F9 Dabbles Business Travel
 

Interesting and honestly something I never thought we would see since we are a ULCC that focuses on vacations and families??

This is in line with the big boi BB at the top telling investors last Q that they were looking at possibly expanding into business travel and a premium cabin option in the future.

also, I cant spell, forgot the IN in the title. woops

Maybe we will carry some cargo next.

Looks like “the works” package with an extra mileage boost on first glance. Market liked the news.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/frontier-bizfares/

sounds promising - we need to fly between business hubs maybe ? And with more frequency.

Business travel with NO internet. Enough said!

It doesn't help that our recurrent class asked our favorite person (CD) and he said there were no intentions of wifi anywhere right now, but he is working on getting it at least for the crews, or something for portable wifi.

reason given? It has to make money.

That's what I thought too.

I guess "offering" this option costs the airline nothing. Basically just a rebrand of something we used to offer. Can't hurt.

Obviously this would be aimed at small businesses. Like lemonade stands and highly motivated girl scouts?

I agree, can’t do business with no connectivity.
Absurd.

this will be an utter failure. No wi-fi, etc

Dramatic.

It's just a bundled product. Doesn't cost the company anything to offer it.

I used to be a business traveler.

we cannot possibly do well in this segment with our on time unreliability. Not making a meeting because you were sitting for an hour and a half on taxiway Lima at DFW waiting for a gate and then subsequently 20 more minutes because there were no rampers is not gonna fly when asked, "why weren't you at the meeting?"

exactly, def need wifi to remote into those meetings on the taxiway. Entertaining for the folks actually at the meeting when they see a fight break out in the background 🤪

It's at least worth a shot, doesn't cost much. Not every business traveler and company is that same. I rather them try new things than not.

apparently things are different now....

https://youtu.be/9TpsH5Z6XhE?si=S9DYaVKAV-KsWVFS

That video was 2 years ago. I thought they looked into WiFi no long ago with starlink . But never happened.

I used to be able to count on SWA being late to make my commute home. They do okay with business travelers. One of the reasons for going to the day trip model is to help with the ontime performance. Let’s see how it works.

Our performance has been pretty decent recently all things considered... It is kind of hilarious business travelers will fly JB also, but they technically have worse performance than we do (somehow)

i think their large presence in NYC plays a factor. Also, for a long time they had a very good reputation. Purely anecdotal, but now all I hear is complaints about JB mostly about not being on time and lost baggage.

Ya know what makes money? People that pay more money for tickets when they get things like wifi, a 2 cent snack, a coke, and a free bag in the overhead. Spirit and Frontier need to let this “it’s has to make money” mantra on every little thing go. Some times you have to spend money to make money. The only reason the legacies offer a few basic economy seats is to squeeze Spirit and Frontier and I’m sure they’re doing it at a loss. The model needs a total rework. It doesn’t work at scale in the USA

I agree we need to work on the revenue. I was hoping for NKs big front seats and WiFi along with a large fleet size to help with frequency. Unfortunately I also believe the exceptionally bad cancellation rate or overall performance didn’t do us any favors over the past summer. If people can’t trust an airline to get to a destination and back they won’t use you. Price is no longer the main concern. JB, NK, and F9 are consistently at the bottom of performance and also pretty low on the profitability scale. I don’t believe that is a coincidence.

I buy tickets a few times a year and will never buy on spirit or frontier. Even if it means I have to connect on a legacy. You never know when you will get there on the ULCC plus you have to sit with the absolute scum of society, and the airport experience is almost always chaos. It’s terrible from start to finish. Wait forever for bags on top of it. My legacy iPhone apps know ive landed before I do and even give me walking instructions to the next gate. The other passengers on the flight have showered prior to showing up, and the agents aren’t screaming in some sort of hood language at the customers.

scum of society?? I will agree that there are more instances of ignorance and entitlement on some of our flights…but there are also a lot of good people. Some who can’t afford legacy tickets and some who just want to travel as affordably as possible. I would never call our passengers “scum of society”.

Call our pax who pay our checks the scum of society.. Yeah ok.

A lot of good people on our flights.

As i sit hire for an hour waiting for a gate in mco, reading this with a bunch of bwi trash, I have to laugh. When was the last time you road on f9? Our pax, the few we have recently, are trash, or shocked at the ones that are trash, but both groups always let us know this is the last time they will fly f9.

You should have left for a legacy long ago. They deserve you.

I fly F9 all the time….and for the most part, have a completely different experience.

Same, I and my family haven't had many issues.

My last 2 widget flights have waited on gates for 10 mins... I generally wait about 5 mins for a gate sometimes here at F9, but for the most part we are always on time or early. Rarely have I blocked in late in recent months, aside from snafu weather events.

Well that is my point. Apparently now Barry wants the business traveller, when before he boasted how Frontier was "all about" leisure travel. We are not talking 10 years ago. 2 years.

Folks, the reason (my opinion) that this will not work is

1. In previous investor presentations, webcasts, etc, Barry has stated Frontier's "business traveler" is typically the small enterpreneur or mid-sized business.
2. See #1, these folks typically do NOT have access to GDS or use them. Many use Expedia or Booking.com. BizFare is not available there. The above traveler is also combining "work trips" with leisure. Think "luggage"
3. The fine print on the BizFares shows that it is not much different than a "standard" Frontier ticket.

etc etc

"Kudos" for "trying something new" but if this "does not cost anything for Barry to offer it" then what is it worth to Barry ?

Same here. The few times on company DHs I've made extra cash waiting for you to park with the added bonus of a comedy show. The phrases usually start with "f-kn" but its funny. As for the crews, always great and definitely better than most of the AA drama queens.

unless it’s portable starlink. The geostationary satellite internet receivers that are portable are slower than dial up in the airplane. Tried several models at my 91 gig. Connection was difficult to maintain.

I am just assuming we will not see any wifi for at least another 5 years to keep my hopes down.

https://crankyflier.com/2024/02/06/w...lando-edition/

interesting read regarding our powerhouse market at MCO. Be interesting to see where this goes (maybe another displacement :confused:). Latest strategy points to PHL expansion,, business travelers, outstation basing, and day turns.

WiFi in a plane is NOT hard to figure out. About 92% of all airlines (regionals included) in N America have it. It can't possibly be UN profitable for each.

The reason we don't have wifi is similar to the reason why it took us so long to get an HF radio - lack of proper operational foresight/vision for the future. Our mgt team is not revolutionary. This has become apparent and will continue to be moreso in the future.

Truer words have never been spoken on this platform my friend.

ah the management team........ you mean the blind dart team!

I'm guessing by the time stamp of your post, you were (are) a 49er's fan and needed a good excuse to turn away at the time you posted!!

49er's ????
oh all the spoiled brats people hold on pedestals........
don't watch it....much better things to do, like fishing

I would agree with this. Also to attract any "business traveler" you need WiFi.

CD has said that wifi is being looked into very seriously and they have samples of business class seats in the HQ.

Obviously neither is guaranteed to come, but the company is certainly looking into it

those are the seats in the door trainer, green pleather, soft, seat back tv, retro, very nice, very very nice