To Whom It May Concern,
Recently I flew my children ages 11 and 7 on Frontier airlines. The airline, accidently... Flew my children to the wrong airport.
Let all parents be warned, don't trust the airlines.
Respectfully,
Jennifer Jenkins
June 28
Dear Mr. Samuel D. Addoms,
Recently I had a horrific dealing with your airline that I would like to share with you. I tried to call your office to speak to you directly to rectify this situation; unfortunately I was not permitted to speak to you and was transferred to another department.
My story begins June 6, after researching every airline for my children's first flight I decided to go with Frontier. I called your reservations number and spoke to a very nice lady about making reservations.
We discussed flying my girls into BWI airport in Maryland. Finding no availability on dates we needed, she suggested Washington Dulles. I was very pleased with this decision due to the fact Dulles was 2 hours closer to my relatives in Virginia. I was very happy with the customer service she gave me, the help and her attitude. Weeks later I received a copy of my children's
flight itinerary showing Phoenix PHX to Denver DEN leaving Denver DEN and arriving Washington DCA.
Perhaps my first mistake was trusting an airline reservation clerk to know her airports. My second mistake was not calling to verify DCA was indeed Dulles and not National. I assumed anyone hired for this position would know that Frontier does not fly into Dulles, unfortunately airport abbreviations are not knowledge for which I was blessed with.
The day of my children's flight June 27, upon checking my children's luggage and receiving their tickets I was questioning the agent unmercifully.
As I mentioned before, this was my children's first airplane flight, and I was a very nervous mother. She smiled and reassured me many times, everything would be okay. I reiterated this flight is to Denver, and then on Washington Dulles, correct? She assured me it was. Perhaps a high percentage of your agents don't realize there are 3 airports that are considered Washington? Washington National, Washington Dulles as well as Washington/Baltimore BWI. I left the agent feeling so much more confident in my children's flight.
I then went to the gate to get my children's boarding pass, as they were filling out paperwork for the unaccompanied minor's I noticed it said PHX DEN DCA once again I asked was DCA Dulles? I remember for sure asking Dulles because the gentleman replied Dallas? I replied no Dulles, Washington Dulles airport. He assured me, yes ma'am Washington Dulles.
Between the hours of 1:30 and 3:00 Mountain time, I went through a frenzy of phone calls. My family who went to Dulles to pick up the kids could find no Frontier terminal. My children with whom I sent a cell phone for their safety and my sense of security called saying they were in Washington, but no one from the family was there.
Upon my children's arrival to National, someone from Frontier called the contact number of my father-in-law to find out his whereabouts. They asked for Larry Jenkins, Sr. My mother-in-law informed him he was at the airport (not knowing who was calling because they did not identify themselves). Their response was great, they were calling from the airport, and they would
continue to wait for him. Perhaps they should have said which airport they were calling from? Or perhaps which airport he was at. At no time did I ever receive a phone call saying my children were at the airport with no one to pick them up. I think this should be a priority phone call. I had to find out
this mistake myself as well as rectify Frontier mistake myself.
At this point, I called my children on the cell phone again. I spoke to the person that was chaperoning them and explained the situation at hand. He assumed me the children were find and he would get them a sandwich and a soda since it was now nearing 5:45 eastern time.
I called Frontier's Reservation line and spoke to Andrea who was the supervisor of the reservation clerk I spoke with first. Andrea informed me Frontier's part was to get the children from point A to point B. They did that and that was all they were responsible for. I do agree, HOWEVER they took my children from point A to point C and didn't care about their error of point B nor were they willing to fix it.
I asked for her supervisor because I was not getting anywhere with her and her attitude was one I was not willing to deal with. She advised me her supervisor was unavailable, as was hers and hers and hers and hers and hers. There was not a supervisor over Andrea in the entire company available to speak to a crying, worried, heart broken mother of misplaced children.
Still more frantic cell phone calls to my family at Dulles and my children at National. Who had now been on the ground in an unfamiliar airport, with Frontier strangers for over an hour. I went to the Internet to research Frontier to see if there was not an additional number I could call for help.
I found a customer service number and called. I received a message machine saying there was either high call volume or I was calling after hours. I am in Phoenix, and your office is in Denver, so I know we are on the same time zone. I left a message it was urgent and I needed to speak to someone ASAP. I did receive a phone call from a gentleman in your office the next day approx. 11:00 am. Just a bit too late to help my children, but thanks.
