Flying A Budget Airline? An Honest Take From A Mom

When my husband and I first started discussing possible spring break plans, part of our calculus was the price of flights. With five tickets to purchase, this is an understandable constraint for many families! After some research and number crunching, it was undeniable that flying a low-cost airline - Frontier, to be precise - would be literally a fraction of the cost of major carriers. Here’s how we decided to bite the bullet and try out Frontier plus an honest review of our experience.

The Cost

All in all, our 5 round-trip tickets from BWI to PHX plus the cost of 2 checked bags came out to just over $500. Total. Yup, you read that correctly. And bonus - the flights were direct, which many big carriers did not offer. The cost was the tipping point for us and we decided that we could 100% handle a less cushy flight experience in order to get this deal. Are flights always this much of a bargain? Nope. I checked for flights to Omaha, where my brother’s family lives, and they were far more expensive than other carriers. Finding these deals really depend on your city of origin and final destination.

Another way we were able to score such great deals is by taking advantage of Frontier’s Kids Fly Free ticket options. We got 2 of our 3 kids’ tickets completely for free because we had flexibility in our dates and could choose the less-desired days of the week to fly, when these Discount Den fares were offered.

Logistics At The Airport & Tips

When we arrived at BWI to depart, there was virtually no line at Frontier. This of course isn’t always the case (there was a massive line when we departed Phoenix), but it gave us a positive start! Here’s what we did to make sure the processs was as seamless as possible:

1) We made sure our luggage fit the necessary criteria. This meant bag dimensions and weight. We checked two bags and weighed our bags beforehand at home to ensure we wouldn’t have to do any last-minute shuffling at the airport. With flying a budget airline, bag fees are how they make extra money, so make absolutely sure you are within the necessary limits and you will be just fine. While we had to pay for 2 checked bags (each way), we each were allowed a “personal item” for free. This is similar to basic economy on other airlines where it needs to be a bag you can fit under your seat.

2) We printed out our boarding passes in advance. If you need assistance doing this at the airport, you will be charged. Another option is to download the Frontier Airlines App to get your boarding passes (which we did for our return flight since we had no printer at our AirBNB).

3) Tag your own luggage. There are self-service kiosks where you print out and tag your own checked luggage. To be completely honest this one threw me off a bit, but it’s easy once you’ve done it.

4) Tag gate-check items. We brought my son’s convertible car seat and car seat travel cart (which got loads of compliments from two other traveling families!). Like other airlines, you can gate-check car seats and strollers for free. Just ask for the blue gate-check tag at the baggage drop or at the gate and the staff will gladly fill it out for you (but you must attach yourself).

The Flights

Real talk? The flights were FINE. Zero complaints. The seats aren’t as plush as some other airlines but for a 4 hour direct flight, none of us found any fault in them. The staff were friendlier than I was expecting, having heard a lot of negativity about Frontier and other budget airlines beforehand. Like with luggage, Frontier will charge you for everything they can on the flight. But when you realize this is how prices are kept so low, it’s really understandable. Complimentary water is offered, and you can purchase other drinks and snacks. We simply brought one “personal item” bag full of snacks each way. I also appreciated how the flight attendants came through the cabin several times in order to collect trash (which was much appreciated as my kids were devouring Z-bars and apples and lollipops!). I also generally dislike checking luggage out of fear something will happen to it when out of my sight, but we had no issues and our luggage arrived at the baggage carousel pretty promptly.

Every airline has its positive and negative reviews and experiences, but my husband and I both came away feeling really pleased with our decision to give Frontier a try. We would absolutely fly them again if the price and flight path was the most favorable. In my opinion, we would most likely only use them again for direct flights.

Have you tried a budget airline (domestic or abroad)? Would you do it again? Let us know!

How to explore more and pay less using a simple Google Flights tool

Do you know about the Google Flights “open jaw” or multi-city flight search? This type of search gives you the ability to search the price of flights into one city and out of another. While these types of flights aren’t always less expensive, the search often does produce cost savings when you plan to fly into a secondary or smaller city first and then out of a larger hub.

Last summer, our family took advantage of an amazing IcelandAir multi-city flight itinerary that got our family of 5 great tickets flying into Bergen, Norway and out of Copenhagen, Denmark for the same price as a roundtrip ticket to Copenhagen alone. That meant we didn’t have to waste any of our precious vacation days trying to get back to Copenhagen and could, instead, make a relatively linear trip from Bergen to Oslo to Copenhagen- with a few other places sprinkled in between.

These less expensive “open jaw” flight options nearly always require a layover of some sort on at least one leg of the trip. They also tend to be most common on airlines that have one main European hub, such as IcelandAir, PLAY and TAP (airlines on which we suggest you consider paying for space and baggage upgrades, so make sure you take those extra costs into consideration), but can also be found on the large code-share partners if you play around with dates and cities.

More exploring, less backtracking. We like the sound of that.