Frontier continues to make sweeping changes to its business model as it searches for profitability, and now, it’s going upscale. The airline this week rolled out First Class along with the promise of upgrades and more for its elite frequent fliers. This is a strange development in the airline’s quest to get back to profitability.
When Frontier started making changes, it walked away from the a la carte model and moved more toward bundled fares that would in theory make it quicker and simpler for people to get what they wanted. This move required people to buy up to higher bundles for it to make any sense, but with the old model not working, Frontier thought it was worth a go. Apparently Spirit came to the same conclusion, because it did the exact same thing.
After the change, in Q3 2024, Frontier’s revenue per passenger was $105.83, down 8 percent from the previous year’s $114.71. This was not welcome news, so the airline is trying to find more ways to get that number up. So that’s why we see this latest announcement, but it also allows us to read the tea leaves on how things have been going.
Introducing First Class
Frontier had previously tried to make extra money off its existing real estate. It called the first two rows at the front of the airplane UpFront Plus. These rows were regular coach seats with extra legroom, but the middle seat would be blocked. The idea was that this empty middle along with the forward position on the aircraft would make it worthwhile for the window and aisle people to pay enough to justify the block.
Everything Frontier has said about this has been positive, but now it’s going to replace those two rows with First Class seating. That suggests UpFront Plus was not working as hoped, and this is a tougher change than you might think.
The new First Class will look like this:
Oh wait, that’s not it. It’s actually this:
It looks like a, ahem, big front seat. But the math is where I get confused here. Right now, I believe the extra legroom seats have 31 inches of pitch. (It’s 28 inches in the regular rows.) So, if you take those two rows out up front and put a big seat in, how much pitch do you need? As of now, there is only one other row with extra legroom in front of the wing on the entire fleet. Here’s a sample:
Let’s make the assumption that these new First Class seats have the same thickness as coach. That’s unlikely to be true, but it’ll illustrate the point. If the two front rows are replaced with First Class and then the third row goes back to regular pitch, that means you could get 32.5″ of pitch in the first two rows. If the seat is thicker, you get even less. This doesn’t seem workable.
What seems more likely is that Frontier has to give around 36-37 inches of pitch, what Spirit offers in its Big Front Seat, to make it a real First Class experience. This means you probably need to remove a row in front of the wing and then likely create more extra legroom rows.
That might not matter in a world where Frontier has a load factor problem, but it does mean unit costs will take a hit with six fewer seats on the airplane. If the UpFront Plus seating didn’t pay for itself, will First Class really do it? And will it be enough to even bother with the extra complexity of it all? I am far from convinced, but it seems like a play to really appeal to the more regular flier.
Making it Worth Becoming an Elite
The other round of changes involved three new improvements — like, real improvements, not when airlines pretend that terrible things are improvements — for the airline’s elite frequent fliers.
- Platinum and Diamond members get Frontier’s version of Southwest’s companion pass starting in mid-2025. Just fly, and you can bring a companion — doesn’t have to be the same person each time — along for just the government taxes and fees on any trip. The companion just has to be a member of the Frontier Miles program, and it has to be booked at the same time as the primary traveler.
- Gold, Platinum, and Diamond members get free space-available upgrades into the premium cabin starting early-2025. It’s not clear how early before departure those will clear.
- All members will be able to use their miles to pay for ancillaries and not just the base fare starting in mid-2025.
It always seems strange to me that someone would be an elite with Frontier except in a handful of cities where there is ample service, but perhaps this is a complement to the new “base” model where it has a handful of cities with aircraft based in them. If it wants to keep growing those cities, it will be able to offer more opportunities for people to fly the airline, so maybe more people can become elite.
The program itself doesn’t make it all that hard to get elite status, in theory. If you spend $1,000 in a year, you get Silver, $2,000 gets you Gold, you’ll be Platinum at $5,000, and then $10,000 makes you Diamond. That sounds tiny compared to other airlines, but Frontier doesn’t exactly have $10,000 business class fares like the network carriers do. To spend $10,000 a year on Frontier, you’re flying a whole lot on that airline. Of course, once you qualify, it’s easier to stay elite thanks to bonuses. You’ll only need to spend $5,000 a year going forward once you reach Diamond.
Perhaps what this is really driving at is Frontier wants you to get the credit card. If you do, you start off with Gold status right away. Then each dollar you spend on the card counts toward elite status. Is it possible that all of these changes are just an elaborate ploy to get sign-ups for the card? Yes, yes it is. The math doesn’t seem to make all that much sense unless you start to realize how this will lock someone into flying Frontier. If they feel locked in, they are more likely to get the credit card. We’ve seen this movie before.
