Frontier has been surprisingly quiet about its latest product change, a new premium economy section called Stretch. I saw it mentioned on their Facebook page, and I believe they mentioned it on their earnings call, but I haven’t seen much else. This will be good news for some and not-so-good news for others. Still, I think it’s a smart move that will have many benefits for the airline.

Stretch is pretty much the same as Economy Plus on United and Even More Legroom on JetBlue. You’ll get 4 more inches of legroom than you get today (36 inch seat pitch) if you sit in the first four rows, but the service is the same as coach. Of course, if legroom goes up on some seats, legroom goes down on the rest of the plane. Good news, bad news, see?

Originally, Frontier had 33 inches of seat pitch (the distance between a point on your seat to that exact same point on the seat in front of you). A year or two ago, they reduced that to 32 inches throughout the airplane. Now with this new change, Frontier says the number of seats won’t change, so as long as you can operate a calculator, you can figure out that this means legroom is going down in the back. They say most seats will have 31 inches of pitch but there will be some with 30 inches and some with 32 inches.

So how do you get those seats up front? Well you have to start by getting an airplane that has them in the first place. The Embraer 190s that are flying for Frontier have them now. The few A320s in the fleet will be done by December 15. The A319s will be done by February 1, and the lonely remaining A318s will be done by December 24 . . . 2010. My guess is they’ll be out of the fleet before they even bother with those. 2009. Looks like it was just a typo on their part.

If your airplane has Stretch, then there are a couple ways you can sit there. Remember, Frontier follows the Air Canada model of having distinct fare classes with different benefits. So if you’re in the top tier class (Classic Plus), you get to sit up there without additional charge. That’s the only way to get up front at the time of booking.

At the time of check-in, there are a bunch of other options. If you’re in the middle tier (Classic), you can sit up there for an additional $15 per segment. If you’re in the cheap bastard tier (Economy), it’s $25 per segment. Remember, that’s per segment so it could be $100 on a roundtrip with a connection.

The only other way to get up front (besides begging the gate agent and possibly showing some skin) is to be an elite member in the EarlyReturns frequent flier program. Actually, only the top tier Summit members get to sit up front, and they only get it at the time of check-in. The lower tier elite Ascent members have to pay just like everyone else. Same goes for the unwashed masses who have no elite status.

Overall, I like this plan. It provides a tangible benefit to those who purchase the Classic Plus fares. Creating value to encourage people to buy up is a good thing. And since they aren’t reducing the number of seats, it takes very little for this to be a revenue winner for them.

There’s also one more benefit. You know all those flights Frontier is operating for Midwest? I bet this ends up being sold as Signature Service when using the Midwest brand name. Of course, that’ll be a shadow of what Signature used to mean, but at least it’s something they can, pardon the pun, stretch across the brands.

[Updated 11/11 @ 746p to fix date on A318 reconfiguration date]

We’ve talked about how Republic’s acquisition of Frontier and Midwest has given the carrier tremendous flexibility in moving its airplanes around between its different subsidiaries. We’ve already seen announcements that Frontier will operate aircraft under the Midwest name, and some of the Republic-operated Embraer aircraft will come to Denver to operate for Frontier. Now, we’re seeing something even more interesting. Republic will have a single airplane operate for both airlines on the same exact day.

Dan Webb picked up on this one in his Things in the Sky blog. Midwest has announced it will fly from Omaha to both Orlando and Tampa using Embraer 190 aircraft. You might remember seeing that Frontier will fly from Oklahoma City to Orlando and Tampa. Hmm. So here’s how the aircraft is scheduled for the Orlando run. (Tampa is virtually identical.)

Midwest Lv Omaha 750a Arr Orlando 1150a
Frontier Lv Orlando 1220p Arr Oklahoma City 215p
Frontier Lv Oklahoma City 250p Arr Orlando 630p
Midwest Lv Orlando 7p Arr Omaha 905p

Pretty crazy, right? I mean, it may make a lot of sense, but I have so many questions. I assume that they can operate both brands out of the same gate in Orlando and Tampa fairly easily, but there is still the potential for customer confusion. And what about the onboard product? If they are going to keep flipping between airlines like this, they’re going to need to seriously consider the product that they’re offering. It should require a closer standardization between Frontier and Midwest, because otherwise they could create some real customer service issues.

Also, how did they decide to make Oklahoma City on Frontier and Omaha on Midwest? I know that historically Omaha has had a decent Midwest presence, but I would hardly call it a stronghold. They’ve apparently created a line somewhere breaking up the territory, I suppose.

