Frontier Airlines Customer Service: “The PR Department Would Like You to Shut Up”

Frontier Airlines: oh hi! Thanks for monitoring this social media space. I recently wrote that I wanted you to take over the Frontier Airlines twitter account, and you responded (online, without sending me a message).

Interesting read.

I wasn’t sure how to break it to you, and please appreciate the blunt honesty, but your out of touch and doing it wrong (and on the cover of both magazines).

So the problem is that your brand is getting its ass kicked by people like myself that have had a bad experience, and received no response. In my case, an employee lied to me as I tried to travel with a colleague causing me to leave six hours after I planed to. I blogged about it, and only after 10,000 page views was contacted by the company. By the PR department.

This is a problem.

Your PR department shouldn’t respond, your customer service department should. By the PR department responding, you are sending this message:

Dear Mr. Hyde:

Please shut the fuck up.

<3 Frontier.

Yeah, that doesn’t solve the problem. My original experience has yet to be addressed by anyone outside the PR department.

No amount of social monitoring or PR response can get around that major flaw.

So now your company is coming out of bankruptcy, and you must make a choice: be open and honest about your customer service or don’t. This has nothing to do with your PR department (which I think is understaffed and does a fine job). Are you creating passionate users or getting passive and lazy?

Yes, I call not monitoring and responding to social media lazy. I’ve personally spent over $5000 on plane tickets since the incident, with $0 going to Frontier. The cost benefit is far in your favor, but you refuse to participate. That is lazy. Look at the comments in the original post I wrote. Tens of thousands of $ is going to Southwest because their customer service has embraced social media, with their PR department.

When I wrote the post, I thought with about 99% odds that someone would say ‘sure, please transfer it over.’ They could have just pointed it at their automated feeds and been done with it. Everyone is happy.

But that didn’t happen. It didn’t fit into the PR plan.

So starting today the account will be used to repost people complaining about their bad experiences. Frontier has a serious problem, and that is they think social media monitoring is solely about brand control.

You don’t own your brand, your fans do.

No Frontier, I will not shut up.

G

Tech Reporter Patricio Robles over on the Econsultancy website ( http://econsultancy.com/blog/3987-social-media-and-risk-management ) just nailed it:

"While I can respect that your experience was troubling to you, it's not like your experience was egregious. From what I see, Frontier changed its standby terms, you missed the email in which the change was announced and you didn't like the fact that Frontier wasn't willing to let you get on an earlier flight at no additional cost. Most low-cost carriers have similar standby policies and as much as I hate to say it, your personal inconvenience at the airport due to a misunderstanding of policy is not really deserving of public outcry and it's not an indictment of Frontier Airlines either. It's not as if there's any evidence that Frontier is engaged in some sort of systematic consumer abuse."

"Just as brands have to decide when to draw the line and accept that they can't please anybody, consumer critics should do the same. It seems to me that you're investing far more time in this than it's worth, especially given that you'd be satisfied with an apology or free beer."

Bingo. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding.

You tweeted about the first Frontier blog entry on Econsultancy. Why haven't you tweeted about this one?
andrewhyde

Very cool, just saw that. I agree with him on many fronts.

I would add, most of the customers missed the notice. On a trip to Vegas all seven Summit members had no idea of the policy change (it didn't affect them, but were amazed that it was gone with no notice).

Perhaps that is the biggest issue.
G

"I would add, most of the customers missed the notice. On a trip to Vegas all seven Summit members had no idea of the policy change (it didn't affect them, but were amazed that it was gone with no notice)."

Very cook, just saw that. I agree with you on many fronts.

Lets start again:

Am I surprised that customers missed the notice? No. Many don't read the e-mails and snailmails from their airlines. Or they just glance to see what their mileage is and how long until they can get a free flight.

That, by the way, was why I suggested you find some way to track the policy webpages for the airlines that you fly and get a notification when one of those pages are changed. If the provider giving that service highlighted the change, so much the better. You said that filtrbox doesn't provide that service. It might be a good one for them to add. I'm sure there are all sorts of business cases where knowing when a particular public page of a competitor changes.

