For the frequent flyers and/or airline workers

[The Active 33]

Your thoughts and suggestions are appreciated...

 

I am supposed to be flying out next Thursday night at 7 pm (Frontier Airlines) for a wedding. The wedding plans have changed, and I need to be there by the afternoon. There are 2 flights leaving earlier in the day - 6 am and 10 am. I spoke with someone from the airlines and the only guarantee is spending $400 to switch flights. What are my chances of getting on one of the earlier flights if I get to the airport early in the morning (stand by situation)? Is there anything I can do to better my chances?

 

Thanks

[blatzlight]

did you buy your flight with american express? if so, they can help a ton! other than that - i would call frontier the night before, ask about how full the flights are, and then you are probably just risking it. there isnt a ton to do unless you have some clout as a heavy traveler.

[SeriesFinale]

Yeah, unless you've got the clout, I think if they're asking for $400 (which seems wildly exorbitant if they have the available seats...talk to them again) to change you should go ahead and look into booking another flight which could likely be cheaper than chance stand-by. It would be awful to show up at the airport at, say 4 AM for those morning flights and not get on either one and miss the wedding stuff.

 

Good luck, I fly relatively a lot but don't run into these issues often so hopefully someone who deals with this more can help.

[bullox]

I used to be a 100% travel worker and had issues like this one come up quite a bit. I would definitely ask them how much room the earlier flights have on them. It's quite possible that the room is highly limited due to the high price tag on a ticket switch. But on the chance that there may be a good amount of room on that flight, I would show up early and attempt standby. Things always happen - people miss flights, delayed connections make people too late to make their seat, etc. There is always a chance for standby depending on how full the flight is currently.

 

Edit - I was always a fan of Frontier Airlines. Watching ESPN while flying makes the flight very fast. (Every seat has tvs in the back, able to purchase the service for $5 last I was on one)

[cubfan1126]

Had this exact thing happen (booked Friday night for a Saturday wedding then found out wedding was Friday) but it was about 9-10 years ago.

Called the online discount agency that I used and was assured that it would not be possible to change a thing because the rate was severly discounted. They even yelled at me for suggesting it.

 

We went to the airport on Friday morning to fly stand by - No problem whatsoever

 

Bottom line if there is an empty seat and you want to fill it, they will put you in it. And they will fill your previous seat with someone else.

[chuckiehacks]

I fly Frontier a lot out of Milwaukee and always fly standby. In most cases, there is room for all the standby passengers, but I'll echo what several other posters have said - call ahead and see how much room there is. The Frontier reservation staff is always helpful. The first flight of the day is 6:00 AM or so, this one usually has the most available seats.

 

An alternative if you want to guaranty a seat is to look at other airlines. If you're only going to Denver, I'd suggest looking at Southwest from Midway. You can take the airport shuttle / bus to Midway, so your car will be at MKE when you take your Frontier flight home. If you're going farther than Denver, this plan gets a little more complicated.

[homer]

1) I'm willing to be you could get on that 6am flight. Just get there by like 5am.

2) It's always easier to negotiate with someone face to face than over the phone. If you really don't want to spend the $400 and don't want to stand by you can get to the airport and see if they'll just re-book you on the spot. Especially at that hour, a lot of agents probably don't want to deal with the fare change.

[PaulRigdon]

Just this past Friday I was in ATL for business and got on an earlier flight back to Milwaukee. It was on Midwest and I just had to pay $50 for stand by, but I got a seat assignment right away. It was a full flight. Maybe Frontier has an option like that?