This little guy calls the Providence Airport home I will often recommend the so called “discount” or “no frills” airlines to those who are flying in and out of Central Florida. Because of their low fares, I was able to fly to New England to spend time with my parents five times in 2019, for what it cost for one flight a few years ago. The catch with the discount airlines is that you will pay for all the extras; everything from your seat to your carry-on to a cup of coffee. I recently shared with you what happened when my flight on Frontier was cancelled last October, and how they awarded me with a generous flight voucher.
The voucher that I received was for $400. There were a couple of stipulations. I needed to book the flight within three months (I didn’t have to fly that quickly, just book the flight) and I had to use it all on one trip. Anything not spent would be lost. Since my husband, daughter, and I were hoping to spend Christmas with my parents and many other members of my family, I knew that wouldn’t be a problem. Fares around Christmas are always a lot higher.
When looking for flights, I found a flight to Providence, RI on Southwest that worked for us time-wise. It was early on Christmas Eve day, which meant we would have plenty of time to spend with my family. Finding a flight home was a little more challenging. The flights on Saturday, December 28 were way out of my price range, even with the voucher. I then noticed that there was a flight at 6:00 on Frontier the morning of Sunday, December 29. We could take that flight and be back in Orlando in time for church! It was also $76 per person, which was much cheaper than anything else any of the days that I was looking at.
There was only one problem with the fare that I found. At $76, our three flights would come to $228. Anything that I didn’t use on the voucher for that flight would be wasted, and it seemed a shame to me to virtually throw away almost half of the voucher. That was when I realized that for the first time, maybe I should take advantage of the extras that I usually don’t pay for. The bundle called The Perks would cost an additional $53 per ticket. That meant that I would not use only $13 of my voucher. That was a number that I could live with.
There are two main bundles that Frontier offers. With The Perks, you receive a carry-on (in addition to your under the seat bag), a checked bag, your seat selection, and Zone One boarding. The other bundle, The Works, contains all of that, plus flight flexibility and refundability. Seat selection on the flights that I take usually costs about $14, a carry-on $35, and a checked bag $30, so $53 was a pretty good deal. I ended up getting my flight for $129 per person, which was a lot cheaper than any of the other airlines that weekend.
It was nice to not have to worry about what seat I’d get stuck in for three hours. I picked a row of three seats for us that were near the front, we were in row four. That made it so convenient when it was time to deplane! I told both my husband and our daughter that we were all bringing a carry-on and a checked bag. Those are included with Southwest, so there was no extra fee on that end. I didn’t care if the bags were empty (they weren’t), we were bringing them!
The flight home itself was fine. One of the flight attendants was really rude to me when we got on the plane, but everyone has bad days so I took it in stride. One nice surprise was that we ended up arriving at Orlando International Airport about 40 minutes early. That time was eaten up waiting for our bags, but that’s okay. Checked bags always take a while, which is why I try to void checking a bag whenever possible.
I still will avoid paying for the extras whenever possible on Frontier. I don’t care too much about where I sit on the plane, and as I’ve shared before I’m really good at packing a week’s worth of things into a backpack that will fit under the seat. That said, The Perks is something that I would consider adding again if I needed extra space. It worked well for us, and the most important part is that I was able to spend Christmas with my family.