I was surprised by Southwest's change in policy. I decided to arrive at the airport way early for my flight. I failed to check southwest.com to see what their standby policy was. I failed to call the airline before I traveled to see my odds of getting on an earlier flight (they were zero -- unless I paid 2.5x more to upgrade to the "anytime" fare). I just traveled to the airport and expected that nothing had changed.

I'm sure thousands of people did exactly the same thing. I'm equally sure that all of them were upset for 5-15 minutes when they realized they werent getting on the earlier flight for free. Then they dealt with that and went on with their lives.

You're the only one I know who launched a negative campaign against an airline complete with buying a website.

"Perhaps that is the biggest issue."

Not on that front. Patricio Robio notes the point that I think is the biggest issue here:

http://econsultancy.com/blog/3987-social-media-and-risk-management

"Your personal inconvenience at the airport due to a misunderstanding of policy is not really deserving of public outcry and it's not an indictment of Frontier Airlines either."

Remember Spider Man, dude. With great power comes great respsonsibility. You've got to be responsible with your power. That is the biggest issue here.

Look at the Jeremiah Oywang example from that same article.
andrewhyde

Phil-

If you run a company and make major changes to your policies, you should clearly tell your customers.

I spent $7 and about two hours on this.

A massive change in policy should expect customer backlash, and they should have prepared for it by being lenient for the first time a customer tries to go standby, for instance.

I'm summit now, so standby is free. I was a flight away from that during the incident. Perhaps this should have been looked at? There was no amount of money that could have gotten me on that flight, I was lied to for the reasons why.

Change your policy = alright, just be honest about it.

You have already been banned from several local events, and are very close to being banned from commenting.
G

"Very cool, just saw that. I agree with him on many fronts. "

Of course you do -- your just not saying which! That's sort of a Karl Rove kind of non-response.

Do you agree your experience was hardly egregious?
Do you agree that you missed the email?
Do you agree you got upset because Frontier didn't let you on for free?
Do you agree that Frontier's competitors have identical -- or even more restrictive -- policies for free standby flight?
Do you agree that your personal inconvenience at the airport due to a misunderstanding of a policy is not really deserving of public outcry?
Do you agree its hardly an indictment of Frontier Airlines?
Do you agree there's no evidence that Frontier engaged in some sort of systemic customer abuse?
Do you agree that consumer critics in cases like this should draw the line and not launch a malicious multimonth campaign when it was clearly unwarranted?
Do you agree you'd be satisfied with an apology or a free beer?

Those are the points that Tech Reporter Patricio Robles made in his commentary. Which of those fronts do you agree with? Which of the fronts do you disagree with?

You also failed to explain why you didn't tweet to your audience on those subsequent articles -- like http://econsultancy.com/blog/3987-social-media-and-risk-management. Don't you think your followers would be interested in seeing when several posters start to critically look at the claims that you made?

Don't you think your public would be interested in the vastly different way that Jeremiah Owyang publicly delt with a problem where he thought a business should be giving HIM something for free? That's discussed in the social media and risk management article thread.
andrewhyde

Do you agree your experience was hardly egregious?
No, but having policies changed in a hidden manner is.

Do you agree that you missed the email?
I never received any notification of the change. Other friends have also checked to find the same thing.

Do you agree you got upset because Frontier didn't let you on for free?
There was no option to pay, I tried. Because the ticket I had, I couldn't upgrade.

Do you agree that Frontier's competitors have identical -- or even more restrictive -- policies for free standby flight?
United does not, nor does JetBlue, or most international carriers.

Do you agree that your personal inconvenience at the airport due to a misunderstanding of a policy is not really deserving of public outcry?
I think that a major policy change by an airline that effects quite a few people should be done in an open and honest way, especially with the loyal fans.

Do you agree its hardly an indictment of Frontier Airlines?
...