So, instead of making money on fare, Frontier is really angling to make more ancillary money through credit card signups. CEO Barry Biffle said he wanted to grow loyalty revenues on the last earnings call. And he has also said he looks at total revenue per passenger as his metric. What components make up that number don’t really matter.
Of course, this requires Frontier to be able to be useful to enough passengers on a regular basis to get them to start this elite journey with the airline. This feels like a strange twist for an airline that used to compete on price above all.
34 comments on “Frontier Woos The High-Dollar Traveler with First Class, Upgrades”
A little off-topic here… can we stop this whole “GOVERNMENT” taxes and fees language. Pisses me off every time airlines use it as if there’s another taxation entity out there other than the government. Plus, the implication that the fees are so unfair we must not be blamed for them… when their whole business model now relies on exorbitant fees to pick a seat and bring a carry-on bag. Its just a way of trying to shift culpability of costs to an unpopular entity… Godforbid anyone pay for the runways they land on or the controllers who guide them there.
They’re basically saying, “Lets be clear, we’re not making you pay for the infrastructure, and we wouldn’t if it was up to us… now give us $39.99 for crappy internet please.”
Sam – Well there are airline fees, so it is important to differentiate between government-imposed fees and airline-imposed ones.
“Government-imposed fees” are called taxes.
Jim – Not true. Taxes are imposed for general revenue purposes while fees cover the specific cost of providing a service
This recipient of a Master’s of Accounting in Taxation couldn’t have said it any better himself.
A mandatory “tip” is also a tax (looking at you, room service.
Honestly it’s amazing that no airline has added a tip screen for flight attendants yet, and it seems like it’s only a matter of time.
Would their moves focusing more towards repeat customers signal that there might not be so much leisure travel to grab anymore and they’re trying to build a small businesses customer portfolio in their focus cities ?
I think this is geared more toward the “frequent leisure” travelers in their base cities with an emphasis on younger folks (Gen Z types) who want to travel regularly and are often open as to the actual destination.
These are people who will fly 4, 5, 6x per year. They have more flexibility dealing with the lousy timings of once daily or even 4x/5x weekly flights because (a) it’s leisure and (b) they value nonstops. Of course VFR is a piece of this puzzle but “frequent leisure” travelers are often open to the actual destination and might choose this based on fares for various locations WHEN they want to travel and are not necessarily fixated on WHERE they want to travel (the stimulated demand concept).
The more a “frequent leisure” flyer travels, the more likely they are to want to “buy up” into premium offerings and will start to value upgrades and other perks thus building more loyalty and perhaps increase their frequency of travel.
In other words, the group JetBlue targeted a couple decades ago before morphing into a network carrier despite massive, gaping holes in their network and chronically awful operations.
Chris – I really don’t think so. They’re just trying to get leisure travelers to fly more and fly witih Frontier when they do. Other than in a handful of places, it would be very hard to attract a business traveler.
So does that mean I was right? ;-)
With so many pax complaining about Frontier’s customer service and last minute cancelations, do they really think that this new plan is going to work?
Exactly. Frontier has isolated many budget-minded customers who might be willing to pay for this new product and I say this as someone who used to fly them and Spirit several times a year until 2023. Scott Kirby said you can get them once with the crazy fees, but not twice. Frontier has to build its reputation back. Of course, one could argue it’s a chicken and egg scenario, but the moves so far don’t inspire me to book a Frontier flight.
I read – don’t remember where – that they were keeping the “upfront” product behind the first class, which means it is shifting back and the entire change eats up rows. My point being you’ve assumed it isn’t working; perhaps it is?
Steven – I haven’t seen anything saying they’re keeping it, but I can see how it might be possible to think that based on the way it was worded. I assume Upfront Plus just stays until it is replaced by First.
So, F9’s press release led some to believe that UpFront+ will be sticking around *in addition to* First. I sincerely doubt this. There’ll just be two top-of-the-line products until every plane is retrofitted, and whether you get blocked middle or Domestic F as the top product will depend on whether the plane has been retrofitted yet.
That still leaves the question of whether they’re seriously considering having a single row of E+ other than exit rows, or whether they’re planning on removing a row somewhere to get enough space for more E+. If I were them I’d drop one row somewhere and reuse the two rows of E+ that they already have on every plane, which means that net of UpFront+ changes already in effect F9 will have 6 fewer seats per plane, 18 fewer E- seats, and 12 more premium seats…which is quite the shift.
On 321s seat pitch in the cheap seats is actually good enough (30-32″) that they could probably get to the above config without even removing seats, at the expense of dropping a bunch of the cheap seats to 28-29″ (which is where A320 seats already are) and dropping how much extra legroom E+ gets.
