gate. Security was no different than what you would find in the states and since they speak English it is a little bit easier rather than the experience I had going through security while in Frankfurt.

The flight was decent we left on time but it felt like we were late getting into London. As you may know Heathrow is the busiest airport in the world and only has 2 runways so things can get congested in a hurry! As a result many flights have to circle the area before landing. On my flight we were circling for about 25 minutes before landing. Unfortunately, that is also the time were you start to get anxious to get back on the ground so you can connect to you next flight and be home!

Keep in mind that this is not my first time where I have been on a flight where we have had to circle the airport, but it was the longest. Having a window seat I was able to look and see all the other planes in the area doing the same. At one time I could see about 4 other planes out my window. Some were as close that you could start trying to guess what the planes tail numbers were while others where more of a mere spec.

We finally landed without incident and made it to our gate. The flight was smooth and the flight attendants seemed to be helpful, but since the flight was so short there really was not much there to do.

Overall Grade: 3 out of 5

As you can tell by this review there was nothing much to call home about. There was nothing that really wowed me or had me wish that they had more flights going into and out of the US. The only issue was finding the right check-in line, but again that could have been on me with my current state of mind