Do you agree there's no evidence that Frontier engaged in some sort of systemic customer abuse?
I remember having their phone lines busy for six days after the blizzrd of 05

Do you agree that consumer critics in cases like this should draw the line and not launch a malicious multimonth campaign when it was clearly unwarranted?
It clearly was. And we found out they have absolutely no customer service outreach online.

Do you agree you'd be satisfied with an apology or a free beer?
No. I said that in reference to a comment about me not reaching an agreement with me, my point was their was no outreach.
3G

Frequent flyer on Frontier here. I got dinged by the same issue as Andrew and was pissed. But then I got home and saw my Estatement and saw the link to the change in policy. Probably not the most visible I'd ever seen, but it was communicated. Later I asked a gate agent I know why the change. Just like that earlier article she said customers were gaming the system booking the cheapest ticket out there knowing they could standby on a different, cheaper flight. Not crazy about that either, but you can't blame a company for maximizing revenue. I'm not saying Frontier doesn't have a few issues but I do not get this rant. And it doesn't look like you're hurting them much either. They've made money for quite a few months in a row where they were losing money like crazy before. You're kidding yourself if you think you own their brand. Just like a crappy baseball team. Unless you get 30,000 people to agree not to show up and the team has an empty stadium, your rants don't matter. You've seen the Rockies the last decade, right? Be nice, be reasonable, be honest and you've got a shot a company will throw you a bone. Otherwise, companies know there are other fish in the sea social media or not.
G

Hear, hear! A voice of reason!

Andrew took a break from the discussion; I don't know if he now understands that there is a cost to the airline allowing free standby flight at any time.

G3: can you post an image of your Estatement with your personal info blanked out that shows where they gave the notice? From what I see in google, the change was announced around the end of July last year.
andrewhyde

Again, you are wrong, please troll somewhere else.
g

"Again, you are wrong, please troll somewhere else."

Costs to an airline in permitting free standby travel are enumerated in the comments to the thread http://econsultancy.com/blog/3987-social-media-and-risk-management

If you think those reasons are not valid, please state why there in that thread. Simply labeling them as "wrong" does nothing to forward the discussion.
andrewhyde

The argument isn't against if the airlines can or cannot do standby.

The argument is if they should have been honest and open about the changes, in which they were not.
g

"The argument isn't against if the airlines can or cannot do standby."

Then why did you bring it up? In the comments on this thread, you said:

"There is no cost difference for flying on one plane or the next one. I didn't have a bag, the difference would be that one plane would be heavier by myself and my bag."

Airlines can indeed incur a cost difference for flying passengers free on an earlier flight. Both http://www.wallstreetfighter.com/2008/08/southwest-airlines-their-standby-policy-good-business-or-bad-service_04.html and comments in http://econsultancy.com/blog/3987-social-media-and-risk-management .

"The argument is if they should have been honest and open about the changes, in which they were not."

The user 3G here noted that they did indeed tell customers about the change in their e-statement.
2G

G, either you work for Frontier Airlines or you really have too much time on your hands. If it's the former and you are from their PR department, this would suggest that Andrew's post was incorrect, about saying they do a fine job. In any case, you are giving them a worse name. Ever heard that the customer is king? Is this a concept dead in the water these days?
G

"G, either you work for Frontier Airlines"

No.

"or you really have too much time on your hands."

Compared to Mr. Hyde, I've spent very little on this topic. And he already dismissed someone who told him to "get a life". On that point, I agree with him.

"In any case, you are giving them a worse name."

Maybe. It depends if you're approaching this emotionally or rationally. I've posted a URL to an analysis of why Southwest charges for flying standby. Did you read that?

Similar dynamics are in play for Frontier airlines. And, as a rule, airlines that are in a similar part of the market are going to have similar rules.

"Ever heard that the customer is king?"

Yes. Have you read http://www.wallstreetfighter.com/2008/08/southwest-airlines-their-standby-policy-good-business-or-bad-service_04.html . How do you think "customer is king" should apply there? I'd welcome a rational discussion on this.

When I had a 4-hour wait before my Southwest flight, should I have told them that "customer is king" and insisted that they let me fly standby for free?

