Frontier Airlines

Frontier Airlines, Inc. is a major American airline known for it's ultra-low-cost carrier (ULCC) model. In spite of it's no-frills approach to air travel, Frontier Airlines has faced increasing criticism from consumers, journalists, advocacy groups, and the media for its unfair business practices. In 2023, Frontier Airlines was the most complained-about airline. Since 2022, Frontier Airlines received almost 6,500 BBB complaints, many of which consisted of specific issues like "customer service," "repair." Frontier Airlines customers have heavily-critisized the airline because of it's history of prioritizing profits over passengers due to the airline's deceptive and exploitive business practices.

Frontier Airlines

Basic information
Founded	1994
Type	Public
Industry	Airlines
Official website	https://flyfrontier.com/

Consumer-impact summary

Over the years, Frontier Airlines has earned itself a budget-focused reputation because of its controversial business practices and business operations. The most well-known of these issues are:

• Denying boarding for customers due to the voluntary overbooking of flights
• Not compensating passengers or providing worthless forms of compensation to passengers for operational shortfalls (e.g., lost/mishandled luggage, canceled flights)
• Engaging in bait‑and‑switch tactics by charging passengers for personal items that complied with the airline's posted bag size limits
• Charging customers exploitive fees (i.e., personal medical supplies, human customer support)
• Charging customers inconsistent fees without transparent price posting
• Charging customers succeeding fees in addition to the already-paid fee after the initial sale
• Temporarily removed its phone support in 2022, but reintroduced it in 2024 because of high customer demand
• Collect personal data on passengers before setting the price as part of their "dynamic pricing" approach
• Forcing customers to waive their right to sue or join class actions if they enroll in their fly pass program
• Sells passengers' personal information to third parties without providing passengers a way to opt-out

Incidents

Deliberate selling more seats on flights than available, then denying boarding for passengers

Compared to other airlines, including other airlines with a ULCC model, Frontier Airlines has the highest involuntary denied-boarding rate among carriers in the United States. In 2023 to 2024, Frontier had 3.21 involuntary bumps, the highest recorded number of involuntary bumps from 2023 to 2024. As a comparison, the American Airlines follows this number with a rate of 0.6, a rate 400% lower than Frontier Airlines. At about 3.21 involuntary bumps per 10,000 passengers, this means that a paying Frontier Airlines passenger is about eight times more likely to be denied boarding than an American Airlines passenger because of Frontier Airlines' practice of deliberately overbooking flights.

The following is an account from Frontier Airlines passenger, Erin Woltjen, who was denied boarding while attempting to board her flight from Philadelphia to Atlanta:

""I scanned my boarding pass from my phone and it didn't work. He looks at the computer and he says to us, 'I'm sorry, the plane's been overbooked.' And he goes on to explain that none of us are getting on the plane at this time."

The passenger was ultimately given a refund after speaking with a Frontier Airlines spokesperson. Many other passengers share Miss. Woltjen's experience of being denied boarding due to Frontier Airlines' budget-focused practice of overbooking flights.