Super important to note that F9 E+ is actually one of the more generous 3×3 seating setups out there, with 36-38″ of pitch (36″ up front IIRC). So F9 can swap Domestic F in for the first two rows, at 36″, and not have to move anything else in the plane. This also gives them room to drop extra-legroom pitch outside exit rows to 33-34″ if that’s what it takes to switch rows 4 and 5 from E- to E+. Which, again, I figure they’re going to do because otherwise there aren’t enough seats to provide meaningful upgrades for elites.
Now F9 just needs to keep throwing routes at AUS. And add WiFi.
Ian – Are you trusting Seatguru? I wouldn’t do that. Aerolopa says this:
A321ceo Row pitch: Rows 2 to 3: 33″
Rows 4 to 10: 28″
Rows 14 to 26: 28″
Yeah, I was going with Seatguru’s numbers.
I’ll be on F9 later this month (in row 3) so maybe I’ll remember to bring a tape measure :)
I seem to recall F9 legroom being better in E+ than DL/UA/AA but there’s a chance that’s due to slimmer seats.
F9 – just keep throwing that (single) dart at the dartboard….. it will eventually stick somewhere that is a solid money-making idea!
(no apparent need to focus on customer service and/or running a super efficient operation in terms of on-time departures and arrivals)
? – if you add 1st class seats, what differentiates you and your product from any of the Big 4? And, why would corporate travelers choose you over one of the Big 4?
It would have to be 50% of what UA, AA and DL charges otherwise it’s too risky.
This isn’t targeted at corporate travelers. Likely high-end leisure and VFR.
I think it will be a compelling offering on routes where Frontier offers a nonstop but the Big 4 don’t. Could also win head-to-head on price, but that’s more tenuous.
Good for them for trying — though isn’t this all just putting “lipstick on a pig” and hoping that it works?
I don’t understand how anyone can achieve status with an airline like Frontier. It’s network is so disparate and inconsistent and they enter/exit markets at a moment’s notice. It’s hard to be excited about a new F9 route coming to town because it can last a month before getting canceled. Unless you’re flying DEN-LAS every weekend, I don’t see how Frontier can be relevant enough to any traveler.
I’ve taken a stab at imagining this theoretical traveler above, not sure if I’m on to anything though!
I travel weekly between ISP and MCO. It isn’t hard to get status on F9. The airline has served ISP for years. The annoyance is Frontier’s reliability and time changes. Due to their low price, you find a few people who make the journey on weekends alot.
It seems, to me, that they are configuring their planes exactly the same as Spirit to make the merger transition easier. Thoughts??
Or, alternately, to appeal to leisure travelers who like Spirit’s “Big Front Seat” when Spirit goes away, either in specific markets or entirely.
Spirit’s prepackaged bankruptcy and funds injection buys them time, but it’s still far from certain they survive in the long run.
I am a Frontier flier, but it has its issues. All my tickets had large schedule changes (+3hours), 2 months before departure. Frontier is stingy when large schedule changes occur, you can only change your ticket +-1 day. Southwest lets you change for a 14 day window. Southwest and legacy carriers allow you a trip credit if you cancel a regular economy ticket, Frontier doesn’t. It is a challenging airline to work with. The plus for the airline is I am impressed with the rollout of their phone customer service. I wish that group ran more of the airline.
Also a frequent Frontier flyer and completely agree. Love all these changes and working with the phone customer support has been excellent. Cant stand the schedule changes though, so many of my flights change times by +3 hours and since they only have one a day to many destinations it stops me from flying them for any critical travel. If they can settle on a route network and run it reliably that will do much more for them than anything else.
Not gonna lie, I had to double check it wasn’t April 1 to make sure this post wasn’t one of your April fools posts. Also checked if you had a guest post from the Onion. But alas, this is real but was most certainly NOT on my bingo card.
I honestly do not see how this works out for Frontier.
Either create a legit first class or don’t.
Spirit sells the hell out of the Big Front Seat, there’s a market for passengers who want a wider seat with more legroom but aren’t interested in paying a lot more to get some free booze and the mediocre food.
I flew Spirit once TPA-LAS in the Big Front Seat and the value for money was excellent. I just wanted more comfort (and brought my own food) and they sold me exactly what I wanted.
Is there data on Big Front Seat fully-paid load factors? Anecdotally, I had several Spirit flights where I received an email to bid on an upgrade to Big Front Seat, and won with the minimum bid (~$18). That indicates that at least on those flights, they weren’t selling well.
Agree it was an amazing value on long-ish flights, but that’s not really their bread-and-butter.
Spirit said they are transitioning to a full service Business Class instead of just the Big Front Seat, at least for routes longer than about 750 miles. Since Frontier is calling theirs First Class and not just a better seat that tells me they intend to treat it as a legit First Class.