Should I have started a SouthwestFail.com website?
andrewhyde

I've verified that G isn't an employee of Frontier.

Although we are getting quite a few hits from their office.
g

"I've verified that G isn't an employee of Frontier."

And you also ignored the questions asked here. In an environment where there is a real cost to Southwest and to Frontier for offering "free standby", how should they deal with that?

Why have you continuously had tunnel-vision in your condemnation of Frontier? You told us you referred thousands of $ to Southwest, yet they have essentially identical restrictions on flying standby.

If you really cared about the issue of free standby flight, you wouldn't be targeting a single airline. That's part of the hypocrisy of your position.
It means your "cause" is hardly something that's just.
andrewhyde

Questions asked by a troll like yourself, yes I do ignore some of these.

But the valid ones, I answered.

Thanks for playing Phil. Go troll elsewhere.
g

"Questions asked by a troll like yourself, yes I do ignore some of these."

By your own logic, that's a bit of a self-serving definition.

You also ignored the commentary of Patricio Robles in http://econsultancy.com/blog/3987-social-media-and-risk-management, who noted that your experience with Frontier Airlines was hardly egregious.

I'd say that you ignore the questions/commentary that call your claims into question -- no matter where they come from.

You tweeted about the "Frontier Fail" blog entry on the exonsultancy.com blog, but you failed to tweet about the "social media and risk management" entry from the same blog: the first place where there was actually a discussion and debate about what happened back in November, and whether or not your response was appropriate. Why not? If your purpose is having your followers understand the issue, you'd be tweeting about all of the blog entries about it.

Back in http://andrewhyde.net/spec-work-panel-at-sxsw/ , you admitted that some in your claims in your "ponzi scheme" blog entry may have been a bit childish:

"The panel was organized by the folks at CrowdSpring, which, perhaps childishly, I have called evil and a ponzi scheme."

Perhaps it's time to admit the same thing may have happened in your interactions with the Colorado company Frontier Airlines.
andrewhyde

Thanks for trolling Phil!
dirkmshaw

Hey Andrew.

This is a great post. It shows that Frontier does not know how to A.listen to social media and B. respond. They are not different from many organizations. Companies are struggling to figure out how to align their organization. Given the state of their finances they probably do not have nay resources they will dedicate to a "Alternative" channel. FAIL......

If they were smart they would have offered you a job. This would have been a nice move. Whether you would have taken a job working for the man is another ?

You have highlighted a huge opportunity that is being missed by many who just dont get social media and the influence of people like yourself..

Good stuff.

dirk
@dirkmshaw
G

The airline that Andrew moved to has essentialy the exact same restrictions on flying standby.

The big complaint at the top of frontierfial.com is their standby policy. Do you think Andrew will start a southwestfail.com site with the same complaint?
dirkmshaw

Personally my take was less about a policy. Frontier is either missing an opportunity to engage in a dialog with the market or is choosing to ignore it. Policies in a industry with razor thin margins will changing should come to no surprise to any of us. A lack of customer communications seems to be a challenge.
G

Dirk: The obvious question is why Southwest Airlines has no sort of PR problem while they have even more restrictive policies on their standby program.
A while back, I was in Vegas and I traveled to the airport about 4 hours before my Soutnwest flight. After going through security and getting to the gate area, I learned that they required that I either have or upgrade to an "anytime" fare before they would let me fly standby.
Rather than fight with the airline about it for hours, I just found a place to get organized and get some work done.
I have posted the URL which analyzes the negative impact on Southwest if they allowed free standby flight; similar dynamics are at play with Frontier.
Why am I hearing nobody object to Southwest's policy? Andrew clearly doesn't object; he proudly talks about sending thousands of dollars (presumably in tickets) to that airline.
andrewhyde

Having a policy and sticking to it = no complaints.

Having a policy and silently getting rid of it = complaint.
andrewhyde

Yeah, again, you are wrong.

The standby policy changed without notice, that is the main complaint.
G

If that is true, then you need to talk to the owner of frontierfail.com and explain to him that the banner at the top of that webpage says:

Frontier Airlines, my previous favorite airline is in a downward spiral, limiting features such as flying standby. It doesn’t seem like they are listening to customers… are they? Knock, knock, anyone here?

