The crunch of the airline industry post-9/11, coupled with an unfortunate merger and the general trends in the airline biz, have made Frontier not much better than UAL or other major carriers. The "$2 for a drink" and extra charges for carry-on bags just completes the picture.
Most airlines seem to have latched onto a two-part model: (1) charge for everything, (2) focus on frequent travelers. That leaves non-business travelers and families going on vacation in a big, black hole. Or flying Southwest, which seems to be (mostly) bucking the trend.
So, Frontier: if you want to charge me for drinks, then add the $2 (or, hell, make it $5 for refills) onto the ticket. While I am price-sensitive to some degree, I will also favor airlines that are a pleasant experience within a certain margin. Giving me marginally lower fares in return for forking over $2 for a club soda is not pleasant.
Reshared post from +The Denver Post
The Denver-based carrier, Frontier Airlines, will begin charging for drinks and carry-on bags by the summer for customers who buy the "Basic" fare — which is the cheapest bracket — from a third-party site.
Frontier Airlines to charge some customers for carry-ons, drinks
Frontier Airlines announced Wednesday huge changes to its fee structure, including charges for beverages and overhead bin space for some customers.
Even if I weren’t a Summit member of Frontier’s frequent flyer program, it doesn’t seem like all that much of a hardship to book directly at Frontier’s website, where you still get all the “perks” included. Even when I do use an external travel website to search for fares, I always buy directly from the airline’s own site. This is just a good impetus for others to do the same.
Well, I note it's only for third-party sites. I tend to favor Frontier, but I pretty much always book directly through them. Not only do you avoid the extra third-party crap, but if you book early enough, the upgrade to the stretch seating (which isn't a ton of extra room, but it definitely makes a difference) is only $5/segment.
The Euro-style cheap-and-nasty airlines with too-good-to-be-true headline fares have arrived in the US? Will they be flying to cities 100 miles away from the city you actually want to get to as well?
The article is unclear. It appears that the "Basic" fare is only on third party reservations (though the whole Basic / Economy / Classic / Classic Plus nomenclature is just silly). If you go through that, you'll end up paying for carry-on. The article does in places seem to say that Economy fliers will have to pay the carry-on, but whether that's Economy just through third party isn't as clear.
Seems like Basic and Economy will have to pay for drinks, regardless.