dracir1

Agreed. JetBlue foiled plans he (and Franke) have had for a while now. TBH, I like the nature of his thoughts wrt being the only/dominant ULCC. For now....

I'm sure in the not so near future, there will be a reckoning where remaining a ULCC (vs. paying what's necessary to keep employees) will hit a brick wall and a decision will need to be made. I do think the revolution will come from the FAs and/or contracted help as I don't think the pilot force is willing to every do what's necessary. It is what it is.

turbojet28

Merger or not, the airline will eventually need to invest quite a bit in technology/infrastructure if they wish to truly grow and operate the way they would like to. It looks like the call-center closure is one step on that path.

I can see the vision for a nearly 100% app-driven customer experience where there is little need for actual front-line interaction, but in order for that to be successful, there needs to be an extremely robust and user-friendly tech infrastructure in place with very powerful behind-the-scenes support. I can see it in theory, but it will require a large investment, so we will see how it actually plays out. My money is on it being a mess.

dracir1

While that would be ideal, I don't agree. Whatever is needed will be bare bones, cheapest solution available. Just like everything else. And the customer base (and labor) will go right on and tolerate it.

BiffleBalls

I wonder if our customer base will actually tolerate what is going on here nowadays. If it gets out that we have invented a system that pits our contracted gate agents against our passengers in this fantastic new gameshow called "Who's Money is it NOW?" and they discover that it is highly likely that they could LOSE $100 by flying Frontier Airlines then maybe they'll think twice. On Reddit there is a thread talking about this very thing. Apparently there are some gate agents that are saying you only get "one push" when placing your bag in the sizer and others saying the bag has to drop in by gravity. Gate agents are making a LOT of money off of this, which then leads to this question. What if Frontier decides to stop this practice, or are ordered by the DOT to knock it off and the gate agents are not making the thousands a month they are making now? I've heard one made nearly 5K off of this. I know that people will say that customers will continue to get suckered in by the ultra low up front price, but for how long? Forever? I just don't think this is sustainable.
There are other carriers looking to grow in this space and if they treat there customers as if they actually cared about them, even just a little, maybe they could start taking bigger slices of the ULCC pie, and maybe even enough to hurt our profits, growth, or both.
Labor is voting with their feet.

dracir1

First of all, the bag charges are just us enforcing a rule that's been in place for a while. I'm not really sure why pilots are so up in arms about this.

I would wager that the temporary outcry will be met w/ the people adjusting. Something along the lines of luggage makers creating a "Frontier" bag that is smaller and fits in the space that people who frequent our airline will obtain. Or people "doubling up" on bulky jackets/clothing until after the ticket scanning/bag measuring process than putting the extra clothes into the bag while on the jet bridge (or in Denver waiting to get to the air stairs).

There will always be an adjustment to make it work - the same way the company adjusted pairings w/ longer layovers to take advantage of the duty period (as opposed to day) stipulation of the contract.

While I do agree that labor is voting w/ their feet, I don't imagine the fact that enforcing the personal item baggage rule is high on the list for people leaving.

ReserveCA

One of our entrepreneurs should develop a vending machine with a “Frontier sized” bag and a disposable A$$ and lumbar cushion to sell at every gate!

dracir1

Just wait til the XLR offers trips from Miami to Rio.

Aero1900

Do it! Perhaps some good retirement income

BiffleBalls

Uh, yes - pilots are unhappy about this. Everyone I fly with is embarrassed by it. Everyone in my crashpad is embarrassed by it. Having passengers get on your airplane crying after their experience with our gate agents enforcing this bag policy is a downer, to say the least. None of you have experienced any of this? I think it would be hard for a normal person to just blow off. It's also hard for a passenger to know if today is "one push day" or "bag must fall in the sizer by gravity only day". Maybe you're right and everyone will just accept it. It'll surprise me if this doesn't get a smack down from the DOT or even worse for Frontier and others, a judgement against these sorts of fees all together. Maybe a nice fat tax levied against bag fees to discourage their use, but I think they've gone a step to far with this.
You are most likely right that this bag fiasco is not high on anyone's list who has stacks of resume's lying around, it is a factor in the atmosphere we work in though and that means something. Frontier has taken an awesome career and turned it into a job.

nene

I think he was referring to gate agents walking if they suddenly weren't getting the bag bounty added to their pay each check.