Telling different stories about the "main complaint" on different websites is an andrewfail.

Way to go.
andrewhyde

So an argument I made six months ago compared to an argument I made about the situation that proceeded is a fail.

You really are smart Phil.
g

The point, Andrew, is that your message is confusing.

The message on frontierfail.com has always been confusing. Southwest Airlines doesn't offer free standby on earlier flights, either. If dropping that free service is a sign of a "downward spiral", then why aren't you complaining about all airlines that don't have that service?

Attacking one airline with a policy you don't like is a #FAIL. Criticizing the policy industry-wide would be a service.

You can see a stark contrast between what Andrew Hyde has done here and what Jeremiah Oywang did in his blog post about hotels charging for WiFi access: http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/06/08/hotels-dont-charge-us-for-internet-use/
He notes that he personally will avoid in the future the hotel that charged him for WiFi last weekend. But he hasn't launched a campaign against that hotel or the chain that hotel belongs to. Instead, he tells us about the practices of charging for WiFi in all of the hotel chains. He's looking at having a real and positive impact over the entire industry.
andrewhyde

Thanks for trolling Phil!
Gregg Tobo

Pity.

Pity that the ticket agent lied to you instead standing up for the policy.

Pity that the agent wasn't empowered to override the policy to convert you into a fan.

Pity that customer service has not responded to your complaint to try to win you back.

Pity that Frontier thinks that social media is about announcing special fares via Twitter.

Pity that Frontier doesn't see the enormous value of getting their customers to talk about how happy they are to have chosen Frontier.

Pity Frontier; I hope they figure it out.
Grant

I also think that there are better fights to pick - than this attack on Frontier. God knows I have plenty of very personal gripes with Frontier Airlines, but with this post I feel like you are shooting yourself in the foot.

I thought that the response from Frontier was reasonable enough, as disappointing as it is that it came from their PR department vs their customer service dept.
Not G

I fly Frontier 1-2 times a month. They emailed me about the standby policy change, it was mentioned in their frequent flier print mailing and there were signs up at the airport.

If you've stopped flying Frontier, why continue this relentless personal attack on them? It seems like you're trying to use this all for personal gain.

I hope you will treat United and Southwest the same when they let you down.
andrewhyde

Can you forward this? I never received it, or know anyone that has.
G

Each of the airlines has a webpage where they keep their official policies.

Can't you just have filtrbox.com send you an alert whenever those webpages change?
Sully

Ha!
Every boo's a boost, Hyde. Just make sure to shave before traveling with Frontier airlines. I can't wait for hi-speed rail.
Orville & Wilbur Wright

This comment was the same IP as several other moronic comments.

Removed.
Charles Augustus Lindbergh

Dear Mr. Hyde,

Please get a life.

This comment was the same IP as several other moronic comments.

Removed.
andrewhyde

It only took me 500+ posts for someone to tell me to get a life.

A small victory.
G

This has gotten rather disgusting.

Here's the truth: Frontier has a policy that didn't allow you to fly standby for free. The reason they do it is that's their policy. There was space on the plane. And you took it personally.

Why did the count agent lie to you saying there was no space? I don't know. Maybe she felt threatned by a 6foot3 angry guy who hadn't shaved for several days. And you haven't been entirely honest in your Frontier blogz either.

You told us that there is NO COST 2 airlines for flying passengers standby. How do you know this? Which airlines have you run? I can think of several costs even if they don't have to move the bags to the new plane. Can you?

You also told us that the max reasonable charge for allowing standby should be 10% of the fair. What airline did you spend that $5000 on? Do they allow standby for 10% of the fair? Southwest doesn't let you do that! If you have a decent Wanna Get Away fair, it'll cost you at least double to fly standby with them. And that is the "No hidden fairs" airline.

