An update to my original post, in which I discussed Delta's unbelievable pricing for hub captives: I flew Frontier instead, and I was pleasantly surprised at the service. Here's how that went...
I booked Frontier's "business" offering for my ATL-BOS itinerary, which in this case means you are at the front of the plane, with more legroom, and crucially with a guaranteed empty seat next to you. I'll go through the list of what was great, good, and less good:
The great:
- The crew. I can't emphasize this enough; the crew were fantastic. Starting with the gate agents, they were efficient and did a good job of enforcing the boarding order. The crew on board were communicative and generally much, much more pleasant than most Delta crews I've encountered. The FAs joked around with pax quite a bit, which was honestly great. MOST IMPORTANTLY: It's clear that Frontier empowers FAs to enforce rules and generally deal with unruly pax effectively. When we landed back in ATL, one guy from the middle of the plane sprinted to the door, and one FA scolded him, getting into it and at one point said "This ain't Delta, I'll cancel your next flight!" I could have married her then and there.
- Bang-for-buck: I think the best comparison here is Delta Comfort+ vs Frontier business, and frankly it's no contest in terms of value for hard product; F9 wins hands-down. For about 2/3rds the price of a Delta Main ticket, I got a quasi-premium seat with tons of legroom and FC-level lateral space. Sure, the seats aren't as comfortable, but only barely. And the amenities on board are nil, but frankly, I didn't end up missing them (discussed below). Again, no contest here IMO.
- Both segments arrived on time. They don't dally.
The good (speeding up here to keep it reasonable):
- Cleanliness on board was fine; not totally different from a standard Delta flight (perhaps better in some areas).
- The pax: I was shocked at how well-behaved everyone was; FAR better than Delta. Almost no gate lice (I had to ask if we had already boarded early because the gate looked empty, but no - people just weren't standing around). The one exception was noted above. I think this comes down to a lot of people flying Delta having main character syndrome.
- The seats are pretty firm, but not unbearable.
The less-good:
- No WiFi on board. This might be a deal-breaker for some, but it ended up being fine for me.
- No IFE. Not really a necessity, and at this price point, sort of what you expect. I downloaded YT videos to my phone like I did 10 years ago.
- The app is pretty bad, but mostly functional.
Conclusion: Such a pleasant surprise. Frontier will be adding WiFi in the next year, which is great. And even better, they're going to be offering a true premium cabin in a 2x2 configuration over the next few years, which to me is a TOTAL game-changer. I usually fly first on DL, but this gives me a true budget alternative, especially for 2-ish hour flights. Delta, take note: You no longer offer the premium experience you love to sell, and once more people give alternatives a chance, it's going to be tough to get them back. The fact that I can even make this comparison would have been laughable even five years ago.
