Y ou have probably by now read that Frontier Airlines is having a sale for one day only — today, Wednesday, August 19, 2015 — where you can purchase low airfares for as low as $15.00 per flight one way; so you probably might be surprised as to why I ignore Frontier Airlines sales.
What you may not know is that you cannot book a round-trip airfare for $30.00.
Let us say you want to travel from Denver to Salt Lake City; New Orleans to Atlanta; Trenton to Charlotte; or Cleveland to Orlando — all of which are advertised at $15.00. Excellent, right?
Now book a return flight on any of those routes — or any of the other routes advertised for $15.00. Or $29.00, for that matter.
What’s the matter? Can’t find that return flight for $15.00 as well? They seem to start at $69.00?
Oh, well…$84.00 for a round-trip flight is not terribly bad — except for one thing:
You must be a member of the Discount Den to take advantage of the sale today. Hey, it is only $49.00 per year to be a member. Even if you only travel once, now that airfare is…
…$133.00 round-trip.
Oh, and seats are limited at these low airfares and certain flights — as well as days of travel due to blackout dates; and travel on Fridays and Saturdays are excluded — may be unavailable. If that was not enough, terms, conditions and restrictions also apply.
Suddenly, that does not seem like such a great value after all — especially when there are legacy airlines within the United States which are offering competitively low airfares which include the benefits of elite level status, more frequent and convenient schedules, and amenities you will not find on airplanes operated by Frontier Airlines.
I am not saying that a great bargain cannot be had if you play your cards right and carefully research your flight options — you can probably string together a bunch of $15.00 flights to multiple cities to somehow get you back to where you started if you planned on visiting those intermediate cities anyway — but for the most part, I do not feel that it is worth my time and effort to score a $15.00 flight that will never cost me only $15.00…
…even when I only include the Discount Den membership fee into the equation.
Although I might do so one day, I have never flown as a passenger on an airplane operated by Frontier Airlines; so I cannot comment on the flight experience — but I have not had a compelling reason as of yet to do so…
…and I do not want to be a paying member of a discount club where it seems that I cannot ever get the return flight for the same sale fare as the outbound flight…
…but this sale is fantastic if you happen to only need to fly as a passenger on an airplane operated by Frontier Airlines in one direction; if your schedule is flexible; if you are able to travel within the next couple of months, as travel for many of the flights must conclude by Wednesday, October 14, 2015; and are already currently a paying member of the Discount Den…