If you only flew on airlines that allow standby for 10% of your discount fair, you have been walking to your destination.
andrewhyde

Would totally agree with you on that, except the point that they didn't promote that they stopped with the standby policy. I've flown standby with no problems for the last two years with them, then suddenly, poof.

No email saying 'a couple changes.' Just gone.

There is no cost difference for flying on one plane or the next one. I didn't have a bag, the difference would be that one plane would be heavier by myself and my bag.
G

Why didn't you just google on

frontier airlines standby policy

to make sure? I did that, and I got the exact policy in about 15 seconds.

What airline did you spend the $5000 that you were going to spend on Frontier? Do they allow standby for 10% of the fair?

If they don't allow standby for 10% premium of your discount tickets, then why do you fly that airline?

How do you know that the airline incoors no expense for moving you to another flight? What do you base that claim on? I can think of several costs even if they don't have to move the bags to a new plane. Can you?
andrewhyde

I can't think of a cost either. Same product a few hours earlier.

Found this too.
http://iterativepath.wordpress.com/2009/06/06/pricing-when-cost-to-serve-is-0/
G

That discussion does what you did: it starts from a presumption that there is no cost to allowing customers for no fee on an earlier flight. It contains no analysis of what the hidden costs would be to have that practice. It contains no analysis of the airline industry at all.

http://www.wallstreetfighter.com/2008/08/southwest-airlines-their-standby-policy-good-business-or-bad-service_04.html explains what one of the costs is for allowing free standby. It can most definitely impact the bottom line of the airline.

Way to go. Good job.

Are you now ready to retract your claim that there are no costs for the airlines in allowing people to fly free on earlier flights?
G

Besides the wallstreetfighter.com article, I enumerated several real costs that airlines have for offering free standby in comments of the article http://econsultancy.com/blog/3987-social-media-and-risk-management several days ago.
You haven't responded to either of those. Some things you think are facts are clearly not.
Please correct your errors now.
andrewhyde

Phil-

Yes, if widespread standby isn't free.

But since it is such high risk, I see it happening very little, and in the case of a random meeting (in this case noticing the day of that Jeremy was also flying back) doesn't cost them a thing. If this was a way to get around booking, then no, that is right.
g

"But since it is such high risk, I see it happening very little, and in the case of a random meeting (in this case noticing the day of that Jeremy was also flying back) doesn't cost them a thing."

Your claim was that there are no real costs to the airline to allow passengers to fly free on earlier flights. That "fact" is not true; see the references above.

You made a claim that was false.
andrewhyde

Why do they allow it then?

Why does United, JetBlue, and most every international carrier I can find do it?

Thanks for trolling, have a nice day.
g

"Why do they allow it then?"

The fact that some airlines allow free standby on earlier flights doesn't mean that there are no real costs for them to provide that service.
http://www.wallstreetfighter.com/2008/08/southwest-airlines-their-standby-policy-good-business-or-bad-service_04.html described precisely what it would cost Southwest to provide those services. I also enumerated four real costs for airlines to provide the service in http://econsultancy.com/blog/3987-social-media-and-risk-management

That's about the seventh time those URLs have been mentioned in the discussion. Do you have any commentary about the facts that are discussed there?

Your statement that there are no real costs for the airlines in providing free standby to earlier flights was incorrect. Any assumptions/justifications in your argument based on that "fact" are invalid.

You are very free in throwing out epithets in your comments. If you don't mind, I would prefer to discuss the facts. Do you have any commentary about those two articles?
andrewhyde

Thanks for trolling Phil.
Rags Srinivasan

That was my post, thanks for referring it.
Suppose we took this to the extreme (like economists usually do ), since the marginal cost is zero to carry a passenger, can we argue that if there are empty seats then the airline should allow someone to fly for free?

Like yourself, most customers are smart and know that the cost is zero and tend to expect that the airline allow a free standby. This knowledge of zero cost sets their reference price and hence the outcry when the airline charges for it.

