Frontier Airlines 1

Horrid. As a Elite/Platinum flier on other U.S. carriers, I can honestly say that Frontier is the worst airline I've ever flown. Other airlines have their challenges, but Frontier sets itself apart. At the bottom.

Our first flight on Frontier was our whole family: two adults with two children 4 and under. No preboard opportunity, cranky gate agents and flight attendants, but we at least sat together. On the return, our family was scattered throughout the plane because we didn't get seats together when they assigned them at the gate. The gate agent told us we were out of luck for assignments and that it was up to us to negotiate with the other passengers to rearrage their seats so that my wife could sit next to our infant daughter. No attempt at customer service, no explanation, just a not-too-polite "deal with it yourselves" from their gate agent. OK, that was bad enough...

Fast forward two years: We're going to visit relatives in CO, and I'm shopping for fares. Frontier was a bad experience the first time, but their tickets are cheap. I can deal with some BS if the price is right. But this time I discover: You can't buy an economy ticket and select your seat. I can buy the cheap seat, but I have to wait until check in to get my seat. I'm still going to be travelling with two small children (ages 2 and 5) and I have to rely on the luck of the draw to hope to sit together, or perhaps on the charity and cooperation of the gate agent? That's pretty unlikely given our past experience. Sitting with my family on a plane is not something I want to leave to chance or the moods of a gate agent.

So I called their customer service and discovered that our other option is to buy a higher ticket class so we can get a seat so that we CAN SIT WITH OUT UNDERAGE CHILDREN. Of course the "classic" class sets us back an extra $300 for a family of 4. A 26% premium over the economy ticket so we can be assured that our family isn't scattered all over the plane? No thanks.

It's a free market: I'll GLADLY spend more money on a different airline just to be rid of this bait and switch crap from Frontier. Good riddance, Frontier! All the cutesy animals on your planes will do nothing to change to fact that you're the bottom of the barrel.