I mostly fly United because it has the best connections between locations I fly in and out of. I have never flown Frontier nor Spirit and so far haven’t been tempted. I can generally get OK prices on the major carriers and have more confidence on their maintenance and training standards than some of the cut rate airlines.
My BIL did have an excellent experience on Frontier. Den to Cleveland - $29 each way. He flew out on a Thurs, probably took his laptop and a change of clothes in a small bag, and flew home the next day or Sat. His mother is in a nursing home and he went to visit. If a flight had been cancelled or delayed, no big deal. No luggage. He’d never pay extra for a drink or snack. For him, it was perfect.
For a vacation or something where you can’t be delayed or cancelled, I’d rather pay a little more for more of a sure thing.
Southwest finally started flying into Maine, but usually it’s more expensive than other airlines. But it was reasonable for flying to Florida this month, so we used it. Wow, what a pleasure! I love the boarding process. You actually have to interact with other people to find your place in line, and then everyone proceeds in an orderly manner onto the plane. The employees are friendly and our luggage arrived with no problem. I will fly Southwest whenever possible!
And if you have to call SW? They are SO SO nice. Once my daughter was on a flight that had a connection. I received a call that her connecting flight was delayed 3 hours. I jumped online and figured out she could get a much earlier flight to another LA area airport and still make her event. They couldn’t actually book the new flight for her because she wasn’t ‘officially’ delayed yet, but the agent put a hold on it. She landed, I told her to hustle over to the gate, the gate person talked to me and figured out what the agent had done (put a hold on the ticket for like $500), released the hold, put daughter on connection. I think the only one confused was my daughter, the SW agents and I had it all figured out.
And then they were so nice to track down her luggage and deliver it from LAX to Orange Cty, which was a lot closer to where she was staying. They handled it as it if were their problem and she had to change flights and airports, not her request to get there earlier.
The OP purchased “The Works” upgrade which includes seat selection (including the roomier “stretch seats”), priority boarding, one carry on and one checked bag. I flew Frontier for the first and only time (so far) in December when I had to go to Chicago on short notice for a funeral. Upgrading to the Works essentially doubled the cost but it was still a great price. The flight out was completely easy and uneventful. Then bad weather hit the area and I got an email cancelling the return flight with about 6 hours notice. I called Frontier and they offered to either give me a full refund or fly (or try to fly) me out the next day. I appreciated the 6 hours of advance notice and couldn’t blame them for cancelling since everyone else was too. I rebooked on Southwest. My Southwest flight consistently showed on the monitors and the website as being on time but in reality it left 5 hours late and I sat around for ages at Midway waiting for updates. Bottom line, I would fly Frontier again but only for a non-stop and with “the Works” package.
Yesterday we flew Frontier nonstop Denver to Philadelphia. Packed flight. We departed on time and arrived almost 30 minutes early in Philadelphia. Baggage claim was bad, long. The conveyor belt kept stopping. I think that’s more of a general airport problem than Frontier’s. Both checked luggage arrived.
We flew Frontier from PHL to Nashville, we also purchased the works and even with that the price was still considerably less than what we would’ve paid elsewhere. We didn’t have any issues at all. We have flown United, Southwest and American and so far Frontier was just as fine as those. I prefer the bigger airlines just for the number of flight options but if the times work and the price isn’t bad (with the works), then it’s fine.