I called the number again and asked for you. The receptionist forwarded me to your office and I spoke to your assistant who told me she would transfer me to someone in customer service after hearing of my dilemma I asked was it because you, the President/CEO were just to busy to speak to your customers?
She advised me no, you were 'unavailable' and that if I would like I could always write to you.
I was then transferred to Julie Meisner of customer service. She obviously knows how to handle customers. She calmed me down, stopped my crying and spoke intelligently to me. She agreed yes there was a huge misunderstanding but what exactly was it I wanted. I advised her, I wanted arrangements for my children to fly home on a different airline, because I no longer trusted
Frontier with anyone in my family. I was on hold for approximately 10 minutes while she was making phone calls and arrangements and so forth. She returned and advised me she had made arrangements to fly my children on United. Arrangements were also being made to refund me the unaccompanied minor charge
of $60 because I would be responsible for paying an additional fee with United to cover their unaccompanied minor charge.
She believed this matter was done, for me it is not. Not by any means. I am not happy with what transpired over those few hours, nor am I satisfied with the complete rectification of your errors. My children received a return flight on a different airline arranged by Julie and $30 back to be repaid to United. Do you think that's enough for forgiveness? I THINK NOT! I let Julie know that I thought I should have been given at least a percentage back of my children's airfare. She disagreed saying I got my unaccompanied minor's fee back and upon my request a change in airlines, and that I was not entitled to a percentage.
My family recently moved to Phoenix, all of our relatives live in Virginia and we are planning to do a lot of travel back and forth across the country, this certainly did not help matters for anyone in my family to fly with Frontier.
I assume since you are the father of three and grandfather to six you can understand the detrimental effects to an 11 year old and a 7 year old of arriving at the wrong airport, to no family. I do not know if you have ever been to Washington DC, but I can assure the traffic there is HORRENDOUS at 6:00 PM on a weekday. My family had to drive from the outskirts of DC to the middle most part of DC in rush hour. Thank God they made it there in a
reasonable amount of time, but what if they didn't? My children could have EASILY been stuck in DC until 8 or 9 at night. Still with no dinner as promised by your Frontier staff.
I have lost total and complete respect for your airlines, not only for your clerks not knowing their airport codes, but also for the percentage of snobby attitudes in your personnel, you and your supervisor's lack of availability to customers and lack of ability to satisfy your unhappy consumers.
After calling United airlines to check the status of my children's travel with them (I've learned my lesson with trusting Frontier) I'm advised that my family in VA will have to make an additional visit to Dulles airport to have your staff endorsed over to United or they may not be able to make their
flight! What is this about? Due to your mistake, I am once again the one that has to do the extra work to have it fixed. Frontier can't find a way to rectify this completely?
I have worked in the Retail world for 12 years. Being an Executive Assistant to a President of a 300 million dollar corporation, I realize how busy a President can be. However, you should always take the time for your consumers. If you were unavailable, fine, have someone take my number you can call me back to make sure I was handled in complete satisfaction. I anxiously await your return email, or phone call. How much does your customer mean to you? When I asked for your email address, I was told to email it to [email protected] and she would gladly pass it along to you. Are your customers not even entitled to your email address?
FYI ~ The contact information link on your www.frontierairlines.com website is a broken link.
Respectfully,
Jennifer E. Jenkins
602-789-6529
[email protected]
3509 W Cheryl Drive
Phoenix, AZ 85051
Emailed Copies To:
Samuel D. Addoms ([email protected]) President/CEO, Frontier Julie Meisner ([email protected]) Customer Service, Frontier Better Business Bureau (info@denver. BBB.org) Denver/Boulder BBB Office Consumer Advocate ([email protected]) Publisher of usacomplaints.com, usacomplaints.com Editor/Ombudsman: Bad Business Reporting
Editor ([email protected]) The Denver Business Journal
Editor ([email protected]) The Denver Post.com
Editor ([email protected]) The Washington Post
Mailed Copies To:
United States Department of Transportation
Investigations Division
I-24, Room 949A
400 Seventh Street, S.W.
Washington D.C. 20590
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