Does this mean the airline should charge all its customers? No. It should know the lifetime value of its customers and should give preferential treatment. So if they tracked the data that you are a frequent traveler they should have waived the fee - they should show you the fee nevertheless waive it so they get to improve the reference price in your mind but do not turn you off with the fee.
Ryan

I like to think I'm a smart guy, but I can't think of any costs associated with allowing a passenger to fly standby that aren't also the exact same costs of having that same passenger fly on a later flight.

Please do share your insights.

If I were an airline, I'd encourage standby, because it would free up tickets on future flights which could be sold to new passengers.
G

The most successful airline over the last few years has been Southwest, and they charge for upgrades. They require that you upgrade your fare to their netime rate in order to fly standby.

The mystery intensifies! Why would the most successful u.s. airline do this? They know it costs them goodwill to not allow standby, but they do it anyhow. Clearly there is a significant positive impact on their bottom line to charge what's often a 100pct+ premium on their discount ticket price in order to fly standby.

You can find some of the answers in this blog entry: http://www.wallstreetfighter.com/2008/08/southwest-airlines-their-standby-policy-good-business-or-bad-service_04.html

Does that satisfy you, Ryan? Or would you like some more discussion?

There is still a large mystery for me. Andrew reports that he's now spending thousands of dollars on Southwest. If you look at his frontierfail webpage, youll see the following reson:

"Frontier Airlines, my previous favorite airline is in a downward spiral, limiting features such as flying standby. It doesn’t seem like they are listening to customers… are they? Knock, knock, anyone here?"

And that's what he started complaining about six months ago: that he had to pay in order to fly standby on Frontier. He specifically said that he thought that anything more than a 10pct premium in the discount ticket price was too much.

Guess what? Southwest charges for standby on everything but their "anywhere" and bus select" tickets, and the premium seems to always be far more than 10pct.

If a 10% preem on discount tickets is too much to fly standby, why did Andrew move his business to Southwest?
andrewhyde

I haven't flown southwest in the last four or five years.

Way to go.
G

Yet you are promoting them. Way for you to go!

"Yes, I call not monitoring and responding to social media lazy. I’ve personally spent over $5000 on plane tickets since the incident, with $0 going to Frontier. The cost benefit is far in your favor, but you refuse to participate. That is lazy. Look at the comments in the original post I wrote. Tens of thousands of $ is going to Southwest because their customer service has embraced social media, with their PR department."

Did you get your questions answered about how it does indeed cost the Airline to offer standby at any time?

Would you like to explain to us how the most successful airline out there has just as restrictive a policy on standby as Frontier? Would you like to explain why you praise them in the discussion?

There's a screw loose in your discussion. Several actualy.

Way to go.
G

Andrew: you tell us that you will not shut up about Frontier. But when someone points out the holes in your arguments, you do shut up.

If your arguments made sense, you would at least mention Southwest Airlines in your commentary of restrictive standby policies. But, clearly, you are not. You've never said a bad word about their policy -- even though it's more restrictive than Frontier's. What you have told us is that tens of thousands of $ is going to Southwest.

What's the difference between your attacks on Frontier and what a knee-jerk reactionary would do?

The only difference is that you have more skills on the internets.
andrewhyde

Sorry, busy season at work.

I don't know how and when Southwest changed their policy, but I would guess it was just a bit more open then the sly move pulled by Frontier.
G

A google on

southwest standby policy

and looking at the second hit would have answered the question: it happened well before your November, 2008 incident: http://www.wallstreetfighter.com/2008/08/southwest-airlines-their-standby-policy-good-business-or-bad-service_04.html

Why would you tell us about tens of thousands of $ going to Southwest after your little incident, since their standby policy is just as restrictive as Frontier's? Why send all that business to Southwest?

In other words, your story doesn't add up.
Mike Sullivan

Andrew, nice response. I second the sentiment, that Frontier or any company that wants to play in the social media realm "must make a choice: be open and honest about your customer service or don’t".

Frontier: Take this as article as constructive criticism, a how-to on getting into social media. I know the price of gas is in the airline death-zone, so perhaps pr is underfunded. If you going to use twitter, find a person, with a real name and *gasp* a photo, someone like Andrew, to be personal on twitter.