Frontier Airlines Ruined Our Trip!

Warning: this blog contains one BIG rant.
Jim and I are supposed to be in Austin, Texas this weekend but thanks to the horrible customer service at Frontier Airlines we had to cancel our trip. FRONTIER AIRLINES RUINED OUR TRIP! Here is what happened:

Jim and I arrived at the Frontier Airlines ticket counter a few minutes after our friends Bruce and Kate did (who were going with us on the trip) and a good 40+ minutes before our flight left. At the counter we were informed that Frontier Airlines has a policy that you have to check in at least 45 minutes before a flight. We thought that maybe since we were only a few minutes late and had no luggage to check in AND there was no one else in line that maybe they would help us out. NOPE. They said we would be put on stand-by for the next flight. Jim and I thought this was ridiculous but accepted that we would just get into Austin later than planned. We went through security and went up to the gate where they were still loading people onto the flight we were supposed to be on. We asked if we could still get onto our original flight and we were told that we couldn’t. So we waited….the 10:30 flight was full….we waited….the 2:30 flight was full. We soon found out that the soonest we could get on a flight to Denver was at 7:00 at night and there were no flights to Austin after that. Oh and the next day (Friday) all flights to Austin from Denver were booked and so the chances of us even making it to Austin on Friday were slim to none. The soonest we would get to Austin was Saturday afternoon (our return flight was Sunday morning). At that point we realized that our best case scenario would be to cancel our trip and try to take it at some other time. The absolute WORST thing about it is that no one from Frontier would help us. They treated us as if we were non-entities and kept reminding us that it was OUR fault because we were late (according to them). It was so upsetting and frustrating at the airport – at one time I had to excuse myself to the bathroom so I could break down crying (I really did not want to make a scene). I couldn’t believe how horribly we were treated. One of the women at the boarding counter told me that there were HUGE signs up in the check-in area telling us of the 45 minute rule (not that it would have helped us BEFORE we got to the airport) but when we finally left the secured area and went back down to check-in I looked around for the signs. All I could find were the small round check-in signs which said (in small print) that you must check-in 45 minutes prior to your flight. We finally found one Frontier Airlines employee, Vanessa, who was concerned for us and tried to help but it was too late at that point and there was nothing that she could do. We managed to get flight stock to use again (with a re-booking fee that supposedly Frontier will wave) and had expedia cancel our hotel and car (expedia was wonderful and very helpful). We had to pay the first night for the hotel and a small fee for the car. Suffice it to say that after we use our flight stock (I refuse to lose the $800 in tickets) that WE WILL NEVER FLY FRONTIER AIRLINES AGAIN! Thank you for listening.

*Bruce & Kate made it to Austin but what happened to us put a damper on their vacation as well.