I must admit, it’s pretty cool to see an airline try something like this. It really does show the flexibility of brands, but it requires a certain skill when it comes to implementation. We’ll see if they can pull it off while still maintaining a good customer experience.

United Learns That Some People Don’t Want Free Upgrades – BNET
United has now made upgrades free for all elites, but that doesn’t mean everyone is happy. They’re taking away benefits as well.

Slight Gains in Premium Traffic in August – BNET
The IATA premium traffic monitor is out again and the news is, well, slightly better? Yeah, I guess so.

Complaints Go Down as On Time Percentage Rises – BNET
This shouldn’t be a surprise. On-time performance goes up, complaints go down. Go figure.

how not to check a bag – Anti-Bride
Some tips and tricks for avoiding having to check a bag.

Frontier Airlines Tries To Diversify Away From Denver . . . Again – BNET
Frontier has decided to add flights between Oklahoma and Florida. Hmm, this could work.

Lufthansa Brings Back Internet Over the Oceans – BNET
It’s been a long time since you could use the internet on an intercontinental flight. It’s coming back.

Road testing the Cranky Concierge – Gadling
Grant Martin over at Gadling took Cranky Concierge for a spin last weekend. He liked what he saw. Read the details.

Expert travel assistance from a travel dork – Musings of The Global Traveller
Another look at Cranky Concierge. Come on, give it a shot if you haven’t yet.

Bloggers offer paid travel services – Washington Times
Nicholas Kralev takes a look at my Cranky Concierge service as well as a frequent flier redemption service from View From the Wing blogger Gary Leff.

September 2009 Traffic Numbers – BNET
September traffic numbers are out and the results are pretty good for JetBlue and Southwest.

Episode 68 – Cranky Yet Again – Airplane Geeks Podcast
For some reason, they let me back in the door once again for another fun-filled talk about airplanes. Giddyup.

Frontier President Sean Menke Heads to Republic – BNET
Frontier’s chief is heading to Republic to oversee all their brands. Consolidation seems to be happening faster than I thought.

Mokulele and go! Join Forces to Cut Capacity in Hawai’i – BNET
Mokulele and go! are done competing. They’re going to effectively combine to once again make Hawai’i and two carrier market.

Republic Adds 10 More Embraers to its Growing Fleet – BNET
This week, Republic continued to build its arsenal of airplanes here on the mainland. They acquired 10 more Embraers 190s from US Airways.

Why Being Geeky is Cool – JetWhine
Rob has a really nice mention of my Airplane Geeks appearance and he talks about Cranky Concierge.

JetBlue’s All-You-Can-Jet Pass Considered a Success – BNET
Friend-of-Cranky and Aviation Queen Benet Wilson talks to JetBlue SVP Marty St George about the success of the All-You-Can-Jet program.

Well, well. It looks like the Republic Airways integration has now begun. In November, we’ll start seeing Frontier A319s flying out of Milwaukee under the Midwest name. Later that month, we’ll also be seeing Republic Embraer 190s come out to Denver to fly for Frontier.

The A319s will be doing the kind of flying you’d expect from Milwaukee – longer haul and Florida (where volume is king). The flights to Vegas, Phoenix, and LA (including my holiday flight this year) will be on A319s as will flights to Orlando. Later that month, another airplane will start flying to Tampa and Ft Myers.

You’ll remember that the LA flight was supposed to be operated by the long range Embraer 190s, but that’s not the case anymore. So where will those airplanes go? They’re heading to Denver to make up for the loss of the A319s. Those will be spread on flights throughout the Frontier system.

It appears that the A319 flights will be operated as Midwest Airlines flights but they’ll be flown by Frontier crews. Go to midwestairlines.com and do a search. You’ll see they say some flights are operated by Frontier Airlines just like you’d expect to see from a regional carrier. (Those flights don’t show up on frontierairlines.com.) This is just what I thought might happen to Frontier, and I think it’s smart. Putting the A319s on longer haul and high demand routes like Florida in the winter makes a lot of sense. It allows Republic to shift capacity to better match demand now that it has a more flexible fleet.

These flights were apparently just loaded because you can see the Embraers in Denver on frontierairlines.com and the A319s in Milwaukee on midwestairlines.com, but I don’t see them anywhere else yet. I imagine it will be loaded into the other reservation systems this week.

And now, to answer the most important question on all your minds . . . will there still be cookies on the A319? It seems the answer is yes. On the Midwest site, it clearly states that there will be “Best Care Cuisine” on these flights. That includes fresh-baked cookies. Whew. I know you were concerned.