One of my favorite trips each fall is spending a weekend in Los Angeles at Cranky Dorkfest and co-located SpotLAX. It’s fun to catch up with friends in the industry, especially from outside the West Coast, while catching some rays in the SoCal sun.

Like all good things, though, the weekend draws to a close and it’s time to return home, which for me is Seattle. Usually I stick with Alaska Airlines to make the trip, and that’s exactly what I did on the way down to LAX, using a cheap Atmos Rewards points redemption.

The return trip, however, was looking pretty expensive. So off I went to Google Flights to see if I could find some deals, or at least something different.

A little bit of searching yielded an intriguing result: Frontier Airlines, which was described as offering ‘business class’ for $192.

With mainline carriers offering similar prices for non-basic economy class fares and twice that for domestic first class tickets, I figured “what do I have to lose?” I headed over to Frontier’s website to lock in the ticket.

The Denver-based carrier offers four bundles: basic, economy, premium and business. As you’d expect, each bundle includes more flexibility and/or amenities than the one below it. You can also go à la carte and build your own, which is personally my favorite approach most of the time. But this time I went straight to the business bundle and clicked right on through.

Their most expensive option included a carry-on, seat choice anywhere on the plane, no change/cancellation fees, priority boarding, and two checked bags. The $192 price point was over double the cost of their basic bundle, which is limited to just a personal item.

I chose seat 2A on board the scheduled Airbus A321 twinjet. That’s when I discovered that, while Google Flights calls it business class, the description is not exactly accurate. At least not in the way most people would expect.

Yes, Frontier is rolling out a premium hard product, and we’ll touch on that again later, but for now the majority of its fleet is not equipped with said product. That included my flight, which instead simply blocks the middle seat in the first two rows, EuroBiz style, to create a product called UpFront Plus.

Several weeks later, after enjoying Cranky Dorkfest and SpotLAX, it was time to fly home to Seattle. Frontier only offers free check-in via their app, unless you want to fork over $25 to get the ticket printed at the counter. Eager to avoid the fee, I downloaded their app and began the check-in process.

Initially, back when I bought the ticket, I didn’t think I was going to need either of the two checked bags that are included in the business bundle fare. But things changed, and now I did. I figured it would be a simple update: tick the box to add a checked bag and move on.

But it wasn’t that simple. Instead the app insisted I owed $75, and nothing I could do would convince it otherwise. I called the airline’s call center line and, after waiting for some time on hold, was connected to a human.

They seemed to imply that if I opted out of bags at the time of purchase, I had waived my ability to opt back in if something changed. Nonetheless, they said they’d do it this one time.

I’ve asked Frontier to clarify if this policy is real or if I simply misheard. I have to believe the latter, simply because this policy would be extreme even by low-cost standards, but I have yet to hear back.

Another fifteen minutes on the phone yielded no change; no matter what the agent did, the app still demanded $75 to move forward. Unable to complete check-in without paying a fee I didn’t owe, the agent said I’d have to go to the counter at least three hours in advance — adding that Frontier would waive the $25 counter fee. Great.

The next day I dutifully showed up to Frontier’s mostly empty counter in LAX’s Terminal 1.5, some three and a half hours in advance. The agent turned me away after a short wait in line, saying that their system can’t access flights more than three hours ahead of departure.

I told them about the chat with the call center and showed them their own emails, but alas, locked out is locked out. And so I waited nearby until thirty minutes came and went.

On the plus side, the agent saw the issue, quickly resolved it, printed a ticket (all complimentary this time) and sent me on my way.

Like many of LAX’s low-cost carriers, Frontier’s gates are logically located nowhere near their head house. In this case it required a 20-minute trek through an empty security line, then another line to catch a secure-side bus, then a ten-minute walk through the TBIT satellite terminal to a gate.

While twenty minutes isn’t particularly long, this is with everything going as well as possible. Add in a long line for the bus or security, and this adventure can easily exceed an hour. In fact, that’s exactly why Frontier repeatedly recommended arriving to LAX at least three hours in advance in its own pre-flight email communications. Nowhere does it mention that bag check doesn’t open until three hours before departure, however.

With two and a half hours to burn, I watched some planes and enjoyed the spacious and well-lit terminal. Boarding began on time, and instead of jumping at the chance to settle in, I instead decided to chase down a photo of a plane I really wanted to see that was due in around the same time.

That decision meant I voluntarily went from the first to board to the literal very last on today’s 240-seat Airbus A321neo. Thankfully, the overhead bin space in the first two rows is held for fliers on the business bundle, and my bag slipped into what I imagine was the last spot on board.

I settled into 2A, and slid a small personal item under the seat. Though the pitch was several more inches than the standard pitch down back (which starts at 28″/29″), the seating platform is the same as found on board the whole jet, offering 18” of width, a small amount of fixed recline, a tray table and a small literature pocket.

The jet leapt into the air on time and set a course north for Seattle. While technically considered a semi-premium product, there is no special service on board. Everyone on the plane has access to the same buy-on-board menu, with a typical array of snacks and drinks at captive audience prices.

Not long after departure, a very friendly flight attendant stopped by to ask if I’d like anything for purchase. I declined.

Frontier doesn’t currently offer amenities such as in-seat power ports and Wi-Fi, though SpaceX’s Starlink service is slated to start rolling out next year. Make sure to prepare appropriately with your own stash of content.

The flight landed early in Seattle, pulling up to a remote bus gate. It took 15 minutes for someone to pull the air stairs up, and another ten after that to reach baggage claim. Sure enough, my checked bag appeared on the belt another ten minutes later, and I went on my way to the light rail.

Every time I run into Frontier, I seem to find them in the process of redefining themselves. On my first flight with the airline, well over a decade ago, they were steadily transitioning into the low-cost-carrier model. The last time, in 2021, I found them settled deep into the even lower ultra-low-cost model.

Now, in 2026, they’re attempting to climb back up the #PaxEx ladder and into the premium product space with a recliner-style First Class in the front row.

The rollout of this new product, based on Geven’s Comoda platform, has been gradual. And the airline is reportedly not expected to complete the fleet refit until 2027.

In the meantime, most flights will still have the EuroBiz-lite cabin that I experienced.

While a proper recliner would’ve been nice, I’ll gladly admit that an open middle seat made the economy experience go down a little easier. So too did the fact that UpFront Plus was similarly priced to what would have been a cramped economy cabin on a mainline flight.

Ultimately, the badly bungled check-in process put the carrier on the naughty step with me. The competing policies and inaccurate information were frustrating, as was the amount of time spent trying to resolve what should have been a simple issue.

These unforced errors turned what could’ve been a perfectly fine, run-of-the-mill experience into something I’m not particularly keen to repeat.

Related Articles:

• New day dawns for Alaska Air Group with Aurora and Leihōkū reveal
• Blue Sky partnership benefits from uniform PaxEx at JetBlue, United
• American sets the scene for geek out on XLR — and at Cranky Dorkfest
• Frontier picks Geven for new first class in landmark recliner order
• Frontier tries UpFront Plus seat-only Eurobiz model
• Frontier – ULCC, nothing more, nothing less and that’s AOK

All images credited to the author, Jeremy Dwyer-Lindgren