I tried Frontier’s New UpFront Plus Seating. Is it worth the asking price?
I recently traveled on Frontier Airlines to try out their ‘new’ UpFront Plus product. For those not familiar, the airline has essentially started to block the middle seat in rows one and two of all flights in hopes to make a few extra dollars in ancillary revenue from passengers willing to pay for the added comfort of ensuring the seat next to them is empty. It only seems appropriate that the airline that just debuted a new ‘BizFare’ program for business travelers to introduce a business class product.
While the initial announcement of the UpFront Plus seating product intrigued me, I was quickly overwhelmed with confusion and many questions regarding how the airline would approach enacting this change.
For an upcoming flight, Frontier is asking $79 for UpFront Plus.
With a product start date of April 10th announced, I quickly noticed that the seat map on the airline’s website had been adjusted to show seats 1B, 1E, 2B, and 2E blocked, no longer available for advanced selection. Next to these blocked icons were new purple ones for the rest of the available seats in the first two rows, each with the astronomical asking price of $129. In shock, I then checked the remainder of my upcoming flights to see similar pricing for this ‘new’ product. For context, as a Platinum Elite member of Frontier Airlines loyalty program, FrontierMiles I was previously offered any available seat at no cost during the booking process, with no need to upgrade myself at check-in or jump through hoops to select the seat of my preference. Now, for the same seat, albeit with the guarantee of no neighbor I would need to fork out over a hundred dollars.
I selected my preferred seat of 2A for this flight and anticipation rose as my first flight with UpFront Plus approached. The morning of my flight I received an email alerting me that a smaller capacity aircraft had been substituted and that they needed volunteers with flexible travel plans to take a later flight. Cue the warning bells going off in my head. If they had sold more tickets than seats existed, surely the gate agent would assign the empty seats in the first two rows.
At the gate, our aircraft arrived and before boarding began the gate agent made an announcement. “Attention Frontier passengers in the gate area for flight 2261 to El Paso. We are looking for 7 volunteers with flexible travel plans to give up their seat for the next available flight and a $300 travel voucher”. This announcement worried me further that my earlier suspicions would turn out to be true. Though I had selected an UpFront Plus seat, surely the gate agent would assign one of the extra passengers the seat next to me to avoid an involuntary denial of boarding.
After some crowding at the gate the flight boarded rather uneventfully. I boarded the aircraft, found my seat, and waited for someone to occupy the seat next to me. However, that time never came. The gate agent boarded the aircraft to finalize paperwork with the cabin crew. During this time, a flight attendant from the rear of the aircraft approached about an issue with a mother who brought a child who was too old to be a lap infant. During this discussion I listened as the flight attendant suggested moving around passengers in the first two rows. This suggestion was quickly and firmly rejected by the gate agent who explained that the system would not allow them to put passengers in those seats. The woman and child exited the aircraft and were replaced by one of the 7 volunteers. The four middle seats in rows one and two remained empty.
Upon landing in El Paso I spoke with an acquaintance employed by a third party company who is contracted to work for Frontier as a gate agent. While they wish to remain anonymous I was provided with some more context as to the process one should expect when purchasing or upgrading to UpFront Plus. I was happy to learn that if any passenger in a row elects to purchase or upgrade to UpFront Plus, Frontier’s system will not allow them to assign other customers in the middle seats. However, if at the time of boarding if customers were randomly assigned upfront plus, the middle seat may be assigned to customers awaiting seat assignments. Standby crew are also not entitled to these seats unless the aisle and window seats were randomly allocated, and not purchased or selected in advance. I was pleasantly surprised with how Frontier Airlines is starting this new program and look forward to my upcoming flights with added room to stretch out. While this new product may have seemed confusing, experiencing it and seeing it being upheld on a full flight was definitely reassuring.
Previously ‘Stretch’ Seats, rows 1 and 2 are now UpFront Plus. While nothing about the seat has changed, there is now a guaranteed empty seat.
While I feel that the product is overpriced, I really think that UpFront Plus could be enhanced by the airline to make it a more enticing for travelers. Unfortunately, UpFront Plus seats don’t come with any sort of priority boarding, so there is still a fight for overhead bin space at the front of the aircraft. Unlike euro-business (which is the same type of ‘middle seat empty’ product offered by European airlines) no snack or drink service is included with the ticket and the middle seat has no true barrier to denote it as UpFront Plus. Adding priority boarding and an included drink and snack could really enhance this product to be more enticing for business and leisure travelers alike.
So, is UpFront Plus worth the $129? That’s an easy ‘no’. I would never pay over $100 for this. However, on a full flight with a longer travel time I would have easily paid the promotional rate of $49 knowing that I would be receiving the product I paid for regardless of the flights actual capacity. Frontier may be on to something cool here, but the product could use some enhancements before I consider forking over cash for it again.
